The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

by Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner, Marvin Felheim (Introduction)

Arguably the first major American novel to satirize the political milieu of Washington, D.C. and the wild speculation schemes that exploded across the nation in the years that followed the Civil War, The Gilded Age gave this remarkable era its name. Co-written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, this rollicking novel is rife with unscrupulous politicians, colorful plutocrats, and blindly optimistic speculators caught up in a frenzy of romance, murder, and surefire deals gone bust. First published in 1873 and filled with unforgettable characters such as the vainglorious Colonel Sellers and the ruthless Senator Dilsworthy, The Gilded Age is a hilarious and instructive lesson in American history.

Introduction by Ron Powers
Includes Newly Commissioned Endnotes

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literature, Humor, Historical Fiction, Politics, American

456 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Greg Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Still need to add the end notes. But here is the actual review]

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) is a novel Mark Twain co-wrote with Charles Dudley Warner. The title came to define the period in American history occurring "from about the 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era." (1) The title evokes images of well-dressed women reclining on couches and men of affairs dressed in black smoking cigars. The novel incorporates similar scenes of glittering wealth. However, perhaps a more apt description of the period was the almost finished Washington Monument with its "skeleton of decaying scaffolding linger[ing] about its summit." (2) The completed portions of the monument symbolized the nation's potential and impressive progress. Its unfinished state also reflected a country in a hurry with many competing priorities.

The Gilded Age covers several themes. Its primary focus is the public and private corruption surrounding government-funded internal improvement projects. In the Preface to the London edition of the novel, Twain noted that the authors "found little pleasure in handling" the issue of political corruption. (3) Yet, in reading the novel, the authors seem to revel in satirizing all manner of bribery and graft. Twain and Warner are especially adept at mock seriousness to satirize those who hide private corruption behind a facade of public virtue.

Public and Private Corruption

In September of 1871, Twain published an article in the New York Tribune titled "The Revised Catechism." The article emulated the style and question-and-answer format of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which Twain likely recalled from his Sunday School youth. (4) The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with "Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." (5) Twain's article starts with, "What is the chief end of man? A. To get rich. In what way? A. Honestly if we can; dishonestly if we must." Appearing in the financial section of the paper, the article named William Tweed, his contractors, and associated railroad magnates Jay Gould and James Fisk. Tweed's New York political patronage organization "owned every public official from the governor of the state down to the lowliest city employee." (6)

With the public pressure of Thomas Nast's political cartoons in Harper's Weekly and investigative reporting in The New York Times, the authorities brought Tweed and some of his associates to justice. In exposing Tweed's corruption, Twain focused on one individual operating an organization in one state. In revealing the political corruption in Washington in The Gilded Age, Twain and Warner had to consider corrupt politicians, government contractors, and lobbying organizations with projects potentially anywhere in the country.

Twain and Warner satirize the corruption of the times through the fictional Missouri Senator Dilworthy and the fictional Wall Street firm of The Columbus River Slack-Water Navigation Company, which receives federal appropriations funds. Using Senator Dilworthy as a point man, the company grants each member of a Senate appropriations committee a kickback in exchange for a vote to approve a Missouri internal improvement project. The company leaves a paper trail between it and the committee, complete with the signatures of each committee member. The firm retains these letters as potential blackmail against committee members should they prove uncooperative in approving additional (and larger) appropriations for the same Missouri improvement project.

The firm cloaks the project's benefits in popular religious language as part of its public image. Within the context of the times, the general public viewed Sunday School and Christian temperance as societal benefits. The company president notes that the firm has placed an article about the Missouri project in "a religious paper of enormous circulation." The article includes "a few Scripture quotations in it, and some temperance platitudes and a bit of gush here and there about Sunday Schools." (7)

For his part, Senator Dilworthy presents a public image of a man of the people and a pious statesman concerned with his constituents' secular and religious needs. Naturally, in Washington, the Senator attends a prayer breakfast. In a visit to rural Missouri, the Senator describes "the genius of American Liberty, walking with the Sunday School in one hand and Temperance in the other up the glorified steps of the National Capitol." (8) The New York company president looks down on the religious public as an evangelical rabble whose language the firm must adopt for business reasons. By contrast, Senator Dilworthy is at home using Christian language. Rather than trying to deceive the public, he believes his public persona is consistent with his private actions.

Laura Hawkins and Washington Society

Perhaps the most developed character in the novel is that of Laura Hawkins. Twain and Warner seem the most invested in the outcome of her story. To their credit, though, they do not write a Hollywood feel-good ending for her.

Raised in rural Missouri, Laura's family endured a few boom-and-bust cycles before settling into long-term poverty. During the Civil War, Confederate troops pass through Missouri. Laura meets, falls in love with, and marries a Southern Col. Shelby. There is one problem. Col. Shelby is already married, and after a fling with Laura, he returns to his wife. Heartbroken and humiliated, Laura returns home to her family.

At home, Laura begins to read widely and develops aspirations for a life beyond rural Missouri. Laura matures into a stunning woman. "She had the fatal gift of beauty, and that more fatal gift which does not always accompany mere beauty, the power of fascination." (9) While visiting his constituents in Missouri, Senator Dilworthy meets Laura. Realizing her potential to advance his legislative interests in Washington society, the Senator invites Laura to visit his home in Washington.

