Start reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

 
 
 
Read books on your computer or other mobile devices with our FREE Kindle Reading Apps.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [Kindle Edition]

Mark Twain
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (262 customer reviews)

Digital List Price: $0.00 What's this?
Print List Price: $3.50
Kindle Price: $0.00 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save: $3.50 (100%)

Whispersync for Voice

Now you can switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible audiobook. Learn more

Add the professional narration of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for a reduced price of $0.99 after you buy this Kindle book.


Book Description

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5 Up-While Mark Twain is most often identified with his childhood home on the Mississippi, he wrote many of his enduring classics during the years he lived in Hartford, Connecticut. He had come a long way from Hannibal when he focused his irreverent humor on medieval tales, and wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The hit on the head that sent protagonist Hank Morgan back through 13 centuries did not affect his natural resourcefulness. Using his knowledge of an upcoming eclipse, Hank escapes a death sentence, and secures an important position at court. Gradually, he introduces 19th century technology so the clever Morgan soon has an easy life. That does not stop him from making disparaging, tongue-in-cheek remarks about the inequalities and imperfections of life in Camelot. Twain weaves many of the well-known Arthurian characters into his story, and he includes a pitched battle between Morgan's men and the nobility. Kenneth Jay's narration is a mix of good-natured bonhomie for Hank and more formal diction for the arcane Olde English speakers. Appropriate music is used throughout to indicate story breaks and add authenticity to scenes. This good quality recording is enhanced by useful liner notes and an attractive case. Younger listeners may need explanations of less familiar words, and some knowledge of the Knights of the Round Table will be helpful. Libraries completing an audiobook collection of Twain titles will enjoy this nice, but not necessary, abridgement.

Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Twain is the funniest literary American writer. . . . [I]t must have been a great pleasure to be him."
--George Saunders

Product Details

  • File Size: 535 KB
  • Print Length: 352 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B004UJTZ30
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,180 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • Would you like to give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
79 of 81 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of Twain�s Greatest! April 14, 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book--at times disjointed, rambling, self-referential, and irreverent--is decades ahead of its time. It's an interdisciplinarian's dream as Twain takes on economics, geography, politics, ancient and contemporary history, and folklore with equal ease. Mostly though, one appreciates his knack for exaggeration, the tall tale, and the outright lie. It's a triumph of tone, as he lets you in on his wild wit, his keen observation, and his penchant for bending the truth without losing his credibility as a guide.

The book's structure is also modern: He recounts his days as a paddlewheel steam boat "cub," piloting the hundreds of miles of the Mississippi before the Civil War, then, in Part 2, returns to retrace his paddleboat route. Although a few of his many digressions don't work (they sometimes sound formulaic or too detailed) most of the narrative is extremely entertaining. Twain seems caught between admiration and disdain for the "modern" age-but he also rejects over-sentimentality over the past. He writes with beauty and cynicism, verve and humor. Very highly recommended!

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
134 of 145 people found the following review helpful
When you do the "Look Inside" thing, you'll read "This view is of the Mass Market Paperback edition (1983) from Bantam Classics. The Paperback edition (2010) from General Books LLC that you originally viewed is the one you'll receive if you click the Add to Cart button at left." And that's correct. The General Books LLC version is a completely different book. To wit....

General Books LLC puts together books using an OCR automated scanning device which can miss complete pages. There are many many Typos and no table of contents. There books receive NO EDITING of any kind, also, the OCR scanning is done by a robot (which the publishers website outright says can miss pages). This is all stated on the publishers web site (google them and read for yourself to get all the details). Almost every review of books published by General Books LLC (around 500,000 of them from one imprint or another now listed on Amazon) by buyers is negative, many are extremely so.

As the General Books LLC version has reviews of other publishers versions associated with it, you need to be very careful to make sure you've bought a decent version. If you have bought the version from General Books LLC by mistake, you can return to Amazon within 30 days(but check Amazon's Return Policy for the details).
Was this review helpful to you?
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Let me guess: your total exposure to Mark Twain came in high school, when you were forced to read about the antics of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer, right? Well, now that you've reached adulthood, you should make time to read _Life on the Mississippi_. It's mandatory reading if you live in a state that borders the great river, anywhere from Minnesota down to Louisiana. It's mandatory reading if you have come to that point in life when you can suddenly appreciate American history and post-Civil War stories written by someone who lived through that time.

Writing in the first half of the 1870s, Twain retraces the steps of his youth: the watery highway he knew when he trained to be a riverboat pilot nearly 20 years earlier. He speaks of how life _was_ along the river, and what life _became_. It's almost a "you can't go home again" experience for him, while the reader gets the benefit of discovering both time periods.

I have two favorite parts that I share with others. Chapter IX includes a wonderful dissertation about how learning the navigational intricacies of the river caused Twain to lose the ability to see its natural beauty. And Chapter XLV includes an assessment of how the people of the North and the South reacted differently to the war experience. If I were a social studies teacher, I'd use that last passage in a unit on the reconstruction period. So put this title on your vacation reading list, and don't fret: the chapters are short and are many -- 60! -- but you can stop at any time, and the words go by fast. _Life on the Mississippi_ should make you forget all about any Twain trauma and report-writing you may have suffered as a teenager. [This reviewer was an Illinois resident when these comments were written.]

Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Book needed for class
I got this book for a class I took last semester. It's alright. Not sure if it'd be something I would buy just to buy but it's not horrible.
Published 18 hours ago by Megan M
4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Twain I thought I knew
In his forward to his book, "Once There Was a War," John Steinbeck wrote: "Mark Twain in `A Connecticut Yankee' uses the horrifying and possible paradox of the victor's being... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Tom Bruce
5.0 out of 5 stars Old Man River Just Keeps Rolling Along---Gloriously!
Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" as a book seems to have changed almost as much as the great river itself did when young Sam Clemens was a cub pilot in the 1850s, daily even... Read more
Published 16 days ago by Lois-ellin Datta
3.0 out of 5 stars Wibbly-Wobley-Timey-Wimey
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain was overall a worthwhile read. It started off extremely slow with a bit off knock-out style time travel and a bit of... Read more
Published 19 days ago by Batya
3.0 out of 5 stars A hard read.
it was a hard read due to when it was written and then add the King Arthur type of verbiage. The story begins in an interesting way and then goes wild, ending very odd. Read more
Published 19 days ago by k. david boley
4.0 out of 5 stars A classic
Despite Amazons requirements, I don't think I'm qualified to review or critique the work of Sam Clemens. I did enjoy reading it though.
Published 23 days ago by tony
5.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not the best.
I read this book soon after reading The Prince and the Pauper. In retrospect this was an appropriate thing to do since Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court... Read more
Published 24 days ago by Steve Challis
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
This is a funny book but also expresses the deepseated humanity of Mark Twain. He was sharply critical of slavery and monarchy.
Published 24 days ago by Love the 19th century
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but slow read
I mostly liked this book, but there are a few points that keep me from loving it. First, there is quite a lot of Olde English dialogue (whenever one of the 6th century characters... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Amanda Greene
3.0 out of 5 stars Started reading.
It's in Olde English, as it should be, but I haven't gotten into it yet. I feel like its not going to catch my interest; Not that its not written well, I just don't know if I care... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Joanne A. Ocak
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Book Extras from the Shelfari Community

(What's this?)

To add, correct, or read more Book Extras for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , visit Shelfari, an Amazon.com company.


What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?



Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


So You'd Like to...


Create a guide

Look for Similar Items by Category