In this interesting book, a "modern" (late 1800s) man named Hank Morgan, after getting into a fight with a subordinate at his factory and being knocked on the head, is mysteriously transported back to Britain 19 Jun 528 AD, the heyday of Camelot, King Arthur and the Knights of the Table Round. The book is presented as a kind of diary of his experiences there. Hank portrays himself as "a Yankee of the Yankees - and practical; yes, and nearly barren of sentiment, I suppose - or, poetry, in other words." He was a technological genius and knew how to make anything at all.
He is able to use his modern knowledge to perform feats which awe the locals and their king, who grants his request to be named "The Boss" (the King's right-hand man) and given a place at the court and an income based on improvements to Kingdom income based on his suggestions. He goes about making various improvements, with an eye toward eventual revolution to free the common people from the tyranny of the hierarchical social system. He starts secret "man factories", recruiting those real men (and women) who seem to have an inkling that they can and should break free of domination and live in freedom and independence.
A main thrust of the story is to disabuse the reader of any romantic notions he may be harboring about this era of history. The author clearly portrays the barbarism, filth, injustice, senseless violence, backwardness and brutality of this time and these people, often mocking their ignorance and superstition in the light of our more enlightened ways.
A particular gripe is the humble but ignorant reverence of the common folk for King, Church and nobility. He vents that the terrible violence of the French Revolution pales in comparison to the centuries of depredations imposed on the common people who, in his view, were fully justified in that bloodletting. He rails against the Catholic Church of the day as a chief enemy of the freedom of the common people, encouraging them to remain humble toward authority (however unjust) and comtemplate the higher, God-ordained reasons for their sufferings.
He propounds the old "progressive" view that human nature is infinitely malleable and can be trained and molded in better directions (i.e. the perfectibility of humanity through social engineering). Later, he complains of the burdens of having a conscience: "If I had the remaking of man, he wouldn't have any conscience. It is one of the most disagreeable things connected with a person; and although it certainly does a great deal of good, it cannot be said to pay, in the long run; it would be much better to have less good and more comfort." (p. 123)
The author's disdain for what he perceives to be the twin scourges on ordinary people; church (i.e. the Catholic hierarchy) and state (i.e. nobility/royalty) reaches a crescendo in his story of "The Smallpox Hut" (Chap XXIX). After their landlord has planted fruit trees on the small productive part of the land that this family of 6 uses to feed itself, someone has chopped them down. The 2 sons are immediately thrown into the Manor House's dungeon on the unproven assumption that they are responsible. As further punishment, the family is required to continue to deliver the same number of crops without their 2 sons' assistance or pay fines to both lord and priest to offset the shortfall. When the priest arrives to "chide me for lack of due humility under the chastening hand of God", the wife and mother loses control and utters a "deep blasphemy" against the church, resulting in the dreaded "curse of Rome" on the entire household and any who associate with them (excommunication?). Eventually, the lack of nutrition and hygiene results in the contraction of smallpox by the family. First the father, then both daughters and finally the stubborn wife/mother dies. These are prototypical good, common folks who end up being ground to dust by the unjust "system", embodied in the hierarchical and parasitical institutions of both state and church.
Among my favorite of the host of bit-part characters to make an appearence in the book is Sir Ossaise of Surluse, "a brave knight and of considerable celebrity" resulting from significant skill in past knightly jousting tournaments. He is one of the many knights that Hank has put to work as travelling salesmen, wearing bulletin-boards front and aft advertising Hank's many innovative products, such as tooth-wash and soap. Hank explains that Sir Ossaise was "of a light and laughing disposition, and to him nothing in this world was serious. It was for this reason that I had chosen him to work up a stove-polish sentiment. There were no stoves yet, and so there could be nothing serious about stove-polish. All that the agent needed to do was to deftly and by degrees prepare the public for the great change, and have them established in predilections toward neatness against the time when the stove should appear upon the stage." When we hear of him (p. 135), it seems that Sir Ossaise had recently played a small practical joke on another knightly salesman, Sir Madok de la Montaine, who has been busy advertising Peterson's prophylactic toothbrushes and tooth-wash. Sir Madok explains (amid a torrent of profanities) that, when he had last seen Sir Ossaise, the latter had encouraged him to head off a party of travellers who would be fine customers for his products. "With characteristic zeal Sir Madok had plunged away at once upon this quest, and after 3 hours of awful cross-lot riding," "across the fields and swamps and broken hills and glades," he finally caught up to them, only to discover to his chagrin that the party consisted of 5 poor souls released the night before from a long imprisonment in a dungeon and that it had been "all of 20 years since any one of them had known what it was to be equipped with any remaining snag or remnant of a tooth."
One touching scene happens when Hank and King Arthur diguise themselves as commoners and travel throughout the kingdom to assess what's really happening there. Along the way, they are captured for the purpose of being sold into slavery (since they cannot prove their status as freemen and the ancient Roman law holds that they are slaves until proven otherwise). Hank is able to play along, knowing he'll eventually work out a way to get free. The king, with his high-born pride, keeps his chin up and maintains an attitude of resistance and defiance, refusing to cow-tow to the slave trader. This leads the latter to try to break him. Hank says: "I will only remark that at the end of a week there was plenty of evidence that lash and club and fist had done their work well; the king's body was a sight to see - and to weep over; but his spirit? - why, it wasn't even phased. Even that dull clod of a slave-driver was able to see that there can be such a thing as a slave who will remain a man till he dies; whose bones you can break, but whose manhood you can't. This man found that from his first effort down to his latest, he couldn't ever come within reach of the king, but the king was ready to plunge for him, and did it. So he gave up at last, and left the king in possession of his style unimpaired. The fact is, the king was a good deal more than a king, he was a man; and when a man is a man, you can't knock it out of him" (p. 284).