Laura makes her debut in Washington and quickly becomes the belle of society. Based on her initial success, Senator Dillworthy supplies her with expensive clothing and jewelry. Laura then begins to attract the attention of many men in Washinton society. "Some of the noblest men of the time succumbed to her fascinations. She frowned upon no lover when he made his first advances, but by and by when he was hopelessly enthralled, he learned from her own lips that she had formed a resolution never to marry." With each man she rejects, "she would calmly add his scalp to her string, while she mused upon the bitter day that Col. Shelby trampled her love and her pride in the dust." (10)

Laura quickly learns the structure and protocol of Washington society. The old aristocratic families, whose ancestry dated back to the American Revolution, occupied the highest status. The nouveau riche families, some of whom had acquired wealth unscrupulously, were at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The old aristocracy had status but lacked money. The newly rich had money but lacked status. The old aristocratic ladies visit Laura in an "antiquated" carriage "with a faded coat of arms on the panels" driven by servants "dressed in dull brown livery that had seen considerable service." These ladies arrive in clothing that is "exceedingly rich, as to material, but as notably modest as to color and ornament." Ladies of the nouveau riche class visit Laura in three carriages: "new and wonderfully shiny, and the brasses on the harness were highly polished and bore complicated monograms. There were showy coats of arms, too, with Latin mottoes." As the ladies of the newly monied class enter Laura's dwelling, "they filled the place with a suffocating sweetness procured at the perfumer’s. Their costumes, as to architecture, were the latest fashion intensified; they were rainbow-hued; they were hung with jewels—chiefly diamonds. It would have been plain to any eye that it had cost something to upholster these women." Between the old aristocracy and new money classes was a "Middle Ground" of people "made up of the families of public men from nearly every state in the Union." This group "troubled themselves but little about the two other orders." (11)

According to the protocol of the time, when a woman settled in Washington, society ladies made a social call at her home and left their cards with the doorman. "If the lady receiving the call desires a further acquaintance, she must return the visit within two weeks." Ladies called at each other's homes, especially on the occasion of a marriage or death in the family. If a lady visited another's home and wished to offer her congratulations on a marriage or birth in family, she "sends in her card with the upper left hand corner turned down." However, if a woman wished to offer her condolences to a family, she "leaves her card with the upper right hand corner turned down." Getting the corners correct was critical. Otherwise, a lady might "unintentionally condole with a friend on a wedding or congratulate her upon a funeral." (12)

As Laura advances in notoriety in Washinton society, she becomes adept at persuading congressmen to vote according to Senator Dilworthy's agenda. In obtaining a man's vote on a bill, "Laura pursued her usual course: she encouraged [him] by turns, and by turns she harassed him; she exalted him to the clouds at one time, and at another she dragged him down again. She constituted him chief champion [of a bill], and he accepted the position, at first reluctantly, but later as a valued means of serving her—he even came to look upon it as a piece of great good fortune, since it brought him into such frequent contact with her." (13) Laura's place in Washington society is threatened when Col. Shelby re-enters her life at a Washington society event.

Laura Hawkins emerges as one person caught in the promise and peril of the age. In the end, she is a victim of circumstances and a victim of an unforgiving society. Yet, she also faces the awful consequences of her own bad choices.

Issues have changed since Twain and Warner wrote The Gilded Age. Internal improvements in rural areas are no longer a legislative focus, and Sunday School and Christian temperance are no longer national concerns. However, the novel seems strikingly current in other ways. Congressional corruption remains a problem in ways that have remained unchanged with time. Outside of America, political corruption is a perennial problem in all societies at all times and places. Using the format of satire, Twain and Warner provide readers in all times and places with a format for protesting and maintaining sanity against political corruption beyond their control.

[Theo Logos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gave name to the period of American history from the end of the Civil War to the end of the 19th century. In it, Mark Twain savages the crooked politicians, speculators, and rampant greed that characterized this period of spectacular expansion in American capitalism. It is Twain’s scathing wit dissecting these abuses, and Colonel Sellers, one of Twain's own favorite characters, that are the rational to read this book.

Unfortunately, in this first of Mark Twain’s novels, the gold of his wit is mixed all too thinly with the dross of his co-author, Charles Dudley Warner, a writer (justly) all but forgotten except for this collaboration with Twain. It is far too easy to pick Twain's contributions apart from his less talented co-author. The novel is a typical 19th century melodrama, with characters who drop into the plot for no apparent reason, and others who were built up and then simply disappear from the book as if the role they were to play was forgotten. The book used tired cliches of the period, like the beautiful, fallen women who figures largely in the second half of the book and comes to a predictable end that pleased Victorian sensibilities. Upon publication, many reviewers accused Mark Twain of perpetuating a fraud on the public by lending his name to this book; a charge that, sadly, seems to fall not far from the mark.

Though the book contains some few bits of choice Mark Twain material, it is among the least of his works, and only recommended for Mark Twain completists.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had always wanted to read this book, thinking it was a different sort of novel, perhaps from the point of the wealthy. Also, I had no idea that The Gilded Age was such a serious work. Oh, Mark Twain's humor comes across frequently, especially in the sections taking place in Washington. Unfortunately, Twain had a co-author: the book is signed by both Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warren, his friend.

Twain wrote the first eleven chapters, which were brilliant at times, but the story began to sag when Warren took over. Gradually, the book improved; but it was never too difficult to tell when Warren was the sole author.

The Gilded Age is a tale of the American dream of entrepreneurship. Everyone wants to speculate, to go for the quick kill. What usually winds up getting "killed," however, are their own prospects and those of the people who love them. Perhaps the book's signature character is "Colonel" Beriah Sellers (notice those initials: B.S.), who is an insatiable dreamer around whom much of the plot revolves. Curiously, although virtually everything he undertakes fails, he receives sympathetic treatment because he is basically a nice guy who, himself, is caught up in his impossible dreams:

As may be readily believed, Col. Beriah Sellers was by this time one of the best known men in Washington. For the first time in his life his talents had a fair field.

