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Book reviews for "Clemens,_Samuel_Langhorne" sorted by average review score:
The War Prayer
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (1968)
Author: Samuel Langhorne, Clemens
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..The best example of opposing viewpoints ever written.
Mark Twain's The War Prayer forces us to examine the hypocrisy that lies beneath our patriotism. It either shatters our comfort zone and leaves us reeling with a feeling of shame that we can be so inhumane to others, or it compels us to place the "lunatic" burden out of print. The War Prayer should be mandatory reading for high school students.

I thought I was well educated on war until I read this work.
I read this in college a couple years back in an english class. I had always seen war from the winner's side, forgetting the pain and heartache felt by the opposition. This work made me reflect on how horrible and devastating war can be. I recommend this reading to anyone interested in exploring the complex results of winning a war.

All leaders of nations should be required to read this book
I first read The War Prayer when I was in college during the Viet Nam era, and now am using it to teach my children about war. Schools teach students the "glories" of war. Sam Clements shows us there is another side to this coin. Would that we could learn his lesson before it is too late.

A Pen Warmed-Up in Hell; Mark Twain in Protest.
Published in Paperback by HarperCollins (paper) (1979)
Authors: Samuel Langhorne, Clemens, Mark Twain, and Frederick Anderson
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A Pen Warmed Up In Hell: Great Reading
Better than Huckelberry Finn, or Tom Sawyer. Several short stories, that should be required reading in every school! "The War Prayer" is outstanding. This book shows a side of Twain, that is not mentioned in most school classes. Because it is not politically correct, and never was, it was nearly banned on at least one occasion. This is the main reason that it is hard to locate, and why few people have heard of it. A Must REad!

Concerning "The War Prayer"
of this book I have only read "The War Prayer," and it is one of the finest works of art that I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It is truly something that every intellectual should read.

A Tramp Abroad
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (1977)
Authors: Mark Twain, Charles Neider, and Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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A matchless eye with an acidic pen
America's post-Civil War years brought a renewed interest in the European scene. Journeys
known as Grand Tours led tourists to take ship to the Continent. They fanned out across the
landscape with the intent to "know Europe." Their return home resulted in a flurry of
published accounts. Twain satirizes both the tourists and their writings with delicious
wit. Ever a man to play with words, his "tramp" refers to both himself and the walking tour
of Europe he purports to have made. By the time you've reached the end of the account of the
"walking tour" incorporating trains, carriages and barges, you realize that the longest "walk"
Twain took occurred in dark hotel room while trying to find his bed. He claims to have
covered 47 miles wandering around the room.

Twain was interested in everything, probing into both well-known and obscure topics. His
judgments are vividly conveyed in this book, standing in marked contrast to his more
reserved approach in Innocents Abroad. A delightful overview of mid-19th Century Europe,
Tramp is also interlaced with entertaining asides. Twain was deeply interested in people, and
various "types" are drawn from his piercing gaze, rendered with acerbic wit. Some of these
are contemporary, while others are dredged from his memories of the California mines and
other journeys. He also relished Nature's marvels, recounting his observations. A favourite
essay is "What Stumped the Blue-jays." A nearly universal bird in North America, Twain's
description of the jay's curiosity and expressive ability stands unmatched. He observes such
humble creatures as ants, Alpine chamois, and the American tourist. Few escape his
perception or his scathing wit. This book remains valuable for its timeless rendering of
characters and the universality of its view. It can be read repeatedly for education or
entertainment.

The Pleasures of the Printed Page
All these volumes are self-recommending except, perhaps, to those poor, misguided people who continue to pigeon-hole one of the world's great writers. Yes, Twain was a humorist who virtually invented modern American English as a literary language. But the sheer range of his achievement is staggering. And the best way to experience it is altogether. And the best "altogether" is this magnificent 29 volume set from Oxford. Other people can speak with more authority about Twain the author. I want to speak a little about how delicious it is to encounter him in these books. They are reproductions of the original American editions and the facsimiles are beautifully rendered. But this isn't important in itself; we're not about to spend [...] for a little bit of nostalgia. Rather, just open any one of these 29 volumes and see what a difference its admittedly antique printing style makes. White spacing between the printed lines is generous to an unbelievable degree, as are the page margins. Your eyes don't tire. You can savour each page at whatever pace you want to set for yourself. Worlds open and invite. This is how people read books a hundred years ago. This is the way to read books!

