The Gilded Age
by Mark Twain 
, Charles Dudley Warner
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The only book that Mark Twain ever wrote in collaboration with another author, The Gilded Age is a novel that viciously and hilariously satirizes the greed, materialism, and corruption that characterized much of upper-class America in the nineteenth century. The title term—inspired by a line in Shakespeare's King John—has become synonymous with the excess of the era..
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By 1873, Mark Twain and his Hartford neighbour Charles Dudley Warner were both quite well-known as travel-writers and essayists, but neither had tried his hand at a full-scale novel. Their collaboration on this one is said to have come about through a challenge from their respective wives during a dinner party discussion of the failings of current fiction ("Well, you should write a better one, then..."). They seem to have worked fairly briskly and without much planning, passing the manuscript back and forth between them as each finished a section. At first, it's pretty easy to see who wrote what, with Twain's story focusing on the impoverished family of "Judge" Hawkins migrating from Kentucky to Missouri and getting enmeshed in dubious show more land deals, whilst Warner's equally autobiographical plot deals with two young men from Yale knocking about New York in search of a worthwhile career. But the two storylines soon get firmly entangled with each other, and we get into a fast-moving satire of the political and financial sleaze of the Grant administration, with a cast of Washington lobbyists, crooked politicians, railroad promoters, and duped investors. Rather like The way we live now, but much, much sleazier. In the foreground are the irrepressible Colonel Sellers, a man who seems quite genuinely to believe in every one of the crooked schemes he is canvassing support for, and the glamorous Miss Laura Hawkins, a lobbyist who can twist any man in Washington around her little finger.
Some of the finance is a bit too complex, and the humour a little too obvious, perhaps, and the structure of the novel shows evidence of its unplanned nature, with all sorts of interesting plot lines running off into the sand and being forgotten about (Twain actually prints an apology in the end of the book for their not having managed to track down Laura's father, despite their best efforts...). But it's a lively, fast romp with some good memorable characters, and it has a serious point: Twain keeps reminding us that the reason crooked politicians exist is that citizens are too prepared to leave politics to other people.
Apart from its standing as the first major work of fiction Twain worked on, the book is also famous for the slightly sophomoric running joke of the chapter epigraphs, which are taken, untranslated, from no fewer than 47 foreign languages (including Amharic, Cornish, Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and numerous Native American languages), mocking the pretentious way many novels of the time used Latin and Greek epigraphs. They were provided by another Hartford neighbour, the scholar J. Hammond Trumbull. Disappointingly, it turns out that quite a few of them were taken from Bible translations into the languages in question, which seems rather a cheat, but they are all wittily relevant to the content of the chapters they head. show less
Some of the finance is a bit too complex, and the humour a little too obvious, perhaps, and the structure of the novel shows evidence of its unplanned nature, with all sorts of interesting plot lines running off into the sand and being forgotten about (Twain actually prints an apology in the end of the book for their not having managed to track down Laura's father, despite their best efforts...). But it's a lively, fast romp with some good memorable characters, and it has a serious point: Twain keeps reminding us that the reason crooked politicians exist is that citizens are too prepared to leave politics to other people.
Apart from its standing as the first major work of fiction Twain worked on, the book is also famous for the slightly sophomoric running joke of the chapter epigraphs, which are taken, untranslated, from no fewer than 47 foreign languages (including Amharic, Cornish, Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and numerous Native American languages), mocking the pretentious way many novels of the time used Latin and Greek epigraphs. They were provided by another Hartford neighbour, the scholar J. Hammond Trumbull. Disappointingly, it turns out that quite a few of them were taken from Bible translations into the languages in question, which seems rather a cheat, but they are all wittily relevant to the content of the chapters they head. show less
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.
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.
Re-read this one after many years. I remember really liking the biting and only somewhat satirical descriptions of the dysfunctional American congress at work, but it took a long long time to get to that part through all of the various failed get-rich-quick schemes of the Hawkins family and their friends. The fact that this book was co-written did not work in its favor. You can almost tell which parts were written by Twain from the humor alone, but Charles Dudley Warner wasn't quite the comic writer that Twain is and the novel often gets bogged down. It's a shame that this is so uneven because when it shines, it shines brightly.
