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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is Mark Twain's classic tale of Hank Morgan, a resident of 19th century Hartford Connecticut who is inexplicably transported to the early medieval England of King Arthur. A classic satire, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court pokes fun at the romanticized notions of chivalry and the idealization of the middle ages. A delightful and enchanting tale, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court shows Twain at his satirical best.

When A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court was published in 1889, Mark Twain was undergoing a series of personal and professional crises. In his Introduction, M. Thomas Inge shows how what began as a literary burlesque of British chivalry and culture developed to tragedy and into a novel that remains a major literary and cultural text for generations of new readers.

This story originally appeared in Mark Twain's sketches, new and old (1875) and has been reprinted in a great many collections and anthologies.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Mark Twain's unsettling imagination and passionate curiosity roamed far and wide--racing across microscopic worlds and interstellar voids, leaping ahead to fearful futures, and speculating on dazzling inventions to come. Tales of Wonder features some of the most notable but little-known science fiction available, penned by the famed American humorist and writer. With characteristic wit and acuity, Twain embarks on an epic journey into a drop of water, catches a glimpse of an invisible man, reveals a generation-starship-type world in the heart of a drifting iceberg, and imagines futuristic devices of instantaneous communication such as the "phrenophone" and "telelectroscope."

Twain pioneered the use of time travel to the past in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. As for the future, he envisioned a radical utopia of absolute suffrage and future histories in which a global theocracy holds sway or a monarchy rules America. This entertaining and absorbing collection of tales reminds us that the former steamboat pilot dreamed about the stars, anticipated and dreaded the future, and above all was continually surprised and enchanted by the world around him.

Was also published as The Science Fiction of Mark Twain

Contents:

• ix - Texts and Acknowledgments (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer
• xiii - Introduction (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer
• 3 - Petrified Man - (1862) - shortstory
• 4 - Earthquake Almanac - (1865) - shortstory
• 6 - A Curious Pleasure Excursion - (1874) - shortstory
• 10 - The Curious Republic of Gondour - (1875) - shortstory
• 14 - Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven - (1907) - shortfiction (variant of Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven)
• 61 - The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton - (1878) - shortstory
• 77 - Time Travel Contexts from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - (1889) - shortfiction
• 96 - Mental Telegraphy - (1891) - shortstory
• 112 - Mental Telegraphy Again - (1895) - shortstory
• 117 - My Platonic Sweetheart - (1912) - shortstory
• 127 - From the "London Times" of 1904 - (1898) - shortstory
• 139 - The Great Dark - (1962) - shortfiction
• 176 - The Secret History of Eddypus, the World-Empire - (1972) - shortfiction
• 226 - Sold to Satan - (1923) - shortstory
• 233 - 3,000 Years Among the Microbes - (1966) - shortfiction (variant of Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes)
• 327 - "The Mysterious Balloonist" - (1975) - shortfiction
• 331 - Synopsis of "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" - (1945) - shortfiction
• 334 - "The Generation Iceberg" - (1979) - shortfiction
• 335 - Shackleford's Ghost - (1984) - shortstory
• 338 - "History 1,000 Years from Now" - (1972) - shortfiction
• 341 - Explanatory Notes (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer
• 381 - Selected Bibliography (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer

"Extracts From Captain Stormfield's Visit To Heaven" is the first-person account of a sea captain's trip to heaven after his death. First published serially in "Harper's Magazine" in December 1907 and January 1908 (though written 30 years earlier), then as a Christmas gift book. "Extracts" was the last book Mark Twain published during his lifetime.