Barometer Soup
I have not read Twain since High School twenty five plus years ago but a friend on a newspapers book forums got me to read him again and A Tramp Abroad is the first book I picked. For the current generation this book may drag but for those of us who grew up reading books instead of playing computer games this is Twain at his best. One has to actually read into his writing to appreciate a lot of the irony but when this book is really on like the mountain climbing near the Matterhorn ,Twain makes Seinfeld seem like he's talking about something. A brilliant travel essay and by the way the Penguin Classics edition of this book in paperback is 411 pages long, not 670 pages .

Roughing It
Published in Paperback by Airmont Pub Co (1982)
Authors: Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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A fun read, and some history too
The genius of Mark Twain is that his work is still enjoyable, and funny, to this day. This book, originally published in 1871, is Twain's account of his journey from Missouri to Hawaii (called the Sandwich Islands in his day). He tells story after story of his adventures along the way, starting with the stagecoach ride on the Overland Stage Line to Carson City, Nevada, around 1861, and then telling of his stay in Nevada, then California, then his visit to Hawaii. The stories are informative, humorous, and all-around entertaining. He lampoons everybody he can--nobody is safe--including miners, pioneers (emigrants), politicians, Mormons, Blacks, American Indians, Chinese, newspaper reporters, "desperados", even himself on more than one occasion. Sometimes his stories are so outrageous that you wonder how much is true and how much is embellishment, or just outright fiction. Even he understands this by telling the reader on occasion that he has not made up a particular story, to demonstrate that truth is often stranger than fiction, but also to imply that he has taken liberties in other places in the book. (I wonder if the Mormon Church has ever banned this book for the things he says about them.) Even while he is being irreverent, however, he often demonstrates a sensitivity toward people, with an awareness of the situation of others that seems to me to be ahead of his time. For example, he has a chapter on the immigrant Chinese population in the West, and while he pokes fun at them in some respects, he spends the time detailing their lives and culture, as much as he could understand it, with a respect that was uncommon in his day.

I bought a copy of this book years ago because I am a native Californian, and knew that there was some material in here about California in the early days (my copy is an old hardcover published by Grosset and Dunlap). As Twain states in his Prefatory: "...There is quite a good deal of information in this book. I regret this very much, but really it could not be helped." I enjoyed reading about the "old West" from an eye-witness, although most of it deals with Nevada, not California. While some of it sounded familiar, like something from any Western-genre movie, other things were like nothing I had ever heard of before, describing the "Wild West" from an original point of view. In that respect, this book is a great resource.

This book falls short of five stars due to some minor flaws. He often digresses with text that is not only marginal to the point, but not even written by him, reprinting someone else's text. I skipped over some of that. He would also spend pages detailing coversations between other people that he could not have possibly remembered verbatim. While I understand that it was a common writing style of his day, it sounds like bad jounalism today. Those complaints aside, this is some great writing by Twain and some valuable American history.

Twain's best travel writing
Twain's escapades in the West make fascinating reading. His encounters with the Mormons in Utah are particularly interesting. Anyone afflicted with Mormon missionaries on his or her doorstep ought to bring out a copy of this book and read aloud the chapter in which Twain discusses the absurd Book of Mormon. Nobody can match Twain in skewering foolishness and pomposity dressed up as religion.

Unexpected gem
A long-time fan of Mark Twain, I had still managed to make it past my fortieth birthday never having read this book. But recently, when I needed something to read (you know the kind of days I am talking about), I stumbled across this book and set to laughing.

The story-telling is magnificent. Few writers can take the small things of daily life and make them breathe -- but Twain possessed that gift, and uses it well. How many others went West the same time he did, and never saw the gold dust, sunsets, and taverns the way he wrote them into our consciousness?

And yet, and yet... As much as I loved the stories he told, I see "Roughing It" as important in a different manner. Even when the truth is slightly embellished to make us, his readers (of whom he is always very much aware), laugh out loud, it still truly presents the era and place he put down in black and white. We can be so bombarded with romanticized movies about the gold rush and settlers heading West, that we lose sight of them as genuine people with the same faults and virtues we know in 2001.

