A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur (Annotated)

Fantastic story and fantastic reading. The reader was perfect for Mark Twain's style. This book made our 14-hour drive bearable. This is the first Mark Twain audiobook that I've listened to, and I'm looking forward to more.

IMO one of the most brilliant, amusing, profound, insightful, sarcastic, sacriligious works of genius ever written.
The fact that it seems so trivial at times, something the critics hate, makes it even more a work of genius to me.
Twain is beyond caring what others think. He is just telling it like he sees it and, boy, does he see it all!

If you look very carefully at the picture of the cover near the knight's helmet you can just barely make out in white letters the word "ABRIDGED".

This means you are not going to the full text of the Mark Twain yarn.

It is actually pretty hard to find an unabridged audiobook version of Connecticut Yankee.

Sorry.

So much has already been written concerning Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" that any further review, especially by an unsophisticated critic such as myself, will only detract or confuse those that have not yet experienced it. As such, I will limit myself to criticism of the Kindle version and of the Critical Edition.

I was a bit disappointed in this e-edition, although for 99 cents, one can't be too upset. The most troubling issue is the fact that certain portions of text, specifically the ones that are heavily indented and formatted, such as the section "How Lancelot Slew Two Giants and Made Castle Free", are unreadable and cut off from viewing control. In order to see the rest of the text (turning the page is useless) one has to reformat and re-size the font over and over again. Even so, most of this text is unreachable.

The other disappointment was the lack of footnotes and annotations. I recall perhaps two or three in the entire work--most of what counts as "critical" in the Critical Edition are the two essay monstrosities that sandwich the work. The first is a brief bio of Twain; the second is a rhapsodic account of the "genius" of Twain. Neither are exactly relative to "A Connecticut Yankee", other than the fact that they are about Mark Twain. I would have liked to see essays more focused on the Twain and the writing of this particular work, or an interpretation or explanation of "A Connecticut Yankee" and details and feedback after its release. Unfortunately, none of this is present except that which is inserted into several small sentences amongst the generic Twain essays.

Overall, for less than a dollar, not a bad edition. However, for sheer pleasure of reading, one would be better off dispensing with the "Critical Edition" and utilizing a free copy.

“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain is one of those “oldies but goodies” that I neglected in my youth. The story is about a 19 Century engineer/blacksmith that gets transported back to the 6th Century. Suddenly he is the smartest guy on the planet and uses his modern science to wow the populace. While the story is supposed to be humorous satire, it shows more of Twain’s antipathy towards the Catholic Church. He blames the Church for establishing and fostering monarchies, the feudal system, social classes, and slavery. While decrying Church sponsored superstition, the main character used 19 Century science to “out magic” Merlin himself. A final scene portrays tens of thousands of dead soldiers surrounded by wire, ditches, and machine (Gatling) guns. Eerily predictive of the battlefields of World War I which would be 30 years after the book’s publication.

Story intrigued me. Due to the writing style it moved slow for me at first. I had to check several words/phrases to ensure I was fully grasping intended meaning. Imagery was colorful and creative. Mixing 6 th century with Twain's modern day.

I was expecting something like the Bing Cosby movie but this book had a much more political side to it which was probably more shocking or relevant when he first wrote it. Plenty of humor like most of Twain's writing but also long passages that were diatribes against the feudal system, slavery and Established churches.

I bought this version of "Connecticut Yankee..." and "Roughing It" for a summer class since they were recommended. The book is a really good version with the original illustrations. The format of the text fits in well with Twain's style and it is the version (of those that are available here) that I would recommend most highly.

The story is great, and I'll leave other reviewers of other editions to cover that.

This edition is missing a section that appears in the print version after the Preface, but before Chapter 1. That section sets up the whole story, explaining the main character and planting seeds that are referenced later in the book. The last scene also returns to this first scene, so without it, the ending is a bit confused.

The story is classic. In the chapter regarding the burial of a freeman there is a remarkable defense of the Terror during the French Revolution. Worth reading and perhaps even including as a source should you ever chance to write a paper on the beheading of poor king Louis.

I home school my daughter and was looking for some works by American authors. When I decided on Mark Twain it was great to be able to get something other than Tom Sawyer. The book was easy to find, affordable, and exactly what I was looking for. The Kindle is easy to transport so the book can go anywhere in a purse and be read at anytime (even at night under the covers with no flashlight).

I read this book soon after reading The Prince and the Pauper. In retrospect this was an appropriate thing to do since Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court soon after writing The Prince and the Pauper, and they are both concerned with old England and monarchs.
In my opinion, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is not as good as its predecessor as a story. Its strength lies in its biting satire about both early England and the 19th century America that Mark twain was living in.
Naturally enough this satire was more effective about his own society than the English one that most of the story is set in.

I headed a course on "Traveling Through Fiction" with this ice-breaker, and found the illustrations it borrowed from Twain's first US edition particularly helpful in orienting its exoticism. The narrator's annoyance with certain aspects of King Arthur's England bounce back against his industrializing late-19th-century homeland as it prepares for global warfare.