A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Hank Morgan, a practical Connecticut engineer, takes a blow to the head and wakes in sixth-century England, a stranger in the court of King Arthur with nothing but nineteenth-century know-how to save his neck. He talks his way out of a burning by predicting an eclipse, sets himself up as the realm’s great wizard, and starts quietly rewiring Camelot with gunpowder, telephones, and newspapers. Twain uses the time-travel conceit to swing at superstition, inherited privilege, and the cruelty dressed up as chivalry, though the comedy darkens sharply toward the end. Published in 1889, it is one of the earliest and most biting time-travel satires in the language. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.