Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The 10 best Mark Twain books

Harry L. Katz's new book is Mark Twain's America: A Celebration in Words and Images.

One of Katz's ten best Mark Twain books, as shared at Publishers Weekly:
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) is an entertaining and engaging celebration of American ingenuity and republicanism, sending salvos across the pond toward the calcified conventions of European nobility and The Established Church. Feudal conventions and institutions and the arrogance of power are blown to smithereens. Twain understood that the Fish Out of Water story (a 19th century man somehow transported to medieval England) was the perfect vehicle for social commentary. Twain loved England, and the people of that nation held him in the highest esteem, in spite of his trenchant criticisms of their history and customs.
Read about another book on the list.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is on Rob Bricken's list of the ten least competent time travelers, Annalee Newitz and Emily Stamm's list of ten stories where technology is indistinguishable from magic, and Michael Brooks's top ten list of time travel books; it's also the book Roman Simic most likes to re-read.

--Marshal Zeringue