Justin's review
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Having read and enjoyed several of Jack London’s books, it dawned on me to try out some Mark Twain. It was with a certain amount of excitement that I approached A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court but, ultimately, found myself disappointed.
The concept of the book, that a resident of 1860’s America suddenly finds himself transported to sixth century England in the court of King Arthur, is pretty good. However, this book is just so long. The writing is not as sharp as in other Twain works. It’s like Natural Born Killers, where Oliver Stone BASHES you over the head with his point over and over until you really want to strangle him. Y’know, “I GET IT! STOP IT!”
I guess I see this book as Twain’s commentary on his America. Out of curiosity, I did a fair amount of research into this book and it’s interesting it caused so much controversy at the time it was published. The English were pissed and I’m not talking loaded. I guess t...more
The concept of the book, that a resident of 1860’s America suddenly finds himself transported to sixth century England in the court of King Arthur, is pretty good. However, this book is just so long. The writing is not as sharp as in other Twain works. It’s like Natural Born Killers, where Oliver Stone BASHES you over the head with his point over and over until you really want to strangle him. Y’know, “I GET IT! STOP IT!”
I guess I see this book as Twain’s commentary on his America. Out of curiosity, I did a fair amount of research into this book and it’s interesting it caused so much controversy at the time it was published. The English were pissed and I’m not talking loaded. I guess t...more
Have you read The Mysterious Stranger? By the way, I totally agree with you about Natural Born Killers.
No, but I would like to. As someone who grew up thinking Mark Twain was all Tom and Huck, it's been interesting to learn more about him and his attitudes. Twain's distaste for the church is evident in A Connecticut Yankee but I get the feeling he was commenting on his own country by talking about the feudal system and royalty of jolly old England. Maybe that's naive on my part.
At any rate, I want to read more of Twain's books and The Mysterious Stranger is one of the more interesting looking works. I just learned that it went through several versions during Twain's lifetime and was first published posthumously after A. B. Paine took some serious creative license with it. The version published today, of course, has been reverted to what is believed to be Twain's original and I'm curious to read it as it sounds irreverent as Twain could get.
Yeah, Natural Born Killers. I've seen Oliver Stone films I thought were very, very good (Platoon comes immediately to mind) but Natural Born Killers was just clumsy and overwrought. Those simpleminded enough to need that kind of hand holding in a film are the wrong audience for Stone's intent and it was just barely this side if of insulting, in my humble opinion.
Talking Twain, Letters from the Earth is good too. Huck Finn is a great book with beautiful passages, but in the end I always find that the folksy parlance drags a little. In my humble opinion, Twain is at his best when he's at his nastiest--The Mysterious Stranger is scathing satire at its best. On the subject of films: films with a message must tread a fine line. Heavy-handed is almost always bad, but willfully obscure can be just as irritating. But then again, I tend to be one who prefers my movies designed for entertainment purposes.