But with Mark Twain's keen eye, our history -- our American history -- comes to life. And suddenly, we "get it", we comprehend that all that stuff we had to learn in high school was done by people, not daguerrotypes.

Letters from the Earth
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (1962)
Authors: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Bernard A. De Voto, and Mark Twain
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For the militant skeptic and the Twain follower...

Much of this book deals with concepts of God, Heaven, and the Bible which were popular during Mark Twain's time. I thought that parts of the book were excellent, and others were far less so.

"Letters from the Earth" are written by Satan to Michael and Gabriel, and report on his Earthly investigations into the human-race experiment. There are other such writings, e.g., "Letter to the Earth," "Something about Repentance," and "The Damned Human Race," which are intelligent and entertaining.

Also entertaining is "Cooper's Prose Style," a sequel to MT's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," and "From an Unfinished Burlesque of Books on Etiquette."

The rest of the pieces I wouldn't miss had they been omitted. "Papers of the Adam Family," wherein Adam and Eve write about Eden and each other, deals with themes that MT treats better in other writings. "Official Report to the I.I.A.S." merely states that something is hard to prove under the rules for proving facts, and easy to prove under the rules for establishing miracles.

Like most of MT's writings, half is beautiful genius, and the other half is merely tedious.

A Mixed bag
This book is probably not what you are expecting. If you are looking for a free-wheelin' adventure story along the lines of Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, you will not only be disappointed, but most probably shocked. However, if you are looking for an entire book of irrevent writings - as I was - then that's not what you're getting, either. Something less than half of the book (say, roughly, 1/3) consists of deliciously irrevent writings, drained from Mark Twain's pen of bitter ink. The best among these is the title section, "Letters From The Earth", in which Satan writes back to archangels Gabriel and Michael about his visit to earth and the "human race experiment", after his banishment from heaven. In these letters, Mark Twain points out various absurtities and illogical assertions and beliefs about human religions, and unflinchingly describes the vanity and hypocrisy of many of its adherents. I was under the impression that the entire book consisted of these letters; however, I was wrong. It is merely the first section of the book, occupying some 30-50 pages. For people who are highly into this kind of writing, however - as I am - it is worth the price of admission alone. There are several other pieces in the book along this line - including the famous essays Was The World Made For Man? and The Lowest Animal - which display not only Mark Twain's essential pessimism, but his very rational mind and hilarous wit. These pieces are an absolutely essential read for the lover of satire: few better examples are to be found anywhere in literature. The rest of the book, however, is a mixed bag. It consits of various pieces from the "Mark Twain Papers" - a collection of his writings (mostly unfinished) the he decreed to have published sometime after his death. Among these are a few interesting pieces (most of them various satires, several on religious topics), while others are more broadly ranging: everything from a completely improvised tale that he used to put his two children to bed to an unfinished fantasy piece that the editor seems to attach rather a lot of importance to, but whose actual virtue is somewhat more questionable. These pieces range from vaguely interesting to mildly funny to downright boring. Several would've probably been better served by being included in other volumes, while several should probably have been left unpublished. Still, there are definitely some essential writings in this volume that any fan of Mark Twain - or satire, or irrevent writings, for that matter - will want to read.

Typical Mark Twain wit in small, unrelated bite-sized pieces
I bought this book expecting it to be entirely filled with letters from Adam and Eve. Though this is only one-third of the book, it is great to see Twain's true blasphemous side for once. He was well known for his anger at God and disbelief in religion, and this book is a great testament to that fact in classical Twain wit. The remainder of the book is just random stories he told his children and comments on authors and such, of which some are definitely worth the read and others could be skipped. If you are interested in seeing the author in his true form, though not in a cohesive format, you should buy this book. He did not intend to submit it for publication in his lifetime, so his honesty about what he thinks of the world and religion finally comes out.

Life on the Mississippi
Published in Hardcover by Dodd Mead (1968)
Authors: Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne (Aka) Clemens
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Anyone who loves Twain, history, or humor would enjoy this.
Was Twain the greatest writer America ever produced? Certainly no other author has written so many genres so well. Life on the Mississippi is one of my favorites by Twain. What a storyteller! From his own personal experiences to explorers, psychics, the Civil War, slavery, geography, steamboat history etc. Twain gives us a glimpse into himself and his country.

