A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

As Twain does, he hides social commentary in a quaint story and sneaks it all in before you realize what happened.

This books is funny, of course. Twain is one of those folks that makes you smile on every page. And he skewers major institution after major institution. In particular, he thumbs his nose at monarchies, hero worship, artificial class structures, the superstitious, and wow does he go at institutional religious entities. He also has a lot to say about mankind's infatuation with heroism through violence, blind patriotism, mob thinking, anti-intellectualism. The story applies today as much as it did then. All of this wrapped up in the story of a “modern” dude being transported to the 6th century. Where at first he thinks he is somehow in an insane asylum and then realizes that everyone is just insane (so to speak). Anyway. It's a must read, I think, if you want a complete western literary education but ...

BUT! I didn't love it.

The language is ... just too dated. Huckleberry Finn is one of my favorite novels of all time, but it didn't bog down in the language like this book did. I'm not sure why this was different. And all the 6th century folks spoke in a Twain-ified 6th century dialect that was sometimes quite funny (he was making fun of them) but also ... just too much.

And the book is entirely too long. It needed to be about 1/3rd shorter. Maybe more. It reminded me of Forest Gump and how it just went on and on and on and on. Anyway.

Glad I read it. It is indeed brilliant. But I will never read it again. :)