Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Signet Classics (1969), Paperback, 454 pages
Description
Fiction. Historical Fiction. Humor (Fiction.) HTML: 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
Media reviews
The New Yorker
It is extraordinary and intriguing. This is the first Twain novel that I have not eagerly anticipated reading with delight. https://snowrider3d.co
User reviews
LibraryThing member gmicksmith
This may not be considered Twain's best, although I hope the political correctness crowd does not tamper with it as well, it is an entertaining and easy read. The subtitle seems to be the real import of the novel, a tale of today. Twain pokes fun at social mores such as the expected role of women
Show More
and he knocks the inept and corrupt Congress for its short comings. Show Less
LibraryThing member ccookie
Well, I have to say, I understand that this is not one of Mark Twain's best so I may try another later on. I found it tedious and boring at times. But I got through it. Perhaps if you read it when it was written, the social commentary would have been more significant.
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
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
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.
Show More
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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kerns222
Want to see politicians stealing? Businessmen hustling bad debt? Bankruptcies galore? Twain lived this in the Gilded Age (NOT the golden--only had the sham of glitter). Remind you of today?
The poor had their eyes lit from above (from the tall mansions), trying to make it with one big deal. The rich
Finally--the book is more narrative than bite, but a good, old-time-scoundrel read.
The poor had their eyes lit from above (from the tall mansions), trying to make it with one big deal. The rich
Show More
wereraking it in. The cash cow government lead the country into a new technological age (Railroads), lining politcos pockets. Speculators drove at full speed before any tracks were laid. Note: The only decent people in Twain are women, but only a few qualify. Men are all brick-head ignorant and far beyond hope. Finally--the book is more narrative than bite, but a good, old-time-scoundrel read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
A very curious novel. Although it is quite aged, it is still a worthwhile one that entails a mighty adventure through various states, situations, and circumstances. I was quite thrilled by certain passages and the train of events was constructed with ardent structure and precision. For those
3 stars.
Show More
interested in Mark Twain or American literature, this is one you should read.3 stars.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
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
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 More
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 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
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1873
Physical description
454 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0451504593 / 9780451504593