Twain's criticisms of unrealistic action taken by 
characters in James Fenimore Cooper's books does 
not make him a 
person-living-a-glass-house-throwing-stones when 
it comes to Connecticut Yankee.  I respectfully 
disagree with the comment suggest Twain was guilty 
of some sort of Cooper-like "laziness" as a writer 
here.

That book has its premise a completely fantastic, 
make-believe time travel so of course that alone 
gives the author license to incorporate fantastic, 
unrealistic elements in his book.   (In fact, I've 
heard tell that Connecticut Yankee is perhaps the 
first "time-travel" novel.)   However, once the 
reader suspends credibility as to the time-travel, 
the motivations and actions of Hank Morgan (and 
the description of society that he encounters) are 
completely reasonable and have the ring of truth 
to them.  So much so that, IMO, Connecticut Yankee 
is the one they should be teaching in high 
schools;  give Huck Finn the occasional rest, as 
great as that book is.   There are insights 
relating to society, economics, religious, 
technology (both its positive and negative 
ramifications) and human nature that cry out to be 
heard and appreciated in today's world.  Indeed, I 
would say the book is perhaps Twain's MOST 
relevant work for today's world.  (Well, that and 
the "War Prayer.")

In a novel, especially one that posits a magical 
sort of time travel, the "actual" likelihood that 
someone would know the dates of ancient solar 
eclipses is quite irrelevant.  The overriding 
point of the solar eclipse incident that the 
"modern" man was able to use his scientific 
knowledge in order to gain leverage over more 
primitive folks -- not because they understood the 
concept of science, but precisely because they 
didn't (and therefore attributed supernatural 
powers to him).

And my attitude is: why worry about whether dates 
of fictional accounts in a work of fiction 
corresponded exactly to the calendar date of an 
actual similar event that occurred in real life.  
(It might be a very minor footnote in some 
annotated edition of Connecticut Yankee, but it no 
way detracts from the greatest of one of Twain's 
very greatest works.)

-Steve Hoffman
Takoma Park MD