He was now at the centre of the manufacture of gigantic schemes, of speculations of all sorts, of political and social gossip. The atmosphere was full of little and big rumors and of vast, undefined expectations. Everybody was in haste, too, to push on his private plan, and feverish in his haste, as if in constant apprehension that tomorrow would be Judgment Day. Work while Congress is in session, said the uneasy spirit, for in the recess there is no work and no device.

It is this feverishness which is at the heart of The Gilded Age.

For all the ignes fatui, however, there is only one uccess in the novel, and it comes at the very end, when it is almost too late.

For Mark Twain's participation in this novel, I would give it five stars, but Warner lowers it to four. It's not that he is so bad: It's just that he is so far from Twain.

[Joe Soler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I assigned in my Modern Novels class because it set the stage for the period of self-proclaimed Modernity by exposing the seedy underbelly behind American "Progress." This is also Mark Twain's first novel which is clear because he has not quite mastered narrative and structure. The book drags a bit at times, but also displays the wit and incisive observation that made Twain a national treasure. The Gilded Age recounts the profound and quite recognizable corruption of the late 19th century United States, particularly Big Business. This novel is wonderful in that despite its age, the book speaks directly to the contemporary American political scene, and shows that the problems we face have been with us a long time. My students always immediately picked up on how relevant the book was in thinking about the contemporary corruption of our society despite their various academic and intellectual levels, which is a tribute to Twain's brilliance.

[Christiane · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner heap scathing criticism on the US congress, the justice system , the press and society in general..
It’s a tale of greed, corruption, influence peddling, lobbying, vote buying, seat buying, bribery, blackmail, hypocrisy, etc. etc. In this aspect this satire is as relevant today as it was then.

Another topic are the big dreams of vast and easy riches harboured by men disinclined to work for them, epitomized by the self-satisfied kind-hearted windbag, "Colonel" Beriah Sellers.

Lastly, it’s a portrait of the situation of women and their lack of independence and self-determination at that time.

Although it is surely a deserving book I did not enjoy it very much : I found it too disjointed, long and tedious, didn’t care much for the characters and missed Mark Twain’s usual linguistic fireworks.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another treasure discovered at a library buck-a-bag sale. The characters are well drawn, the prose is not turgid...and...not a lot has changed in human affairs in a century and a half.
Sure, it's about politics, corruption, greed, business speculation and credit bubbles, so a main point about reading it is seeing how little anything has changed. But everybody already knows that, human nature being what it is.
Nonetheless, one takes pause when stumbling across lines such as, "She did not know how much of the business prosperity of the world is only a bubble of credit and speculation, one scheme helping to float another which is no better than it, and the whole liable to come to naught and confusion when some accident produces a sudden panic."
How could we keep screwing it up--not year after year but century after century?
For me, though, as with reading all novels from the long ago, what I get most from it is the feel of what it was like to be alive in those days, and this book delivers. There are striking descriptive passages, that must have been written by co-author Charles Dudley Warner because Twain just doesn't write like that. I know that at least two scenes are with me forever.
I know what it was like to take a night journey by train in c.1870, walk through the streets of residential Philadelphia, attend a courtroom trial in New York City (I even know what it smelled) like. I know about people's attitudes and points of view. And I know how long some things took to change, even though the misapprehension was clear.
Take women's rights--the problem summarized in two sentences that would take more than a century to untangle: "You men do not want women educated to do anything, to be able to earn an honest living by their own exertions. They are educated as if they were always to be petted and supported, and there was never to be any such thing as misfortune."
Even what we might now call "white-guilt liberalism," with government money being tapped for projects designed to uplift the poor "niggro," but are really get-rich schemes for the backers who don't care about anything but their own advancement, are pilloried.
Public works boondoggles--then canals, now high-speed rail--natural resources speculation, hypocritical religious hogwash, corrupt and corrupting lobbyists, a credulous public....
It's all the same! Nothing has changed! That's what I came away with.
Who knew?
Hah.
I liked the protagonist Laura Hawkins a lot. Her attitude to life was expressed when she said, "The world is against me. Well, let it be, let it. I am against it."
Yeah.
She also said that there could be no love without respect, and she would only despise a man who could content himself with someone like her. Sigh. I get that, too.
I could go on, but...better you should read the book.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigh. I shall ever be smitten by Mark Twain. If I were to have a fantasy dinner party he would definitely be a guest. (Along with Woody Allen) This book shattered any remaining illusions/delusions' I may have held regarding our noble democracy and dedication to ethics and principals in government - business. A very barbed satire indeed. Mark Twain's observations of The Gilded Age remain spot on today. I am off to crawl under my bed and wait for the Great Apocalypse. Trust no one.

Re-read December 2016 I raised my rating of this book to a five star. The recent Presidential election in November prompted me to dust off this tome and re-read. It is more prophetic that I ever imagined when I first read it. The Great Apocalypse has arrived with Donald Trump at the helm. I will not find safety hiding under my bed.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is not often that one gets to define an age, but that is precisely what Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner did with “The Gilded Age”. As Ward Just points out in his introduction, “The Gilded Age” is “the first (novel about Washington) of consequence in American writing.” The full title of the book is “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today”, and it was published in 1873. Charles Warner was a good friend of Mark Twain and this is the only novel which Twain collaborated with another writer, and it was also the first novel which he wrote which was not based on his own life and travels.

