A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Twain, Mark (pseud. of Samuel Clemens). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. UK edn. Chatto and Windus under vt. A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, 7 Dec. 1889. US edn. Charles L. Webster & Company, 10 December 1889. Frequently rpt. "Time-Travel Contexts" extracted in The Science Fiction of Mark Twain. David Ketterer, ed. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1984. [77]-95. (Biblio. data from Ketterer.)

The introduction of 19th-c. technology into 6th-c. Britain is crucial for social reform. See Ch. 43, "The Battle of the Sand-Belt," for protective containment within Merlin's Cave: protection provided by high-tech military defenses. Cf. relatively high-tech victory at end of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer (1977); contrast high-tech loss at end of Suzy McKee Charnas's Walk to the End of the World (1974). Yankee and similar fiction from the Victorian era still read in the 20th c. probably made some contribution to the subgenre of "Steampunk." For context and influence on early SF, see Gears and God: Technocratic Fiction, Faith, and Empire in Mark Twain’s America.

RDE, Title, 4Aug19