Introduction to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Introduction

            Published in 1889, Connecticut Yankee is one of the world's first stories about time travel. The seed for this novel was probably planted during MT's 1884-1885 reading tour for Huck Finn, when George Washington Cable bought him a copy of Malory's Morte D'Arthur in an upstate New York bookstore. But MT's interest in travel to "old worlds" was a longstanding one, as his first book shows. And his interest in the British past was also a lifelong preoccupation, as can be seen in texts like The Prince and the Pauper, or even the Memory-Builder game he invented and patented to help American children learn the dates of England's various monarchies. As MT's fantastic attempt to locate his time and place in terms of its imagined pasts and its possible futures, Connecticut Yankee is perhaps his most complex book.

Major& Minor Characters

Hank Morgan

Clarence (Amyas le Poulet)

Sandy (Alisande)

King Arthur

Merlin

Sir Launcelot

Guenevere

Sir Sagramor le Desirous

Morgan Le Fay

Sir Kay

Marco

Dowley

Primary Themes

Magic/ Superstition vs. Technology

Religion/ Church

Education/ Training vs. Nature

King Arthur/ Monarchy

Chivalry/ Round Table/ Knighthood

Justice

Slavery

Topics for Analysis Discussion

Use of humor & satire

Role of the narrator