In my experience boys are the same in all ages. They don’t respect anything, they don’t care for anything or anybody. They say “Go up, baldhead” to the prophet going his unoffending way in the gray of antiquity; they sass me in the holy gloom of the Middle Ages; and I had seen them act the same way in Buchanan’s administration; I remember, because I was there and helped.
There was a slight noise from the direction of the dim corner where the ladder was. It was the king descending. I could see that he was bearing something in one arm, and assisting himself with the other. He came forward into the light; upon his breast lay a slender girl of fifteen. She was but half conscious; she was dying of smallpox. Here was heroism at its last and loftiest possibility, its utmost summit; this was challenging death in the open field unarmed, with all the odds against the challenger, no reward set upon the contest, and no admiring world in silks and cloth of gold to gaze and applaud; and yet the king’s bearing was as serenely brave as it had always been in those cheaper contests where knight meets knight in equal fight and clothed in protecting steel. He was great now; sublimely great.
Possibly Mark Twain’s greatest literary achievement1, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was written in the 1880’s during a rough patch in the author’s life, and boy, does it show in the writing. The story careens from intense comedic, dramatic, and polemic highs with little to prepare you for which tone the next section will take. And I love it. Where this would seem disjointed in a lesser author, here you just are captivated by each feeling in turn2.
It’s inspired basically every other time-travel-Arthurian story, with most owning this influence in their titles. It’s maybe even a major influence in the time travel genre overall3, at least the subgenre of modern characters trying to set up their technology in the past4. It heavily influenced perceptions of the Middle Ages - dirty peasants, armor you can’t move in, superstitious people… the comedic impressions Mark Twain gave tend to be the common expectations of a lot of works to this day.
In defense of these misunderstandings the book inadvertently propagated, Mark Twain wasn’t entirely writing about the Middle Ages when he makes these unfavorable comparisons. He’s writing about the American South and the glorification of “chivalry” as a defense of slavery and other social woes.
The story doesn’t give a whole lot back to the wider Arthurian canon, because it’s framing is so specific. If you include elements from it, you’re stuck with a time travel story that’s changed up the genre of your work. But it’s funny, it’s a great political essay5, and it’s intensely human and emotional (in ways that transcend the genre).
Footnotes
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But if you want something more consistent, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is amazing and has a better grasp on its narrative tone while reaching for the same palette of emotions. If you had to read it in school and didn’t like it as a result… maybe go take another look. ↩
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The excellent illustrations by Dan Beard, which understand the assignment exceeding well - pulling out more of the narrative tensions and political messages - help. ↩
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This was written before The Time Machine. ↩
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Arguably an influence across the Isekai genre too, even if they’re not explicitly time travel in most cases? ↩
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Almost to the degree of being a sermon at times. ↩