The Gilded Age [with Biographical Introduction]
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Review
The Gilded Age, says Justin D. Kaplan in his covering introduction, its "the most savage satire on democracy that American literature has to offer." Published in 1873, it was Mark Twain's first assay at sustained fiction, written in collaboration with Hartford newspaperman and essayist Charles Dudley Warner. This new edition is set from the original corrected second printing of the first edition. Of interest as germinal Twain and Americana. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America - an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peace-time optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naivete of their own time in a work which endures as a valuable social document and one of America's most important satirical novels.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book gives a fascinating insight into the development US politics. And while much has obviously changed since it was published in 1873, echoes of its themes can be found in the recent cases of Ted Stevens and Rod Blagojevich.
Its depiction of negative attitudes towards `lobbyists', while the whole town of Washington DC is engaged in this activity in one way or another, could also stand today.
But where it's really on the money is in the descriptions of the world of speculation. These could have been written about the banking crisis that is still hitting many people right now:
"She was nothing but a woman, and 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 as soon as the busy brain that caused them ceases its power to devise, or when some accident produces a sudden panic."
NB The reference to a lack of female understanding is ironic. The women in this novel are generally more sensible and powerful than their male counterparts who are the ones cooking up grand speculative schemes.
Its depiction of negative attitudes towards `lobbyists', while the whole town of Washington DC is engaged in this activity in one way or another, could also stand today.
But where it's really on the money is in the descriptions of the world of speculation. These could have been written about the banking crisis that is still hitting many people right now:
"She was nothing but a woman, and 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 as soon as the busy brain that caused them ceases its power to devise, or when some accident produces a sudden panic."
NB The reference to a lack of female understanding is ironic. The women in this novel are generally more sensible and powerful than their male counterparts who are the ones cooking up grand speculative schemes.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
An excellent read.
8 Feb 2001
Format:Paperback
This book, written by Twain and Warner, pokes fun at American society during what they called "the guilded age". This term has stuck and is often used by historians to describe the period 1877-1914. Twain and Warner see this time as one where men care only for money. These men will not work hard, but merely scheme and plot in order to strike it rich. The dialogue in the book is very snappy, the best being when Laura Hawkins arrives in Washington, DC and meets with the other high society ladies. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in United States History, or just those who want to read a good novel. The book can drag at times, but overall is very engrossing.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Greed
17 Feb 2004
Format:Paperback
The post-Civil War years were a time of rapid industrialization in America, aided and abetted by burgeoning plans to build a transcontinental railroad. Many people saw an opportunity to get a piece of the action, to speculate with family savings, the little that there were, in hopes of making millions of dollars in return. Investing in coal mining was one example. It is against this background that _The Gilded Age_ takes place.
Many in Congress saw an opportunity to support various projects that were supposedly for the public good, e.g. building a university for the newly freed slaves upon land, located in Tenneesee, bequeathed by a family patriarch to his children. These schemes were also meant to line many people's pockets. The novel's Senator Dilworthy supports various liberal causes and "family values," i.e. Sunday school education, but is also thoroughly corrupt.
_The Gilded Age_ is meant to be a morality tale where everyone receives his just deserts: the evil or those just plain greedy are punished, including a vengence seeking young woman deeply wronged by her married lover, and the good and the conscientious are rewarded. While the book occasionally gets bogged down in the scandalous details of this young woman's love life, _The Gilded Age_ is often an interesting, lively and educational glance into the manners of 1870s America.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
those complaining about this edition are reviewing the wrong book
28 Aug 2011
Format:Paperback
Several people here are saying this is just a scanned copy of the book and that it contains only
30-some of what should be 63 chapters. That's not the case with this edition of the book, the Penguin Classics
edition. Apparently they're talking about this edition: The Gilded Age which is a scanned, print
on demand photocopy.
You can use the "look inside this book" feature to see that all 63 chapters are here. Anyone familiar with the Penguin
Classics series knows that they are not scanned photocopies, filled with typos, or missing significant sections of the book.
Just thought I'd let you know that you can disregard the "don't buy this edition!" posts here, because this is not the edition they're actually talking about.
30-some of what should be 63 chapters. That's not the case with this edition of the book, the Penguin Classics
edition. Apparently they're talking about this edition: The Gilded Age which is a scanned, print
on demand photocopy.
You can use the "look inside this book" feature to see that all 63 chapters are here. Anyone familiar with the Penguin
Classics series knows that they are not scanned photocopies, filled with typos, or missing significant sections of the book.
Just thought I'd let you know that you can disregard the "don't buy this edition!" posts here, because this is not the edition they're actually talking about.
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