A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)

A 19th-century factory superintendent, Hank Morgan, is knocked out with a crowbar and wakes in sixth-century England, where he escapes being burned at the stake by "predicting" an eclipse he happens to remember. The first half of this 1889 novel is a gleeful send-up of chivalry, knights who wear sandwich boards to advertise soap, and Hank's Yankee salesmanship. Later it turns dark and the ending is violent, so treat it as a comedy that becomes a warning. It is the longest stretch of sustained comic invention in Twain's novels. The British first edition shown here called it A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.