The novel is focused on a poor Tennessee family, whose patriarch tries to improve the status of his family by making money on land he has acquired. Never satisfied with the amount offered, he dies failing to sell the land, and the story continues with focus on his adopted daughter Laura. In addition there is a parallel story about two men seeking their fortunes through speculation. The first of these stories is largely by Twain, while the second one is by Warner. While those characters are the focus, much of the action takes place in Washington D. C., and the satire of the government and those involved is timeless.

“The Gilded Age” is certainly worth reading, as is everything Twain ever wrote. I don’t personally consider it among his best, but as the novel which defined an age and the only book which he co-authored, it has a unique place in history, both of Twain’s writing and of the country. Twain’s gift for satire had not yet reached its peak in this novel, but it is still very good, and one can only imagine what changes there would have been if Twain had authored this book by itself. The Oxford Mark Twain edition includes an introduction by Ward Just and an Afterword by Gregg Camfield, and both have insights to offer into the book and the environment which faced the authors while writing it.

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the United States, the era between the end of the civil war and the late 19th century was characterized by major social changes and rapid economic growth. Behind this facade, however, there were huge social problems and great political corruption. The writers describe this era with intense satirical mood and this description was so apt that the title of the book finally gave its name in this era. The truth, however, is that this fact gives value to this book and not its literary virtues.

Στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες η εποχή ανάμεσα στο τέλος του εμφυλίου πολέμου και στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα χαρακτηρίζονταν από μεγάλες κοινωνικές αλλαγές και ραγδαία οικονομική ανάπτυξη. Πίσω από αυτή την πρόσοψη, όμως, υπήρχαν τεράστια κοινωνικά προβλήματα και μεγάλη πολιτική διαφθορά. Αυτή την εποχή περιγράφουν οι συγγραφείς με σατιρική διάθεση και αυτή η περιγραφή ήταν τόσο εύστοχη που ο τίτλος του βιβλίου έδωσε τελικά σε αυτήν την εποχή το όνομά της. Η αλήθεια, όμως, ότι αυτό το γεγονός δίνει αξία σε αυτό το βιβλίο και όχι οι λογοτεχνικές του αρετές.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me sad. It's the first Twain that I haven't picked up with delight and looked forward to reading. Instead, I picked it up thinking, "I can't wait until I'm done with this one."

That's not how you should feel about a book unless it's Henry James. Then it's okay because that man could make a three word sentence last for three pages.

I suspect that the parts I disliked were written by the co-author as others seem to indicate. I can't imagine Twain being as wagless as the passages indicate. The words show that humor is attempted, but fails. Not my Twain.

I was amused by how much things remain the same in American politics. Some things never change. And I become more and more cynical for it.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's scary is how much the Washington, DC of this 1873 novel has in common with Washington, DC today!

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A comprehensive up-to-date textbook on American government. Suitable for use in colleges and high schools.” Professor A. Puff, Racket University.

[Yesenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I started watching the HBO series The Gilded Age, and I was like, "some of these names sound familiar... did these people exist?" So of course I went to The History Chicks podcast to see if they had an episode on Mrs. Astor, and of course they did! They also have another called The Gilded Age Princesses and The Gilded Age Servants, AND they mentioned that the name of the period came from a book by Mark Twain (they forgot to mention the other guy).

Of course I had to read the book. This is how I watch series and this is why I sometimes read a book or listen to a podcast: serendipity + the oneness of the universe.

This book was very entertaining in parts, but not all the time. Sometimes it was a bit... I dunno, not boring per se, but something not entertaining. But it was SO anti-Congress that it was endearing. And so mordant sometimes, so Mark Twain... It took me one day to read it, so clearly I was very much into it...

And although it is not about New York--unlike the HBO series--it is evident that this book and the series deal with the same sort of people. Gilded people.

[James Steele · Rating 2 out of 5]

[edit: the book is about the land speculation of the 1800s as the railroads and industry were expanding. Everyone trying to get rich off land and bemoaning how only people with connections to old money and politics seemed to be able to get rich off it. Given our current atmosphere of NFTs and cryptocurrency and how nobody is using them as money but as unregulated investments to try to get rich, the themes of this book are just as relevant as ever. Everyone yearns for social mobility. Everyone wants to be free of labor. Whether it’s NFTs (all I have to do is buy this token for a monkey jpeg; its value will rise in no time and I’ll be rich and all I have to do is hodl!) or land speculation (surely this land has coal on it! It must! We’ll all get rich!) everyone is trying to improve their station in life. We all recognize this can’t be done by working hard, so we are vulnerable to gambling away what little we have on the chance of a larger return, but the only people who benefit are the people with personal connections, in one form or another. Is the gamble ever worth it, or are we all wasting our time speculating?]

This must have been rollicking satire in 1872, and even having read a lot of books from this era, so much of this went over my head. Everyone has a scheme to get rich. Everyone is plotting ways to make money—why there’s millions of dollars in potential and lots and lots of unclaimed land so let’s go out and get some!

Problem is that when the poor, ordinary folk enact such schemes, they get nowhere and all their hard work ends in poverty. To get anything done, you have to know people. Powerful people. Powerful people who live in the financial and business and political centers of the country and have ties to politicians who can make things happen. When these people enact schemes, things get done, and their scheming always overrides the schemes of people who are not so well-connected.

