T.E. W. (terez93) reviewed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Thorndike Press Large Print Perennial Bestseller Series.) on + 323 more book reviews
I read (parts) of this book as a teenager, but saw it at the library quite a while ago, in the large print version, and thought I would give it another go, as I didn't really enjoy it very much the first time around. Unfortunately, not much has changed. It's one of those which talks a lot but doesn't say much, if you know what I mean. I'm occasionally accused of that, in my own writings, (!) but this takes it to another level. It could have been just as effective at half the length.
The premise is an interesting one, especially for the nineteenth century: an industrialist, who is something of a mechanical genius in his own right, gets knocked on the head and somehow travels back to the (fictitious?) kingdom of Camelot. Anachronism, and chaos, ensues.
The book's greatest value is what it says about the nineteenth-century author, and his views of royalty, and, overtly, the capitalism rampant in his day. Hank sets about installing the nineteenth century, attempting to drive out superstition and ignorance in favor of science and industry. He meets with mixed results, of course. As one might expect, the sixth-century characters, wholly unfamiliar with newfangled contraptions and inventions such as dynamite, believe Hank to be a powerful wizard, which works in his favor, despite the protestations of the court wizard Merlin, who remains a perpetual thorn in his side. The book is essentially a chronicle of this Yankee industrialist's misadventures in the land of Camelot, and his application of nineteenth-century solutions to ancient problems, which is at least creative.
One of his primary enemies remains "The Church," about which Hank writes: "I was afraid of a united Church; it makes a mighty power, the mightiest conceivable, and then when it by and by gets into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do, it means death to human liberty and paralysis to human thought." His words prove prophetic, as the Church is ultimately nearly his undoing, and that of the entire civilization he has ushered in. He notes later, "it being my conviction that any established Church is an established crime, an established slave pen, I had no scruples, but was willing to assail it in any way or with any weapon that promised to hurt it." Good ole' Hank is clearly unfamiliar with the concept of Corporate Personhood.
It has some powerful things to say about the nature of civilization as well. For example: "Unlimited power IS the ideal thing when it is in safe hands. The despotism of heaven is the one absolutely perfect government. An earthly despotism would be the absolutely perfect earthly government, if the conditions were the same, namely, the despot the perfectest individual of the human race, and his lease of life perpetual. But as a perishable perfect man must die, and leave his despotism in the hands of an imperfect successor, an early despotism is not merely a bad form of government, it is the worst form that is possible." However, Hank's efforts to establish a sixth-century Republic (remember the Three Conditions for Democracy? Yeah, those are pretty much all lacking here) meet with exactly what one might expect: that is, abject failure and the collapse of all of the apparatus of modernity he does manage to usher in.
Regarding his liege the King, Hank notes, "He was born so, educated so, his veins were full of ancestral blood that was rotten with this sort of unconscious brutality, brought down by inheritance from a long procession of hearts that had each done its share toward poisoning the stream. To imprison these men without proof, and starve their kindred, was no harm, for they were merely peasants and subject to the will and pleasure of their lord, no matter what fearful form it might take; but for these men to break out of unjust captivity was insult and outrage, and a thing not to be countenanced by any conscientious person who knew his duty to his sacred caste."
Hank's loyalties, rather, lay elsewhere: "You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable,cease to protect the body from winter, disease and death."
I don't want to beat this to death, as there's sufficient material for each to make of it what they will. Still didn't enjoy it all that much, and found it rather interminable in places, such that I had to stop and start to get through the whole of it, but I will still give it high marks for creativity.
The premise is an interesting one, especially for the nineteenth century: an industrialist, who is something of a mechanical genius in his own right, gets knocked on the head and somehow travels back to the (fictitious?) kingdom of Camelot. Anachronism, and chaos, ensues.
The book's greatest value is what it says about the nineteenth-century author, and his views of royalty, and, overtly, the capitalism rampant in his day. Hank sets about installing the nineteenth century, attempting to drive out superstition and ignorance in favor of science and industry. He meets with mixed results, of course. As one might expect, the sixth-century characters, wholly unfamiliar with newfangled contraptions and inventions such as dynamite, believe Hank to be a powerful wizard, which works in his favor, despite the protestations of the court wizard Merlin, who remains a perpetual thorn in his side. The book is essentially a chronicle of this Yankee industrialist's misadventures in the land of Camelot, and his application of nineteenth-century solutions to ancient problems, which is at least creative.
One of his primary enemies remains "The Church," about which Hank writes: "I was afraid of a united Church; it makes a mighty power, the mightiest conceivable, and then when it by and by gets into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do, it means death to human liberty and paralysis to human thought." His words prove prophetic, as the Church is ultimately nearly his undoing, and that of the entire civilization he has ushered in. He notes later, "it being my conviction that any established Church is an established crime, an established slave pen, I had no scruples, but was willing to assail it in any way or with any weapon that promised to hurt it." Good ole' Hank is clearly unfamiliar with the concept of Corporate Personhood.
It has some powerful things to say about the nature of civilization as well. For example: "Unlimited power IS the ideal thing when it is in safe hands. The despotism of heaven is the one absolutely perfect government. An earthly despotism would be the absolutely perfect earthly government, if the conditions were the same, namely, the despot the perfectest individual of the human race, and his lease of life perpetual. But as a perishable perfect man must die, and leave his despotism in the hands of an imperfect successor, an early despotism is not merely a bad form of government, it is the worst form that is possible." However, Hank's efforts to establish a sixth-century Republic (remember the Three Conditions for Democracy? Yeah, those are pretty much all lacking here) meet with exactly what one might expect: that is, abject failure and the collapse of all of the apparatus of modernity he does manage to usher in.
Regarding his liege the King, Hank notes, "He was born so, educated so, his veins were full of ancestral blood that was rotten with this sort of unconscious brutality, brought down by inheritance from a long procession of hearts that had each done its share toward poisoning the stream. To imprison these men without proof, and starve their kindred, was no harm, for they were merely peasants and subject to the will and pleasure of their lord, no matter what fearful form it might take; but for these men to break out of unjust captivity was insult and outrage, and a thing not to be countenanced by any conscientious person who knew his duty to his sacred caste."
Hank's loyalties, rather, lay elsewhere: "You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable,cease to protect the body from winter, disease and death."
I don't want to beat this to death, as there's sufficient material for each to make of it what they will. Still didn't enjoy it all that much, and found it rather interminable in places, such that I had to stop and start to get through the whole of it, but I will still give it high marks for creativity.
