Following along on my Twain kick, I just finished A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  I had actually bought this and read the 1st 20-30% of it before I got and read both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  I then had some other things to read, and finally came back to this one.

It started out with great satire and was pretty funny and good over all, but it ended very dark, and kind of mysteriously.  The introduction of this edition explains why this is likely the case — that Twain had lots of success with Sawyer and Finn, but lost most of his what little fortune he got from those successes, and that this book started in a good time in his life, and finished in a much more cynical state of mind.  I’m sure there are much deeper explanations out there on the Interwebs than that, so go find them if you are interested.  🙂  Or I’m sure any edition you pickup will have more info as well.

A few quotes, as always:

• when red headed people are above a certain social grade, their hair is auburn

• many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising

• but the minute [the thing] came into my personal experience, a thing which had been merely improper before suddenly became hellish [the thing in this case is slavery, but the point stands for many other things as well]

• it is the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders, and not the weight…  for armor is heavy, yet it is a proud burden, and a man standeth straight in it….  [i.e. it depends on what you are “carrying” in how you handle it… something good, you carry well… something bad, you don’t carry well]

Well, I wouldn’t “highly” recommend this unless you are on a Twain kick like I am.  And unless I run across a book of his short stories soon, I will be off my kick.  🙂