Mark Twain published A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889.
The novel follows Hank Morgan, a Connecticut engineer who is knocked unconscious and transported to the England of King Arthur. Using his knowledge of nineteenth-century technology, he presents himself as a magician and attempts to modernize Arthurian society.
Twain conceived the idea in December 1884 after reading Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, which George Washington Cable had recommended to him. He worked on the novel between 1885 and 1889, composing much of it at his summer home in Elmira, New York, and completing it in Hartford, Connecticut.
Some early editions used the titles A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court or A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. The English edition appeared in December 1889, and the novel is remembered not only as fantasy and early science fiction but also as a satire of aristocracy, romanticized chivalry, and political power.