A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court

Jul 21, 2025 7:16 AM

Author:Dan Beard,Mark Twain,Justin Kaplan,Justin Kaplan

When Connecticut mechanic and foreman Hank Morgan is knocked unconscious, he wakes not to the familiar scenes of nineteenth-century America but to the bewildering sights and sounds of sixth-century Camelot. Although confused at first and quickly imprisoned, he soon realises that his knowledge of the future can transform his fate. Correctly predicting a solar eclipse from inside his prison cell, Morgan terrifies the people of England into releasing him and swiftly establishes himself as the most powerful magician in the land, stronger than Merlin and greatly admired by Arthur himself. But the Connecticut Yankee wishes for more than simply a place at the Round Table. Soon, he begins a far greater struggle: to bring American democratic ideals to Old England. Complex and fascinating, A Connecticut Yankee is a darkly comic consideration of the nature of human nature and society.

Reviews

Deploys his fact/fiction hijinks to produce an ending that is still haunting me, months later

—— John Franzen , Guardian

A spellbinding book, Nine Nights is a masterly combination blending fiction, research, history, ethnology and journalism

—— Le Figaro

A dark but exhilarating journey into the jungle of a man's mind - deftly written and highly original

—— Evening Herald

Gripping...a thriller in the manner of Joseph Conrad

—— Tetu

Nine Nights [is] a beautiful and disturbing meditation on love and death, on familyand identity. A rich and profound study of the nature of doubt

—— La Croix

A hybrid novel which seeks out the fragile threads which connect truth to fiction, self to other. A masterpiece

—— Les Inrockuptibles

Another genius Scottish take on the theme of split personalities. Needs no further introduction

—— Maggie O’Farrell

First-rate! What an artist and what a psychologist

—— Gustave Flaubert

Readers who wonder why... Martin Amis and... Kiran Desai seem to flinch from writing about their own times should study Ms Seiffert

—— Economist

Rachel Seiffert is the poet and spokeswoman of those who find themselves on the wrong side of history...powerful, almost unbearably intense and wonderfully written

—— The Times

A quietly ambitious book

—— Guardian

Despite the halting, low-key narration as Joe and Alice attempt to piece together the terms of their engagement, a simmering tension builds, though Seiffert is admirably less concerned with the revelation of atrocities than in how the soldier, having breached the first commandment, negotiates a return to ordinary life

—— Observer

A beautiful book and it's beautifully written

—— Kit de Waal , Good Housekeeping UK

My favourite book of all time

—— Sareeta Domingo , Good Housekeeping

Morrison's stunning trilogy is an evocation of black life over the past four centuries. It defies summary. Completed almost 25 years ago, these novels top anything produced by any American writer including Hemingway, Updike and DeLillo

—— Trevor Phillips , Sunday Times

[A] beautiful, haunting novel

—— Stig Abell , Sunday Times

More than one of Morrison's books could be classed as masterpieces, but this one is famous for a reason: everyone should read it

—— Bernice McFadden, author of SUGAR , Guardian

A magnificent achievement...an American masterpiece

—— A.S. Byatt , Guardian

A triumph

—— Margaret Atwood , New York Times Book Review

She melds horror and beauty in a story that will disturb the mind forever

—— Sunday Times

Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature

—— New York Review of Books

A work of genuine force. . .Beautifully written

—— Washington Post

There is something great in Beloved: a play of human voices, consciously exalted, perversely stressed, yet holding true. It gets you

—— The New Yorker

Superb. . .A profound and shattering story that carries the weight of history. . .Exquisitely told

—— Cosmopolitan

This is a wonderful novel about slavery, freedom, parental loss and revenants

—— The Week, Thomas Keneally

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