Twain is of course humorous in this book, but his lesser known quality--insight--is very keen in this book. Twain's style is at once sophisticated and simple. It is pure mastery.

While this may not be up there with some of other Twain's writings, it is certainly worth the time and money. Definitely recommended.

Twain's Mississippi River Recollections..........
In Life on the Mississippi, Twain recounts his river experiences from boyhood to riverboat captain and beyond. Encompassing the years surrounding the Civil War, this book is an excellent source of 19th-century Americana as well as an anthology of the mighty river itself. Replete with rascally rivermen, riparian hazards, deluge, catastrophe, and charm, Life on the Mississippi is another of Twain's stellar literary achievements.

Wit and wisdom are expected from Twain and this book does not disappoint. It is equally valuable for it's period descriptions of the larger river cities (New Orleans, St. Louis, St. Paul), as well as the small town people and places ranging the length of America's imposing central watershed.

The advent of railroads signalled the end of the Mississipi's grand age of riverboat traffic, but, never fear, Life on the Mississippi brings it back for the reader as only Samuel Clemens can. Highly recommended.

A Magnificent Journey to be Savored
Life on the Mississippi is by far one of the most wonderful books ever written about the post Civil War era in America. Mark Twain takes the reader on a melancholy look at this period of time in history as you journey into the Mississippi of his youth, adulthood, and the people and the communities he knew so well. He conveys a miraculous picture of this lively river giving it the grandeur and prominence it deserves. He defines the river very much like a living organism with a power and personality all its own. As the book unfolds, he begins in his days when he grew up along the river and became a steam boat pilot, ending that career with the advent of the Civil War. Later he returns to the river after some twenty years and takes a journey as a writer from around St. Louis to New Orleans and back up the river into what is present day Minnesota. You learn about the different cultures along the river, its tributaries, as well as the remarkable people who become part of the forgotten history of our nation. Twain's anecdotes are sheer brilliance, and he has an incredible way of choosing just the right story to illustrate a particular point transporting the reader back into time as if it was the present day and you are standing beside Twain observing what he is seeing. His reflections of his times along the river and his descriptions of the people and places make this a true masterpiece of literature and I highly recommend it. I found myself only able to read short portions at a time, as I personally found the sheer beauty of the entire book was a work to be savored and digested rather than rapidly consumed as you would with any other book. As I poured through the book, I felt often as if I was traveling with Mark Twain as a companion along his charming and magnificent journey during a wonderful period of history.

The Unabridged Mark Twain
Published in Paperback by Running Press (1976)
Authors: Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and Lawrence Teacher
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Twain would appreciate your description.
I am certain that Mark Twain would be highly amused to read your descriptive title of this collection -- "The Unabridged Mark Twain (Abridged)"

Keep 'em guessing, eh?

Some of the very greatest American literature
Samuel Clemens is one of the greatest American writers ever, and this collection contains most of his best work. It is better than volume II of the collection. I am working my way through the book again for the third time in 15 years. It is worth every penny you will pay for it.

The unabridged Mark Twain is timeless reading
I've been reading Mark Twain for thirty years and always enjoy his sharp, acerbic wit and profound observations. The Unabridged Mark Twain is a collection of some of his best stories and essays dealing with life on the Mississippi River, travels, political commentary and general good fiction. I think one of the hallmarks of a good author is that their writings become timeless and issues pertinent then can be found today. Highly recommended reading.

Tom Sawyer (Lake Illustrated Classics, Collection 1)
Published in Paperback by American Guidance Service (1994)
Authors: Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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Remember old memories
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a great,fun,challenging novel. Adults need to be reminded of their childhood and remember the crazy things they used to do. Children should read this book because Tom does things they can only dream of. Their are many aspects you will enjoy about this novel.
The story of Tom Sawyer is about crazy fun adventures. Tom is a misunderstood child who is tricky and sly like when he gave his cat painkillers. He tricked kids into giving him things so they could they paint the fence he was punished to paint. He also witnesses a murder and nearly gets killed for it. There are many more adventures that he goes on with his friends like Huck. The excitement never ends.
I learned that we must cherish our childhood, for it is merely a waning period in our short life. Thank you Mark Twain for showing me that I must enjoy everyday.

