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Review - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Mark Twain)
It was good to get my teeth into this, having meant to read it for a long time. I enjoyed the humour, and the political commentary, despite not agreeing with it and preferring (with a somewhat guilty pleasure) the shining chivalric version of Camelot to the dirt, ignorance and stupidity of this world. Parts of it felt very ranty and not like a story at all -- like the story was a vehicle for the political rants. Which is the way some authors work, and I suspect I'll find it in at least some of Twain's other work, when I revisit -- as a child, I didn't see it that way, but children tend not to.
There's lots of amusing ideas, and I kinda wish this was on my Arthurian Lit course to discuss -- I don't think it is, but you never know, I still might be able to write an essay on it...
It's definitely not so much about Arthur/Camelot as it is about Twain's America, though. Don't be deceived.
It was good to get my teeth into this, having meant to read it for a long time. I enjoyed the humour, and the political commentary, despite not agreeing with it and preferring (with a somewhat guilty pleasure) the shining chivalric version of Camelot to the dirt, ignorance and stupidity of this world. Parts of it felt very ranty and not like a story at all -- like the story was a vehicle for the political rants. Which is the way some authors work, and I suspect I'll find it in at least some of Twain's other work, when I revisit -- as a child, I didn't see it that way, but children tend not to.
There's lots of amusing ideas, and I kinda wish this was on my Arthurian Lit course to discuss -- I don't think it is, but you never know, I still might be able to write an essay on it...
It's definitely not so much about Arthur/Camelot as it is about Twain's America, though. Don't be deceived.