The Gilded Age

Mark Twain’s first novel, The Gilded Age, written in 1873 with Charles Dudley Warner, is a satire on greed and rapacity during the early years of the Grant administration. The heart of the novel is the description of life in the nation’s capital and the machinations of the political elite and lobbyists. The climax of the story is a dramatic murder trial followed by a Senate investigation. The descriptions of how to gain political influence and the cult of celebrity are as timely now as they were when the novel was written.