Tom Sawyer
This book is about a boy named Tom Sawyer, a mischievous boy who was cared by Aunt Polly. He's in love with this young girl named Becky Thatcher. He teaches her how to draw. Tom and his friends Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper discovered a secret island. They go off onto that island to live like pirates. They were presumed dead until they came back just in time to attend their own funerals. They were caught and punished for their actions. Tom and Huckleberry Finn saw Injun Joe, a killer hid a treasure on that island. The only clue was a number two. Injun Joe died tough by starving to death. Tom told Huckleberry that he followed Injun Joe one day and saw that he buried it in the cave he died in. Tom and Huckleberry found the treasure box and looked inside of it. It was filed with coins, guns, and a pair of moccasins.
I recommend this book for other readers that are my age because this book teaches you that it is bad to lie. Tom Sawyer lied a lot. Hs stole jam from his Aunt in the beginning of the story. He had to lie to his aunt to get away and get to their secret island to be like pirates. He also told to Huckleberry Finn that he didn't see where Injun Joe hid the treasure.
My favorite part of the story was when Tom, Huckleberry Finn, and Joe Harper went off to their secret island and live like pirates. Nobody was with them and except themselves. It was funny how they came back on there own funerals. They also saw Injun Joe on that island and were he buried his treasure. Tom's aunt got so mad at him for running away from home. This is a great book to read.

The Greatest Story Ever Told
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a wonderous tale of childhood, mixed with fact and fiction, from Mark Twain's own life, as well as those of several childhood friends. Tom Sawyer is the mischevious, imaginative, intuitive child we all once dreamed of being, if only for a day. Huck Finn is the outcast, shunned by the adults, and envied by all the children. Becky Thatcher is the girl that steals away Tom's heart, and breaks it more than once.
Here is a brief summary of the four distinct adventures intertwined within the main story, including the graveyard adventure, The Jackson's Island adventure, the treasurehunt adventure, and the cave adventure.
In the first adventure, Tom and Huck Finn stroll out to the graveyard along midnight attempting to cure warts with a dead cat. They inadvertanly come upon a grave robbery, perpetrated by Injun Joe, Muff Potter, and Dr. Robinson. When Injun Joe demands more money from Robinson, a fight ensues, and Muff is knocked out. To Tom and Huck's horror they witness Injun Joe murder the doctor. The two flee moments before Muff comes to, and Injun Joe lays the blame on him. Tom and Huck swear an oath never to tell a living soul what they saw; something which later on weighs heavy more on Tom's shoulder's, than Huck's.
In the Jackson Island adventure, Tom, feeling rejected by Becky Thatcher, and the world in general, runs away from home with Huck Finn and his bosom friend Joe Harper. On the island the three children hunt, play, fish, and learn to smoke, until becoming home sick. Tom steals away in the middle of night to find out wether or not his family misses him. Not only does he discover that they do, much to his delight, but that they are presumed dead, and will be holding a funeral for them. A plan is born in Tom's mind, namely to attend their own funeral and make a grand entrance. And what an antrance they do make!
In the treasurhunting adventure, Tom and Huck hit upon the idea of searching for treasure. Tom is certain there must be some kind of fortune hidden somewhere within the abandoned homes of St. Petersburg. When he and Huck explore one such home, their adventure is interrupted when two men arrive. One man is a stranger, the other man, a "deaf and dumb Spaniard" seen around town of late turns out to be Injun Joe, much to the boys horror. These men are at the home planning a job when Injun Joe finds an actual treasure buried long ago by Murrell's Gang, it is supposed. Tom and Huck are awe-struck at such a glittering sight; but are heartbroken when the men leave with the treasure. From that moment they begin a dangerous mission to track these men, in the hopes of stealing away the money.
In the final adventure, Tom, and Becky Thacther, become lost in the cave they are exploring during a picnic. There is an immediate rush to find a way out, which only leads to further confusion. Suddenly, the two realize they may die in the cave, if they can't find a way out. Their struggle continues as they search deeper in the cave. Becky, weak with hunger, pleads with Tom to go on without her. However, he is too much the chivalrous one, and refuses. In their plight, Tom sees a shadow and calls out, as he runs toward it. His relief is rapidly turned to shock when he sees the face of the man - Injun Joe. Luckily for Tom, Injun Joe does not recognize his voice, and makes a mad dash for safety. Tom and Becky are left to continue their search, and when all hope seems to be fading, a way out is finally found.

