A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

What a disturbing book!

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote:

Somebody remarked: 'I can tell by my own reaction to it that this book is harmful.' But let him only wait and perhaps one day he will admit to himself that this same book has done him a great service by bringing out the hidden sickness of his heart and making it visible. - Assorted Opinions and Maxims

Nietzsche may be right.  If I wait, I may find the fault lies with me and not with the book.  On the other hand, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court may be the outward expression of the hidden sickness of Mark Twain's heart.

Mark Twain, living in poverty in San Francisco, once put a revolver to his head with the view of ending it all.  Luckily for him and the rest of the world, he decided to stay alive, because he went on to write 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter being one of the great novels of all time. Twain established himself as a best-selling author and humourist, and he became a rich man in the process.  Not only this, he married a wealthy woman.  

Things were looking good for Twain until he invested his money in the development of a mechanical typesetting machine.  It ruined him and he had to declare bankruptcy. It was under this cloud of impending doom and then final insolvency that Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court.  It shows.

The book was an intended satire on the works of Sir Walter Scott, who had romanticised the ideals of mediaeval court chivalry, and the Catholic Church and its conservative and controlling influence.  Against these, Twain sets the ideals of rational control through scientific knowledge, the benefits of 19th century technology and capitalist endeavour, and a more open, presbyterian style of worship.

N.B.  The following paragraphs make explicit the outcome of the plot.

Henry (Hank) Morgan (the Connecticut Yankee and engineer) is knocked out by a blow on the head and awakens in England in the year 528.  He finds a land ruled by a vain, prejudiced and violent aristocracy, and with its common folk thoroughly cowed.  Whether they be aristocrats or commoners, the hallmark of these people is that they are superstitious and prone to believe whatever they hear.  Hank - first in order to survive, then to control - is not above lying to those he meets.  Through these lies and the use of 19th century knowledge and technology, Hank rises to a position of power, which he uses to introduce modern schooling and infrastructure to the kingdom.  In so doing, he undermines the power of the aristocracy and the Church.  Inevitably, a backlash occurs, war breaks out and there is lots of bloodshed.

In the end, it is modern technology that causes the deaths of thousands at the hands of the few.  In the end, it seems the rational of application of scientific knowledge to power is no better than the social systems that predated it.  Worse still, the power it delivers to Hank Morgan degrades him until he becomes a cold-blooded mass murderer.  Nobody wins.

It is hard to believe that this nihilistic assessment of humanity was Twain's intention when he started the book, but it is certainly the outcome - a sunny beginning eclipsed by a dark ending.  I wonder if it is more than a coincidence that Hank orders the execution of the court's only humourist.  Is Twain saying something about himself as well as the economic system and ethos that first made his fortune and then took it away?  Whatever the case may be, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court  is disturbing and challenging to read.  To paraphrase Nietzsche this time: if reading it does not kill you, it will make you stronger.