The New York and Washington DC elites make a living buying and selling the land out in the Western USA for railroad and mining speculation. The people who live on that land get screwed one way or another while these business and political people, who have never even seen the land they are speculating on, get rich off it. Their actions make or break entire towns—lives are ruined because of these rich people and the politicians and legal officials they corrupt in order to seize such land, and they ensure only their rich friends make money. They don’t care how their actions affect others. It’s a whole other planet.

This is a very slow and plodding read full of in-the-times humor and portrayals regarding Black people (this story straddles the American Civil War) and women. I do like how the authors acknowledge they are “men writing women.” In spite of the many sweeping generalizations about “how women are” (which do come across as good humor... even if outdated) they manage to write a strong woman who figures out how to navigate High Society and manipulate the right movers and shakers and politicians and to get the best possible land deal for her family. It’s the only get-rich-quick scheme they have that can actually work, but they must manipulate the right people to make it happen. Working hard never paid off before. Knowing people always works.

It’s boring though. So boring it’s not worth summarizing in detail, or even remembering who the characters are. Alice in Wonderland’s out of date humor was a delight to slip into. The Gilded Age’s humor is the opposite, even as its overarching theme is just as tangible now as it was then, though the twist in chapter 46 caught me off guard—to see all their hard work, all their scheming and playing the politicians and the people in High Society come to naught in the end. For all their effort, nothing works. All their speculation and playing politics and the money game. Nothing pays off for anyone, and even the one person whose speculation does bear fruit doesn’t gain from it. The book ends with more speculation. It’s heartbreaking to witness, leaving the reader wondering if there really is anything anyone can do to get rich, or are we all wasting our time gambling our futures away.

I can only assume this was a biting satirical portrayal of the USA for the time in how nobody talks about normal things anymore—everyone is thinking about ways to get rich off this or that. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when industry was expanding in ways never witnessed in America before, railroads were growing, land was plentiful, raw materials were in demand, and America had all of it in abundance. Hearing people starting to talk like this must have been quite a shift in culture. I can’t hate it, but I think Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!” (see my review) would later show it so much better.

[Paul Frandano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1873, this is the novel that famously gave the era its name and then fell into the bin on “largely forgotten and seldom read.” In my opinion, however, The Gilded Age is significantly better than its earliest notices or its contemporary reputation. What I surmise will surprise readers today is the continuing relevance of the story, which is in parts a morality tale, a series of character studies that capture a range of relevant “types” who express various dimensions of the striving age, a snapshot of the burgeoning power of CAPITAL (and the railroads) at a very specific moment in American history, and a guide to the workings of the US Congress .c 1870s. The story Mark Twain and co-author Charles Dudley Warner unfold – along with the behaviors of their principal protagonists – should resonate among contemporary readers, who will recognize in these pages the differences between moral politicians and political moralists, the myriad hypocrisies of the political class then (and now), and the exertions of the politically and financially powerful haves to advance their own interests and relative might against the relative powerlessness of the striving have-nots.

Close readers will not fail to spot the vast gulf that separates the chapters and characters largely written in Mark Twain's supple, supernaturally observant, colorful prose from those of co-author Charles Dudley Warner’s generally leaden ponderousness. Some will find Warner's writing is something of a downside. Others will be annoyed by the lengthy forays into political and financial details that slow down the narrative pace (asides that I found useful touches that added veracity to the narrative..."these guys seem to know what they're talking about").

The edition I read, published in 1964 by the Trident Press and now out of print, contains an unusually helpful introduction by Mark Twain biographer and scholar Justin Kaplan, who lays out the factual basis that justifies the novel's subtitle, "A Tale of Today." The main characters, all their intrigues and scheming on behalf of the motivating spirit of the age - an insatiable longing for great personal wealth - are closely based on real people from Sam Clemen’s past and on actual events that newspaper readers of the 1870s would have recognized. In this, Twain and Warner were pioneers in producing an early American realist novel, albeit one that alternated between comic satire and raw disgust. It remains a useful document of the era and a testimony to the adage that "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

A pleasant surprise for those who enjoy audio books, both as stand-alone “listens” or in conjunction with the printed text, is the Blackstone audio production, which features the the sparkling polyglotic narration by Bronson Pinchot - yes, THAT Bronson Pinchot (the “Balki” of the late ‘80s-early ‘90s sitcom Perfect Strangers)- who in my hearing hits precisely the right notes for some of Twain's most memorably Dickensian characters – the huckster Colonel Sellers, a complex, ambitious Laura Hawkins, the oleaginous Senator Dilsworthy, and more. Simply brilliant voice-acting.

[Mark Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Gilded Age lent its name to the period of U.S. History from Grant's presidencies through the turn of the century. I read this book through the lens of "been there, done that" during the web-boom of the late 90s, early oughts.

All of the usual suspects are there: smooth talking confidence artists running scams proposed as "market speculations" in the parlance of the times, corrupt Congresscritters, the vulture capitalists of Wall Street (and Sand Hill Road), and the shifty dealers who paddle in the wake of such men.

There's only a handful of honest, diligent characters in the whole book and one right at the end who has a final epiphany about how if he'd just spent his life trying to pursue and honest living, he'd at least have something to show for it instead of a trail of misery and woe -- all told with a charming - and to be frank sometimes tiresome - 19th century melodrama, especially concerning the heart and nature of women.

As a historical document and portrait of the times it's wholly accurate and believable. The authors take pains to tell the reader that "this is not fiction, but a history."