Huckleberry Finn
Published in Paperback by American Guidance Service (1994)
Authors: Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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Not the Great American Novel
Considered by many to be the great American novel, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the story of a boy, Huck Finn, and a runaway slave, Jim, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the sequel to Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Where "Tom Sawyer" was more a care-free children's book, "Huck Finn" is a far darker less childlike book.

Judging from my rating you can see that I do not agree that this is in fact the great American novel. Twain seemed far too unsure of what he wanted to accomplish with this book. The pat answer is to expose the continuing racism of American society post-Civil War. By making Jim simultaneously the embodiment of white racist attitudes about blacks and a man of great heart, loyalty, and bravery, Twain presented him as being all too much of what white America at the time was unwilling to acknowledge the black man as: human.

However noble the cause though, Twain's story is disjointed, at times ridiculous, and, worst of all (for Twain anyway), unfunny. The situations that Huck and Jim find themselves in are implausible at best. Twain may not have concerned himself too much with the possibleness of his story; but, it does detract from your enjoyment of a story when you constantly disbelieve the possibility of something happening.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is an important book in that it did affect much of the American literature that followed it. However, this is another novel which is more important to read for its historical significance than for its story.

Two unlikely friends
When I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain in high school, it was possibly the first book I enjoyed that was assigned by a teacher. Twain's imagery puts the reader right beside Huck while he escapes 'sivilization' and floats down the Mississippi river with his slave-gone-fugitive friend Jim. Huck's innocent outlook on the world is both humorous and adorable. Huck's respect for Jim is admirable. Even though Huck was brought up with Jim being a inferior slave, he still looks up to Jim. Also, I think that although Jim's dialect adds to the effectiveness of the book, it is very difficult to understand. I think Twain writes it a little too much how the dialect sounds. I would recommend this book to anyone. It offers plenty of excitement and surprises.

Pretty Nice
I love Mark Twain! I am currently learning English in China. It is really hard for me to learn it here because there is not an evironment. But I tried to read some books in English and it did affect me a lot! From all the books I like Mr Mark Twain's best. Because his stories are mainly all about the childlife and I am also a kid, in fact. I am 14 years old. This helped me to know what American Children thought and lear my vocabularies. I know I wasn't able to win the contest because my English is poor, but I do think Mark Twain's books are nice. I have learned lots of words from it. I have also learned some in Chinese in our Chinese Text Book. One is called " Electing the State Minister", this passage is really nice and it not only is humor but also let us know what the U.S. Society used to be. In fact, I think he is the greatest author in the States. The book "Huck Finn" however, is a continue of the book "Tom Sawyer Adventure", and it shows us what happens next and also tell us what Huck had experienced. It tell me what the 19th Century boys in America thought and helped me to understand that I should not study all the time, as the Chinese students are hard at studying and I will find time to relax. And this did help my study! May I ever thanked him for giving us such good books. May I ever remeber him for helping me to know many things.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Lake Illustrated Classics, Collection 3)
Published in Paperback by American Guidance Service (1994)
Authors: Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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A Connecticut Yankee . . . An Excellent Book
This is an excellent book. It is by far the best Twain I have read yet, and I give it four stars. In this novel, Mark Twain holds the glory and romance associated with Arthurian Legend up to the standards of 19th century society, and reveals defects in both the romantic ideal of King Arthur and the faith that Twain's generation holds in scientific and social "progress." Both funny and thought-provoking, this book provides the reader with a new set of eyes with which to view the barbarism and injustice that Arthur and his knights so valiantly fought to preserve. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is the tale of Hank Morgan, a typical 19th century man who is transported back in time to the days of Merlin, Guinevere, and King Arthur. After becoming aware of his surroundings, and deciding to ignore his uncertainty about whether King Arthur actually existed, this man uses the common knowledge of his time period, his practicality, and some perfectly timed arrogance to acquire a position of great power in this land that he finds repulsive and in need of an enlightened leader. The ensuing story is the tale of what happens when the two utopias collide and this man abuses his power in an attempt to bring the "great and beneficent" miracles of the 19th century to the Age of Chivalry. I would recommend this book to any reader in 8th grade or above, but I would discourage people with passionate faith in the purity and glory of King Arthur from reading this book if they do not want to be forcefully presented with demonstrations of chivalry's inhumanities. A fairly well developed sense of humor will help the reader to enjoy Mark Twain's subtle ironies and satirical situations, and some basic knowledge of science helps in understanding some of the scenes, however this isn't vital to the book. The vocabulary is moderately advanced, the subject matter is somewhat mature at times, and the philosophical reasoning is probably beyond the reach of most Junior High students, yet I would encourage anyone who is interested to give this book a try. This novel is also great for the general public because A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court provides the reader with a main character with whom they may identify. The main character, Hank Morgan is presented with situations in which he must deal with being a stranger in a new atmosphere, being a social outcast due to his uncommon beliefs, he must avoid physical confrontation, and he is forced to use his intellectual abilities rather than brute strength to solve difficult situations. Many readers will have faced similar difficulties in their lives, and this ability to identify with the characters will definitely add to the overall enjoyment of the story. With this piece of work, Mark Twain displays his true talent for excellent writing and story telling. He incorporates enough adventurous and action filled scenarios to make the reader want to continue reading vigorously, yet he also manages to discuss very philosophical and thought-provoking topics during the lulls in the action. This book reads very quickly near the beginning and end. The action tapers off during the middle of the story, but not for long, and once it starts to pick up again, Twain demonstrates his true potential for greatly entertaining writing in the very climactic and cleverly ironic ending that brings this all-around great book to an even better close. This is definitely a book worth reading.

