A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1889. First edition. Fine. First state with the two main issue points: "The S King" on p. 59 and no damage to type on p. 72. This copy with floral end-papers (others with geometric no priority assigned). A lovely, Fine copy overall, with clean boards and bright gilt, without repair or restoration. Bookplate of Arthur Swann on the verso of the first blank. Housed in a custom quarter-leather clamshell.

One of the great humorist's classic works. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" follows the adventures of an engineer who's sent backwards in time to the Middle Ages - and the realm of King Arthur. Twain worked on the book in stops and starts in the 1880s, before finishing it in 1889. Strangely enough, along with some contemporary works by H.G. Wells and Edward Bellamy, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is considered one of the early works in the science fiction, "time-travel" genre. "...we feel that in this book our arch-humorist imparts more of his personal quality than in anything else he has done. Here he is to the full the humorist, as we know him; but he is very much more.... The delicious satire, the marvellous wit, the wild, free, fantastic humor are the colors of the tapestry, while the texture is a humanity that lives in every fibre. At every moment the scene amuses, but it is all the time an object-lesson in democracy. It makes us glad of our republic and our epoch; but it does not flatter us into a fond content with them" (William Dean Howells in the Atlantic). Fine.