I read this book for our Relief Society book club (It meets when Cub Scouts meets, so I will go every time to Cub Scouts and see if anyone is there. If not, then yay book club!). It is a good motivator to read more substantial books, for the most part. I also read it now because I'm waiting for the 4th Harry Potter to come in from the library.
I have to admit, I almost gave up after the first 5 chapters or so. It was SO horrifically boring. Lots of talk without much meaning. But I wanted to keep going, to add this to my list of books. And I'm glad I did, because it got better.
The premise is a man finds himself suddenly in Camelot in the 500's AD, and not Hartford Connecticut in the 1800's like he had been living. He has no idea how he ended up there, but he is taken prisoner by a knight and told he will be put to death. Just his luck, he ended up there 2 days before he knows a total solar eclipse is about to happen. He predicts it, and says he will cause it if they don't release him. The eclipse happens, they free him, and he begins reforming King Arthur's country.
He builds factories and helps promote hygiene. He works on abolishing a lot of the social structure that takes place in Britain at this time. He is sent on a quest with a woman to rescue some princesses, who turn out to be pigs in a pigsty. He and King Arthur dress themselves down and wander through the country to find out more about the people there. They find a family with smallpox, which demonstrates Arthur's human side once and for all. They get in a fight and are sold as slaves. The Yankee breaks out and the rest of the slaves kill the slave master, and are condemned (as well as the King) to be hung. They escape, and he participates in the duel he had been challenged to years earlier. He won using his modern inventions, and completes his reformation of England. Three years pass as he gets married, has a baby, and they take off for a different place to help the baby's health. He returns to find out that the king is dead, the queen is a nun, and all the work he has made has been reversed. He has one last great battle to bring back his way of life, and is sabotaged by Merlin. Merlin curses him to sleep for 13 centuries, and a final postscript by Mark Twain describes this as a hallucination from a dying man.
I have a hard time reading any stories that have to do with moms of babies right now. There is a woman who is sentenced to death for stealing cloth to sell so she can eat and nurse her baby, and she gets caught. As they described her going to the gallows, I almost had to stop reading it. Luckily I didn't, because the priest took the baby and promised to raise it. There's still a lump in my throat as I write this though.
I've never actually read Mark Twain's books, so this was an experience. I think he could have written a book in about a quarter of the time. There was SO much talk that had nothing to do with the plot. Speaking of which, there wasn't much of a plot there. They just had different adventures and it went on and on. But it was interesting. I don't know how many more times I will read it, but it was good while it lasted.
I have a hard time reading any stories that have to do with moms of babies right now. There is a woman who is sentenced to death for stealing cloth to sell so she can eat and nurse her baby, and she gets caught. As they described her going to the gallows, I almost had to stop reading it. Luckily I didn't, because the priest took the baby and promised to raise it. There's still a lump in my throat as I write this though.
I've never actually read Mark Twain's books, so this was an experience. I think he could have written a book in about a quarter of the time. There was SO much talk that had nothing to do with the plot. Speaking of which, there wasn't much of a plot there. They just had different adventures and it went on and on. But it was interesting. I don't know how many more times I will read it, but it was good while it lasted.
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