Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781605012414 |
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Publisher: | MobileReference |
Publication date: | 01/01/2010 |
Series: | Mobi Classics |
Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
Format: | eBook |
File size: | 446 KB |
About the Author
Date of Birth:
November 30, 1835Date of Death:
April 21, 1910Place of Birth:
Florida, MissouriPlace of Death:
Redding, ConnecticutRead an Excerpt
CAMELOT
"CAMELOT - Camelot," said I to myself. "I don't seem to remember hearing of it before. Name of the asylum, likely."
It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as Sunday. The air was full of the smell of flowers, and the buzzing of insects, and the twittering of birds, and there were no people, no wagons, there was no stir of life, nothing going on. The road was mainly a winding path with hoof-prints in it, and now and then a faint trace of wheels on either side in the grass - wheels that apparently had a tire as broad as one's hand.
Presently a fair slip of a girl, about ten years old, with a cataract of golden hair streaming down over her shoulders, came along. Around her head she wore a hoop of flame-red poppies. It was as sweet an outfit as ever I saw, what there was of it. She walked indolently along, with a mind at rest, its peace reflected in her innocent face. The circus man paid no attention to her; didn't even seem to see her. And she - she was no more startled at his fantastic make-up than if she was used to his like every day of her life. She was going by as indifferently as she might have gone by a couple of cows; but when she happened to notice me, then there was a change! Up went her hands, and she was turned to stone; her mouth dropped open, her eyes stared wide and timorously, she was the picture of astonished curiosity touched with fear. And there she stood gazing, in a sort of stupefied fascination, till we turned a corner of the wood and were lost to her view. That she should be startled at me instead of at the other man, was too many for me; I couldn't make head or tail of it. And that she should seem to consider me a spectacle, and totally overlook her own merits in that respect, was another puzzling thing, and a display of magnanimity, too, that was surprising in one so young. There was food for thought here. I moved along as one in a dream.
As we approached the town, signs of life began to appear. At intervals we passed a wretched cabin, with a thatched roof, and about it small fields and garden patches in an indifferent state of cultivation. There were people, too; brawny men, with long, coarse, uncombed hair that hung down over their faces and made them look like animals. They and the women, as a rule, wore a coarse tow-linen robe that came well below the knee, and a rude sort of sandal, and many wore an iron collar. The small boys and girls were always naked; but nobody seemed to know it. All of these people stared at me, talked about me, ran into the huts and fetched out their families to gape at me; but nobody ever noticed that other fellow, except to make him humble salutation and get no response for their pains.
In the town were some substantial windowless houses of stone scattered among a wilderness of thatched cabins; the streets were mere crooked alleys, and unpaved; troops of dogs and nude children played in the sun and made life and noise; hogs roamed and rooted contentedly about, and one of them lay in a reeking wallow in the middle of the main thoroughfare and suckled her family. Presently there was a distant blare of military music; it came nearer, still nearer, and soon a noble cavalcade wound into view, glorious with plumed helmets and flashing mail and flaunting banners and rich doublets and horse-cloths and gilded spearheads; and through the muck and swine, and naked brats, and joyous dogs, and shabby huts, it took its gallant way, and in its wake we followed. Followed through one winding alley and then another - and climbing, always climbing - till at last we gained the breezy height where the huge castle stood. There was an exchange of bugle blasts; then a parley from the walls, where men-at-arms, in hauberk and morion, marched back and forth with halberd at shoulder under flapping banners with the rude figure of a dragon displayed upon them; and then the great gates were flung open, the drawbridge was lowered, and the head of the cavalcade swept forward under the frowning arches; and we, following, soon found ourselves in a great paved court, with towers and turrets stretching up into the blue air on all the four sides; and all about us the dismount was going on, and much greeting and ceremony, and running to and fro, and a gay display of moving and intermingling colors, and an altogether pleasant stir and noise and confusion.
Table of Contents
Introduction: "A Land Without Chromos" | ix | |
Preface | xxix | |
A Word of Explanation | xxxi | |
Chapter 1 | Camelot | 1 |
Chapter 2 | King Arthur's Court | 7 |
Chapter 3 | Knights of the Table Round | 17 |
Chapter 4 | Sir Dinadan the Humorist | 27 |
Chapter 5 | An Inspiration | 33 |
Chapter 6 | The Eclipse | 43 |
Chapter 7 | Merlin's Tower | 53 |
Chapter 8 | The Boss | 63 |
Chapter 9 | The Tournament | 73 |
Chapter 10 | Beginnings of Civilization | 83 |
Chapter 11 | The Yankee in Search of Adventures | 91 |
Chapter 12 | Slow Torture | 103 |
Chapter 13 | Freemen! | 113 |
Chapter 14 | "Defend Thee, Lord!" | 125 |
Chapter 15 | Sandy's Tale | 133 |
Chapter 16 | Morgan le Fay | 145 |
Chapter 17 | A Royal Banquet | 155 |
Chapter 18 | In the Queen's Dungeons | 169 |
Chapter 19 | Knight Errantry as a Trade | 183 |
Chapter 20 | The Ogre's Castle | 191 |
Chapter 21 | The Pilgrims | 201 |
Chapter 22 | The Holy Fountain | 217 |
Chapter 23 | Restoration of the Fountain | 231 |
Chapter 24 | A Rival Magician | 243 |
Chapter 25 | A Competitive Examination | 257 |
Chapter 26 | The First Newspaper | 273 |
Chapter 27 | The Yankee and the King Travel Incognito | 287 |
Chapter 28 | Drilling the King | 299 |
Chapter 29 | The Small-Pox Hut | 307 |
Chapter 30 | The Tragedy of the Manor-House | 317 |
Chapter 31 | Marco | 331 |
Chapter 32 | Dowley's Humiliation | 343 |
Chapter 33 | Sixth Century Political Economy | 355 |
Chapter 34 | The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves | 371 |
Chapter 35 | A Pitiful Incident | 387 |
Chapter 36 | An Encounter in the Dark | 399 |
Chapter 37 | An Awful Predicament | 407 |
Chapter 38 | Sir Launcelot and Knights to the Rescue | 417 |
Chapter 39 | The Yankee's Fight with the Knights | 425 |
Chapter 40 | Three Years Later | 439 |
Chapter 41 | The Interdict | 451 |
Chapter 42 | War! | 459 |
Chapter 43 | The Battle of the Sand Belt | 475 |
Chapter 44 | A Postscript by Clarence | 493 |
Final P.S. By M.T. | 497 |
Reading Group Guide
1. How does Hank Morgan change throughout the novel? Is this change for the better, or for worse? How does his speech reflect his change in attitude?
2. The theme of the “mysterious stranger” (an outsider who enters a community or circle and enacts some kind of disruption) often appears in Twain’s works. How does Hank use his status as an “outsider” to his advantage? What does he bring from the outside that benefits sixth-century England? Into which world does Hank ultimately fit?
3. What is Hank Morgan’s view of the Catholic church?
4. Many critics consider A Connecticut Yankee to be Twain’s most flawed work because he simply wanted to do “too much.” Do you agree? If so, why?
5. Consider the end of the novel. What statement does Twain make with this ending? Do you feel it is a fulfilling way to end the book?