Despite the dated language and caricatures, the subtitle "a Tale of Today" still seems true. Greed and avarice still abound (Wolf of Wall Street, anyone?). What little actual legislating that occurs in congress is done with much back room dealing and there are undoubtedly members whose votes are for sale in some fashion. So the mid-nineteenth century doesn't differ much from the early twenty-first. That's the shame of it.
Makes me wonder what sort of tale Twain might spin if he were alive today.
Makes me wonder what sort of tale Twain might spin if he were alive today.
This book was certainly not my favorite Mark Twain writing. In fact, I found the writing choppy and the characters either lifeless or caricatures. Perhaps the disjointed nature of the book is due to it being the product of two writers. It was not cohesive, and the women characters were terribly flat. However, the story provided a glimpse of the boom-or-bust speculative character of the late 19th century and a strong indication of the hypocrisy and corruption (graft, bribery) in the upper echelons of power in Congress, and the get-rich-quick schemes of speculators, gilded over by glittering industrial and economic growth for the haves, but not so much for the have nots. It was a time when the nation was rebuilding itself following the show more devastating Civil War, and wherever sums of money were being thrown around, you can be sure greed and corruption followed. One would have to understand that Twain was first and foremost a satirist, so a lot of what seems like praise is criticism. However, this novel dragged a lot and the narrative and structure hardly measure up to the Twain I know. Sadly, its depiction of political corruption and massive greed in the late 19th century is just as familiar as in the early 21st century. show less
A comic tale of land speculation and greed that is depressingly familiar. "A Novel of Today" indeed. Although this was written in the early ages of the 'Gilded Age' to which it would give its name, before the rise of the great industrial conglomerates and wars of conquest and imperialism, it does reveal the current spirit of corruption and greed.
This is Twain's only collaborative novel, and despite the possible hazards thereof, is actually pretty good. It is fairly obvious when the other guy takes over. He's not bad, and is even witty - but few compare to the great Master Twain. The scenes on the riverboat and in Congress shine, and are almost at the level of Twain's best stuff.
This is Twain's only collaborative novel, and despite the possible hazards thereof, is actually pretty good. It is fairly obvious when the other guy takes over. He's not bad, and is even witty - but few compare to the great Master Twain. The scenes on the riverboat and in Congress shine, and are almost at the level of Twain's best stuff.
This sat on my shelf for ages while I was convinced it was non-fiction. It turns out to be a novel, co-written by Twain and Warner. It seems they each wrote whole chapters and the ones by Twain seem to stick out for me, the acerbic wit and satire. On the whole, the satire is the best of it, the plot line gets a bit crazy and there seems to be a cast of thousands. I started reading it during my long wait for jury duty and then it languished a bit so it's hard to say if it was my interest in the story or just events. The politics and crazy land speculation had a familar ring to these days (that was what drove me to read it) Are we living in a new Gilded Age? Just perhaps. And less and less of us are even mildly gilded.
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It is extraordinary and intriguing. This is the first Twain novel that I have not eagerly anticipated reading with delight. https://snowrider3d.co
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Author Information
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Mark Twain was born Samuel L. Clemens in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He worked as a printer, and then became a steamboat pilot. He traveled throughout the West, writing humorous sketches for newspapers. In 1865, he wrote the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which was very well received. He then began a show more career as a humorous travel writer and lecturer, publishing The Innocents Abroad in 1869, Roughing It in 1872, and, Gilded Age in 1873, which was co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner. His best-known works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mississippi Writing: Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Mark Twain has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
123+ Works 1,931 Members
Charles Dudley Warner was born in Massachusetts in 1829. After practicing law in Chicago, he moved to Connecticut and became an associate editor and publisher of The Hartford Courant. In addition to writing travel essays for the Courant and for Harper's magazine, as well as several novels, he collaborated with Mark Twain on The Gilded Age. He died show more in 1900 show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today; The Gilded Age
- Original title
- The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today
- Original publication date
- 1873
- People/Characters
- Colonel Sellers; Laura Hawkins; Senator Dilworthy; Washington Hawkins; Ruth Bolton; Philipp Sterling
- Important places
- Washington, D.C., USA; New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- Gilded Age (1865 | 1901)
- Epigraph
- —Seventhly, Before his Voyage, He should make his peace with God, satisfie his Creditors if he be in debt; Pray earnestly to God to prosper him in his Voyage, and to keep him from danger, and, if he be sui juris, he ... (show all)should make his last will, and wisely order all his affairs, since many that go far abroad, return not home. (This good and Christian Counsel is given by Martinus Zeilerus in his Apodemical Canons before his Itinerary of Spain and Portugal.)
