_Robinson Crusoe_, by DeFoe, is seminal to "lost in space"
fiction.  Well, there's Shakespeare's _The Tempest_ and the
_Philoctetes_ of Sophocles as well, but let's stick to
novels.

_Connecticut Yankee_ is seminal to "lost in time" fiction.

Do those novels share a common theme, or are they at odds?
Was Twain responding to DeFoe? Have the original points of
view been inherited by subsequent works in those lines? Why
did Twain change "space" to "time"? Was Twain anticipating
Einstein's Relativity? Is there something about "time" that
serves Twain's sensibilities better than "space" does.

DeFoe is also seminal to the "noble savage" stock character.
(Forget Caliban for now). That device was used to great
advantage by Fenimore Cooper, whom Twain hated. Is there a
"noble savage" in _Connecticut Yankee_? How does Twain
depart from DeFoe and Cooper in developing such a character?

Vicki Richman
Bedford, Brooklyn NY