Hank Morgan, an engineer living in Hartford, Connecticut in the late 19th century, gets knocked out after a blow to the head and wakes up in early medieval England during the time of King Arthur. So begins the comic satire of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, published in 1889. Discovered by a knight, he is brought to court at Camelot, where he deduces that he has an abundance of knowledge unknown to the natives and so represents himself as a magician. Initially condemned by the court, notably Merlin, to be burned at the stake, he threatens to blot out the sun, knowing that a solar eclipse is imminent. Awed by his power, he is released and manages to become “The Boss” - the second most powerful person in the kingdom and an arch rival of Merlin. He proceeds to industrialize the country and educate the peasantry behind the backs of the ruling class, with whom he domes into conflict time and again, using his wits to outdo them and become the effective leader of Camelot. The final challenge occurs when the Catholic Church tricks him unto leaving the country and publishes an Interdict causing the populace to break away and revolt, and sends 30,000 knights. He organizes a cadre of 52 teenage cadets to defend against the attack, hunkering down in Merlin’s cave with electric wire, mines, and Gatling guns. Needless to say, the Catholic knights are all killed, but Hank and his rangers are trapped in the cave by the mountain of carnage and suffer disease. So it goes. Using plots and gags worthy of Mel Brooks or the Marx Brothers, Twain manages to deflate the romantic notions of chivalry and pretensions of caste that he saw informing the character of the Old South that, in turn, helped foster the tragedy of the Civil War.

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