I couldn't help but see the parallels between Mr. Bolton and Samuel Clemens. (Bolton is an extremely charitable man who constantly lends his money and his good name to scoundrels until it ruins him and his family financially.) Like Bolton, Clemens constantly engaged himself in various "get-rich-quick" schemes, and was forced several times to hit the lecture circuit and live abroad to escape from his creditors' demands.

I would love to read an updated version of this narrative. I can picture it now: a family from Kansas, university educated children, one working a menial job, the other with big ambitions to strike it rich in the new Silicon Valley goldfields of the end of the 20th century, one of the central female characters of the book ends of murdering a jilted lover of some prominence, is acquitted and instead of going on a lecture tour as in the Gilded Age, becomes a reality TV star and ends up with a daytime talk show.

[Karen Adkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm endlessly fascinated by the nineteenth century and love a good satire, so I was pretty excited to come across this novel lampooning the post-Civil War age of grift and speculation in the US. While it is occasionally spectacular and made me laugh out loud, it's also pretty uneven. That might be because it is co-authored, but I suspect it has more to do with the vast number of characters and locations covered--too many characters are mere types, and too few get fully fleshed out. It appears from the footnotes that it was quite directly tied to real people and scandals from the 1870s, which I think is part of the problem. While some of the prose and biting commentary feels completely pertinent to our world, other parts read like inside talk or a blind items gossip column.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books needs a good editor. There are elements of a good story here and the commentary on the politics of the time are somewhat enlightening, but Twain and his co-writer go off on tangents that neither progress the plot nor are very interesting. If you are a big Twain fan then by all means give it a shot; otherwise, you are in for a bit of a slog.

[Sean Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s good. It’s like, don’t count on speculating. Do a thing. As true today as it was then.


—-


The great American speculators. From mines to railroads to NFTs.

Read this in preparation for the upcoming Mark Twain biography by Ron Chernow

The Gilded Age is named after this book, iconic

Knowing so much about the Civil War, I’m curious about the Gilded Age, the time right after

——

Do hard work! Forget about Tennessee Land!

—-

“I believe it. General Boswell is pretty nearly a poor man, now. The railroad that was going to build up Hawkeye made short work of him, along with the rest. He isn’t so opposed to a son-in-law without a fortune, now.”

“Without a fortune, indeed! Why that Tennessee Land—”

“Never mind the Tennessee Land, Colonel. I am done with that, forever and forever—”

“Why no! You can’t mean to say—”

“My father, away back yonder, years ago, bought it for a blessing for his children, and—”

“Indeed he did! Si Hawkins said to me—”

“It proved a curse to him as long as he lived, and never a curse like it was inflicted upon any man’s heirs—”

“I’m bound to say there’s more or less truth—”

“It began to curse me when I was a baby, and it has cursed every hour of my life to this day—”

“Lord, lord, but it’s so! Time and again my wife—”

“I depended on it all through my boyhood and never tried to do an honest stroke of work for my living—”

“Right again—but then you—”

“I have chased it years and years as children chase butterflies. We might all have been prosperous, now; we might all have been happy, all these heart-breaking years, if we had accepted our poverty at first and gone contentedly to work and built up our own wealth by our own toil and sweat—”

“It’s so, it’s so; bless my soul, how often I’ve told Si Hawkins—”

“Instead of that, we have suffered more than the damned themselves suffer! I loved my father, and I honor his memory and recognize his good intentions; but I grieve for his mistaken ideas of conferring happiness upon his children. I am going to begin my life over again, and begin it and end it with good solid work! I’ll leave my children no Tennessee Land!”

[John Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The “gilded age” was a period beginning in the 1870s characterized by substantial industrial growth which created wealth for some entrepreneurs, some of whom derived their wealth by exploiting politicians (most of whom also got richer). Also some speculators - with minimal amounts of skill or energy – attempted to acquire fortunes by manipulating politicians or taking other shortcuts.

This novel, written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in 1873, provides excellent political and social commentary of the Gilded Age and much of the commentary about a corrupt, inefficient government still seems applicable today. The authors used Samuel C Pomeroy (senator from Kansas 1863 – 1873, president of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad 1863 – 1868 [apparent conflict of interest], and implicated in an 1867 bribery scandal) as the model for his fictional Senator Dilworthy. The book also includes some comments about feminism and the struggle for gender equality that seem ahead of their time.

The plot starts about 5 or ten years before the Civil War and concludes about ten years after the end of the war. The authors acknowledge the significance of the Civil War and the transforming years of 1860 through 1868 but move the plot quickly through this period with only a few of the book’s events occurring during these years. The authors include some noteworthy humor, such as a Mississippi steamboat sliding into "M-a-r-k twain” territory in Chapter 4 and an unusual twist in Chapter 58, that will amuse most readers.

[Katherine Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to keep in mind the whole time: “this was satire when it was written. This was satire when it was written. SATIRE.” Because golly.

I am wholly ignoring the parts not written by Twain (trust me it’s obvious) ((seriously, SO obvious)) and instead focusing on the strength of his argument against {buzz word}… corruption. Some pieces of this felt so modern it was unbelievable. Ah life in a gilded age - we wouldn’t know anything about that… would we?

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Twain's only collaborative novel written with C.D. Warner published in 1873. This book gave the name to the era in which it was written from about 1870 to 1900. It became synonomous with materialism, corruption, and graft in public life and particularly in Washington.
Not Twain's best novel but good novel nonetheless.

[Brian Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why this is one of the lower rated Twain books, but Col. Sellers has to be one of his most memorable, tragically comic characters. Enjoyed seeing how it was inspired by events from Twain’s life.

