A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court » (Reissue)

Riverboat pilot, journalist, failed businessman (several times over): Samuel Clemens -- the man behind the figure of Mark Twain -- led many lives. But it was in his novels and short stories that he created a voice and an outlook on life that will be forever identified with the American character.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court involves time travel, as a nineteenth century man finds himself in sixth century England after suffering a head injury. He finds social and political conditions there just as oppressive as the society he has just left behind. Forward-looking in his technological ideas, Twain was always entranced by gadgets, enabling the Yankee to establish some amenities in King Arthur's world not previously known to him. Though Twain is acerbic in his criticism of technology that is inhumanely developed and applied, he also celebrates the American virtue of self-reliant ingenuity in countering the pretensions of medieval monarchy. Not surprisingly, his previously receptive English readership was not warm toward this book, and American readers who preferred his lighter touch in Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were dismayed as well.

Publishers Weekly

When Hank Morgan is transported from 19th-century Hartford, Conn., to sixth-century England, his misadventures begin as he navigates a host of dangers en route to becoming “The Boss” of Camelot. William Dufris’s enthusiastic narration is perfect; the deep drawl he produces might very well be the voice of Twain himself, and his pacing and comedic timing will delight listeners. Dufris is clearly enjoying himself, and he produces a series of unique voices for the knights and damsels Morgan meets in Camelot. (June)