While early in the book it seems we are headed in a promising direction toward a happy and virtuous end, Twain later turns the plot in darker directions. While Hank is away to warmer climes for the health of his small daughter (we find later this was arranged by the evil church), the society of England is shattered by the eruption of the long-simmering Launcelot/Guineviere affair. Sir Launcelot and King Arthur are split into opposing factions and end up thoroughly exterminating each other, leaving no royal heir and only lesser knights and nobility to carry on. Its position threatened, the Catholic Church imposes the dreaded Interdict on society, shutting down normal civil functions until the Boss is found and terminated.
When Hank finally returns to England, he must stage a "final battle" between the remaining forces of Chivalry (about 30,000 lesser knights) and the forces of republican progress. Unfortunately, most older former students of Hank's have lost their nerve and defected to the enemy in the glaring face of dissapproval by noble, gentry and church officials, leaving only 52 boys (having never been fully steeped in the older tradition) to assist Hank in pushing the cause of revolution. The Battle of the Sand Belt is an outright slaughter of the larger reactionary force. Unfortunately, the evil Merlin has the last laugh and puts Hank into a 13-century sleep, even as his co-conspirators are trapped in their cave fortress and being sickened by the 30,000 decaying corpses of the opposition (so much for a light-hearted and happy ending).
In the last scene, Twain has finished reading the manuscript given to him by Hank back in the 19th century. It is toward morning at the lodge where they are both staying and Hank is sleeping fitfully and making noises in the next room. When Twain checks on him, Hank is muttering of Sandi, the child ("Hello-Central") and his beloved life back in the 6th century, apparently relieved that his 19th-century experiences were "just a dream." We, of course, are left assuming that Hank's 6th century experiences were the dream (but of course, there IS that written record ... hmmmm). Before he wakes up, Hank dies in his sleep, so we'll never know for sure. Welcome to...the Twilight Zone.
The author clearly holds the misguided assumption that religion is hostile to personal freedom (see review of The Theme is Freedom by M. Stanton Evans). He clearly rejects such common attributes of conservative thought as belief in moral absolutes, adherence to the long traditions of Judaic and Christian teaching and a pessimistic view of human nature, which he believes translate into authoritarian practice. He maintains, conversely, that notions of individual freedom have an irreligious or at least a nonreligious basis: and promotes "an attitude of skepticism about moral absolutes, a rationalist approach to social problems and an optimistic view of human nature" (from Evans). All of these misunderstandings are false and part of "The Liberal History Lesson," which M. Stanton Evans exposes as part of the "Big Lie" in his book, The Theme is Freedom. This way of thinking sees a strong affinity between the American and French Revolutions and interprets both as a throwing off of the shackles of religion and tradition which are believed to encumber the pure, relativist, rationalist and optimistic vision of liberty.
Probably the most accurate of all the King Arthur Legends, as far as describing the daily life, customs, and superstitions of the people of the period. It does not lionize the Knights of the Round Table, but at the same time it does not speak of them as savages, as some accounts do. Similarly, it makes the people out to be decent, simple, and yes, sheep, but not total fools. Hank's contempt for all forms of mysticism and non-scientific explanations of things damages the atmosphere of the book. His impatience with the people who do not understand his speech and ideas, and his general attitude of superiority make him slightly less likeable, and more difficult to pay attention to. It is sometimes hard to bear Hank's thoughtless destruction of 6th century culture, and his obsession with the wonder of technology.
The 19th century's emergence of a technocracy (industrial leaders becoming a sort of aristocracy) is shown in the person of the "Boss", who becomes an esteemed knight and supplants Merlin (who represents the mystical superstitions of the locals). Supposedly, when Twain starting writing the book, he was a major backer of a new invention (I can't remember what) that he hoped would create large profits. By the time the book was done, his venture was a financial failure. This mirrors the tone of the book, as the Boss's story goes from light and entertaining to dark (but still entertaining). For all of the advances the Boss brings to England, the failings of people still dictate the course of events. In the end, the Boss's creations find their most effective manifestation in warfare, which has traditionally been the primary application of any new science. Unfortunately, the Boss's last achievement results in the death of most of the nobles in England. This novel is a great critical analysis of technology. While the promise new ideas bring can be quite beneficial, the inability of a society to properly deal with such ideas can prove very destructive.
Not really a book about the middle ages. Twain uses the setting of the middle ages to really deliver a scathing attack upon the landed gentry, or in Twain's day the newly rich industrialists of the Gilded Age. Its not the old-money royalty that oppose the intended improvements to the lives of the peasants but the new-money nobles that wish to keep the poor in destitution. Twain is really making a statement about the working conditions of the northern factory workers. It is no coincidence that Twain chose a northern boy as the protagonist of this work when all of Twain's previous novels involved southern folk. He was trying to draw attention to the plight of the northern working class and their poor working conditions at the hands of the new landed gentry: the industrialists. Hank Morgan embodies what Twain felt the industrialists should be like. Hank was generous and progressive in his views toward the masses and society. Twain felt the industrialists should be using their new found wealth to the betterment of society in general and the poor in particular. The satirical commentary that Twain is noted for is not as subtle in this work. It seems slightly more vitriolic in its nature than his normally tongue in cheek style. This may be due to the pure disdain that Twain held for the targets of his pen in this novel.
Twain holds the glory and romance associated with Arthurian Legend up to the standards of 19th century society, and reveals defects in both the romantic ideal of King Arthur and the faith that Twain's generation holds in scientific and social "progress." This book reads very quickly near the beginning and end. The action tapers off during the middle of the story, but not for long.