A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs Court

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In the book, a Yankee engineer from Connecticut is accidentally transported back in time to the court of King Arthur, where he fools the inhabitants of that time into thinking he is a magician—and soon uses his knowledge of modern technology to become a "magician". He attempts to modernize the past, but in the end he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur and an interdict against him by the Catholic Church of the time, which grows fearful of his power. Hank Morgan‚ superintendent at the Colt Firearms Factory in Hartford‚ Connecticut‚ is knocked unconscious in a fight. He wakes up in the time of King Arthur. Hank introduces such innovations as schools‚ factories‚ bicycles and gunpowder. At first‚ Hank is convinced that his ideas will do the citizens of Arthur’s court good‚ but as he takes command he turns more and more to violence and loses control of the results of his entrepreneurial efforts. A Connecticut Yankee was one of the last large-scale novels Mark Twain produced and its dark‚ cynical themes foreshadow ideas he would delve into more deeply in much of his later work.