Leigh's Diatribe of Travel, p. 7.
Via, Pecunia! when she's run and gone
And fled, and dead, then will I fetch her again
With aqua vitӕ, out of an old hogshead!
While there are lees of wine, or dregs of beer,
I'll never want her! Coin her o... (show all)ut of cobwebs,
Dust, but I'll have her! raise wool upon egg-shells,
Sir, and make grass grow out of marrow-bones,
To make her come!
Ben Jonson.
—Whan þe borde is thynne, as of seruyse,
Nought replenesshed with grete diuersite
Of mete & drinke, good chere may then suffise
With honest talkyng—
&... (show all)nbsp; The Book of Curtesye.
Mammon. Come on, sir. Now, you set your foot on shore
In Novo Orbe; here's the rich Peru:
And there, within, sir, are the golden mines,
Great Solomon's Ophir!—
Ben Jonson. The Alchemist.
What ever to say he toke in his entente,
his langage was so fayer & pertynante,
yt semeth vnto manys herying
not only the worde, but veryly the thyng.
Caxton'... (show all)s Book of Curtesye, l. 340--343 (ed., E. E. Text Society).
—“We have view'd it,
And measur'd it within all, by the scale:
The richest tract of land, love, in the kingdom!
There will be made seventeen or eighteen millions,
Or more, as't may be handled!
&... (show all)nbsp; Ben Jonson. The Devil is an Ass.
Unusquisque sua noverit ire via.—
Propert. Eleg. ii. 25.
O lift your natures up:
Embrace our aims: work out your freedom. Girls,
Kno... (show all)wledge is now no more a fountain sealed;
Drink deep until the habits of the slave,
The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite
And slander, die.
The Princess.
“O see ye not yon narrow road
So thick beset wi' thorns and briers?
That is the Path of Righteousness,
Though after it but few inquires.
“And see ye not yon braid, braid road,
That lies across the lily leve... (show all)n?
That is the Path of Wickedness,
Though some call it the road to Heaven.”
Thomas the Rhymer.
Now this surprising news scaus'd her fall in a trance,
Like as she were dead, no limbs she could advance,
Then her dear brother came, her from the ground he took
And she spake up and said, O my poor heart is broke.
Open your ears; for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing, when loud Rumor speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth... (show all):
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
King Henry IV.
Subtle. Would I were hang'd then! I'll conform myself.
Dol. Will you, sir? Do so then, and quickly: swear.
Sub. What should I swear?
Dol. To lea... (show all)ve your faction, sir,
And labour kindly in the common work.
Ben Jonson. The Alchemist.
Eku edue mfine, mfine ata eku: miduehe mfine, mfine itaha.
—In our werking, nothing us availle;
For lost is all our labour and travaille,
And all the cost a twenty devil way
Is lost also, which we upon it lay.
Chaucer.<... (show all)/i>
He moonihoawa ka aie.
Hawaiian Proverb.
—He seekes, of all his drifte the aymed end:
Thereto his subtile engins he does bend,
His practick witt and his fayre fylèd tongue,
With thousand other sleightes; for well he kend
His credit now in doubtful bal... (show all)launce hong:
For hardly could bee hurt, who was already stong.
Faerie Queene.
Selon divers besoins, il est une science
D'étendre les liens de notre conscience,
Et de rectifier le al de l'action
Avec la pureté de notre intention.
Le Tartuffe. a. 4, sc. 5. - First words
- This book was not written for private circulation among friends; it was not written to cheer and instruct a diseased relative of the author's; it was not thrown off during intervals of wearing labor to amuse an idle hour. It ... (show all)was not written for any of these reasons, and therefore it is submitted without the usual apologies.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Perhaps some apology to the reader is necessary in view of our failure to
find Laura's father. We supposed, from the ease with which lost persons
are found in novels, that it would not be difficult. But it was; indeed,
it was impossible; and therefore the portions of the narrative containing
the record of the search have been stricken out. Not because they were
not interesting--for they were; but inasmuch as the man was not found,
after all, it did not seem wise to harass and excite the reader to no
purpose.
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