[Laura K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read Twain’s The Gilded Age for its claim of naming an era (and I enjoy Twain), but I didn’t realize it was co-authored or that Warner was against women’s rights. So, there’s that to suffer through.
The story is disjointed, and the characters lack depth. The authors were more concerned with skewering society with moralistic satire than the plot or the characters or pacing or storyline or basically anything else, which makes it come off as smug in quite a few places.
While there are glimmers of Twain’s humor, I can’t recommend it.
I did learn, however, that Mark Twain, as a pseudonym, is a steamboat reference. I also learned the source of our current meaning of “shoddy” in the essay following the novel.

[Amy]

RTC

[Przemo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is hard to imagine that a political story could provide so many laugh-out-loud moments. Having just completed this book, I now cannot imagine anyone who has despised Washington and its politicians more than Mark Twain! His descriptions of the corruption were hysterical (to me) in their full-frontal assault! Based on his opinion, it is difficult to imagine that he was not thrown out of the country … by the politicians that he so thoroughly lambasted! Too funny!

Of course, there were other dishonorable characters besides the politicians—some who were likeable and some who were not. It seemed to me that the only truly honorable people (other than Philip and Clay) were the quiet mothers who stayed home and managed to make things work in spite of the irresponsible efforts of their men. It was also very interesting—especially in light of today’s sense of entitlement by our young folks—that this is apparently not a new concept, but rather a concept of a bygone era simply come to the forefront again. The young men of this story thought it best to “speculate” in order to gain wealth and reputation, rather than simply “work” in an honest profession.

Overall, there were times when I was simply tired of reading this endlessly negative story, but stayed with it to reach the final outcome (I just cannot give up on a book). Fortunately, there was enough time spent with the good characters to carry me through, and the various stories about the politicians were definitely good for a continuous laugh. The language / prose / descriptions / diction made it all worthwhile. What an extraordinary gift for turning a magical phrase! For that alone, it was more than worth the time!

EXCERPT:
{Travelling on the Mississippi on a small steamboat} But of course familiarity with these things soon took away their terrors, and then the voyage at once became a glorious adventure, a royal progress through the very heart and home of romance, a realization of their rosiest wonder-dreams. They sat by the hour in the shade of the pilot house on the hurricane deck and looked out over the curving expanses of the river sparkling in the sunlight. Sometimes the boat fought the midstream current, with a verdant world on either hand, and remote from both; sometimes she closed in under a point, where the dead water and the helping eddies were, and shaved the bank so closely that the decks were swept by the jungle of over-hanging willows and littered with a spoil of leaves; departing from these "points" she regularly crossed the river every five miles, avoiding the "bight" of the great binds and thus escaping the strong current; sometimes she went out and skirted a high "bluff" sand-bar in the middle of the stream, and occasionally followed it up a little too far and touched upon the shoal water at its head--and then the intelligent craft refused to run herself aground, but "smelt" the bar, and straightway the foamy streak that streamed away from her bows vanished, a great foamless wave rolled forward and passed her under way, and in this instant she leaned far over on her side, shied from the bar and fled square away from the danger like a frightened thing--and the pilot was lucky if he managed to "straighten her up" before she drove her nose into the opposite bank; sometimes she approached a solid wall of tall trees as if she meant to break through it, but all of a sudden a little crack would open just enough to admit her, and away she would go plowing through the "chute" with just barely room enough between the island on one side and the main land on the other; in this sluggish water she seemed to go like a racehorse; now and then log cabins appeared in little clearings, with the never-failing frowsy women and girls in soiled and faded linsey-woolsey leaning in the doors or against woodpiles and rail fences, gazing sleepily at the passing show; sometimes she found shoal water, going out at the head of those "chutes" or crossing the river, and then a deck-hand stood on the bow and hove the lead, while the boat slowed down and moved cautiously; sometimes she stopped a moment at a landing and took on some freight or a passenger while a crowd of slouchy white men and negroes stood on the bank and looked sleepily on with their hands in their pantaloons pockets,--of course--for they never took them out except to stretch, and when they did this they squirmed about and reached their fists up into the air and lifted themselves on tip-toe in an ecstasy of enjoyment.
Twain, Mark (2009-06-30). Classic American Literature: The Works of Mark Twain, 24 books in a single file, improved 6/1/2011 (Kindle Locations 597-603). B&R Samizdat Express. Kindle Edition.

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[Marty Reeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this my year of Mark Twain, I am starting to work down the line into books of his that are less-well-known, and The Gilded Age definitely fits that bill. It is most well known for its coining of a phrase that would mark an historical era, but if you would’ve asked me (or any American history teacher who uses the phrase multiple times each year) what the story was behind the title, I would’ve either shrugged or made up a convincing lie (you shouldn’t have asked me and put me in the position to lie in the first place! Why did you do that?!).

While at my mom’s house, having a typical desperately-vying-for-attention-conversation with my siblings, I saw The Gilded Age sitting in my mom’s bookshelf and remembered seeing the title growing up as a kid. I started reading it there (thus ceding attention to a less-worthy sister/brother), and I was immediately immersed in the story. I knew that The Gilded Age was going to be next in my Twain targets.

Besides the surprise of being immediately drawn in by the story, I was also surprised that this story was co-authored. Poor Charles Dudley Warner is completely ignored by most references to this title, yet the guy wrote at least half of the (many) words. Apparently he and Twain were neighbors and decided to have a go at writing a novel together, the first fiction novel either of them would write. Team writing a first novel does not bode well and I think even the best of authors nowadays would struggle under those circumstances. How did these boys do? Yeah, it was a bumpy and kind of raw ride, but both are talented and the story is worthwhile, unique, and--most importantly--eminently applicable.