Back in Time and Smater than Anyone
When Hank Morgan, the head superintendent of the great arms factory, receives a smack on the head given by a friend nicknamed Hercules, he wakes up under an oak tree. A young man tells Morgan is he is in Camelot in the year 528. Not believing the boy, Morgan insists it is the year 1879 in Hartford, Connecticut. Morgan's adventures are written in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain. Sir Kay throws Morgan in prison after he finds the Yankee and scares him up a tree. Sentenced to death the next day, Morgan performs a "miracle" before he is hung and King Arthur, believing him to be a wizard, set him free. Slowly, Morgan works his way up to "The Boss" of King Arthur's court and brings all of his 19th century knowledge to the people of Camelot, such as the telephone and electric lights.
Although I would recommend this book to advanced readers, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is over 400 pages and it was difficult for me to get into the story at first. Also, the language was hard to understand. For example, "Fair sir, will ye just?" and "Prithee do not let me." Despite the length and the language, I enjoyed the way Twain used characters and stories from the Arthur legends and formed them into the plot. The book made me think, what would the world be like if some one actually did go back in time?

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times..
Well, the perfect companion to La Morte d'Arthur...

Twain completely dissects the "good ol' days" of Arthurian Britain by exposing the vicious social practices of the time: white slavery, le droit de seigneur, confiscation of property in event of suicide, the complete lack of impartial justice, the degrading influence of the Church on the mass, etcetera etcetera etcetera...

The Arthurian legends are wonderful tales, but they are a mythic literary production; Twain deals with the brutal reality of daily living in the Dark Ages, and points out that the good ol' days were not so good, anyway.

As for its applicability to modern America, I am not fit to judge. Perhaps it's there. But "The Connecticut Yankee" is a wonderful tonic for those prone to romanticizing the past. Twain seems to agree with Tom Paine that the English nobility were "no-ability", and simply the latest in a series of robbers.

And, of course, the book is stuffed with wonderful Twainisms... My favorite is his observation that a conscience is a very inconvenient thing, and the significant difference between a conscience and an anvil is that, if you had an anvil inside you, it would be alot less uncomfortable than having the conscience.

Twain also mentions the beautiful mispronunciations of childhood, and how the bereaved parental ear listens in vain for them once children have grown.

You'll never look at castles the same again...

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