I was amazed by the scope with which they addressed their theme: the Gilded Age. Financial speculation, mining, real estate, railroad, inheritance, politics, corruption, literature, relationships, celebrity, law, media, medical (bordering, almost prophetically, on a commentary of social media-like of the fury of impassioned, fickle, and ignorant public opinion)--all of these are inspected and analyzed with the gilded perspective of opting for the easy, deceptive, hyper-emotional, attention-seeking route instead of the simple, hard-working, humble method. It’s all there. What’s more, even though the subtitle of The Gilded Age is A Tale of Today, I honestly cannot think of a more appropriate satire of today’s society than Twain and Warner’s 1873 story. Replace some of the nineteenth century topics with relevant twenty-first century ones, and then keep the rest the same (especially politics and corruption, celebrity, law, and media) and you have the perfect twenty-first century allegory.

How do they introduce and explore these complicated issues? Through the story of the Hawkins family and a tract of land that they hope to get a lot of money out of some day. The fate of Squire Hawkins’s children and how this ephemeral hope for easy wealth affects their livelihood, life choices, and ultimate happiness is informative as it is engaging. Secondarily, it follows two young men seeking their fortunes as they leave school and embark on careers and romance. These two storylines inevitably interact and co-mingle in anticipated and sometimes unexpected ways, and ultimately Warner and Twain create characters to care about, empathize with, and root for … as well as ones to laugh at, despise, and disdain.

The storyline jerks around at times and some ideas are not completely developed. Some adventures drag on while others feel short changed (one forgivable loose end is hilariously addressed in an afterword that smacks of pure Mark Twain blitheness). There is definitely a feel of some rookie rockiness to this whole story, but it’s an ambitious project from a first-time writing team and if it falls short, it’s only after exceeding expectations in the first place.

One fun exercise for book-nerd me was to try to guess which chapters were written by which authors. They both took two big chunks to start off the story with and I was smugly pleased with myself when I correctly identified the first transition. Then they go back and forth in small spurts, then it comes down to different parts of the same chapter. I was pretty spot on at first, then pretty confident later on, and then … I had suspicions but wasn’t absolutely sure, then I’d pick up some hints and finally I’d forget and just enjoy the story.

Overall my recommendation is to read The Gilded Age because it truly is a Tale of Today.

[Jackie Gill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I RARELY give up on a book or movie. Once I start, no matter how terrible, I like to finish. HOWEVER, every now and then a special work comes along that puts up a fight so strong, that I even back down. I began reading The Gilded Age, liked it, continued, and hated it. I Continued and liked it again. I Continued and realized I had no idea what I had just been reading. And so on...

At some point along the way, I decided to read up on this book. I wanted to figure out what it was supposed to be about and the messages I was supposed to be getting, because it certainly wasn't enlightening me about the Gilded Age. I wanted to see why it seemed to flow and hold my attention and then I'd get to a point where I was lost reading coma inducing drivel. I had a sincere interest in the Gilded Age, a period of time named as such because of this book. A period of time that is said to be quite similar to our current time of political insanity, extreme greed, and the huge divide between the haves and have nots. I have read quite a bit by Twain and I usually enjoy his works. The reader gets a good feel for the time period and Twain injects a lot of humor. This work, however, was lacking and disjointed.

This novel was the only work for which Twain had a co-author. Based on the result, I think this was best. At the time, the novel was not well-received because readers experienced much of what I did, it flowed, it hiccuped... Twain and Charles Warner worked out their co-authorship by dividing up chapters and stories. The novel was then pieced together by alternating chapters of each authors work. Needless to say, this did not work well, this did not flow, it was very off-putting, and, in my opinion, this created a mix of talented work pushed up against sub-par work. I am not familiar with Warner's work, but, what I read of it in this piece was ENOUGH.

When I began reading, I had no idea that The Guided Age was a collaboration (my Kindle copy only shows Twain on the cover), I only knew some parts flowed and then the brakes were thrown on. After reading who authored which parts, as I could have predicted, Twain's flowed and Warner's were the pages that should have been tossed down the memory hole and incinerated. The end of the book is supposed to be a true collaboration for which the authors sat down together and wrote. I did not make it there. Maybe one day, after I've read every book in the world I want to read, I will pick this one up again. Until then, I will just have to settle for historical accounts of the Gilded Age and commend Twain for never co-authoring a book again.

[Tam May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession time - I am not a big fan of Twain's more famous works. I just could never get into them. I tried rereading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn recently and quit at the point where a bunch of teenage boys were agreeing to kill women and children because they wanted to become pirate and "that's what pirates do". Twain's brand of humor is sometimes absurdist, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but often times very vicious and nasty (for some real-life examples of this, see The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature).

But I picked up this book because I'm writing fiction set in the Gilded Age and figured it was worth reading The Book That Started It All (i.e., the book that coined the term in the first place). I actually really enjoyed it. Claims that this book goes off on tangents and sometimes gets rambling are true but it's a surprisingly refreshing read with Twain writing about adult and political themes which is a switch from his better-known works. The humor is mostly spot-on, though, and it's easy to see why Twain's book is a prototype of the follies and foils of the Gilded Age. One thing I object to is comparing Colonel Sellers to Dickens' Micawber in David Copperfield. Micawber was a little pathetic but overall a good soul. Sellers is an out-and-out con artist - no comparison.