The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

Summary

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, published in 1873, was written jointly by Mark Twain and his Hartford neighbor Charles Dudley Warner, and its title gave a name to the whole era of American history after the Civil War. The story begins in Tennessee, where Squire Si Hawkins owns seventy-five thousand acres of land that he believes will one day make his family rich. He moves his family to Missouri, adopting two orphans, Clay and Laura, the latter rescued from a steamboat explosion. Hawkins is encouraged by his visionary friend Colonel Beriah Sellers, a lovable, penniless dreamer who always sees millions in some new scheme. The Tennessee land becomes the family's curse, keeping them waiting for wealth instead of working. Laura grows into a beautiful, clever woman. Seduced and abandoned by Colonel George Selby, a married Confederate officer, she goes to Washington as a lobbyist, using her charm to win votes for a bill by which the government would buy the Tennessee land for a university for freed slaves, promoted by the corrupt Senator Abner Dilworthy. A second plot follows two young Easterners, Philip Sterling and Harry Brierly, who go west to make their fortunes in railroad schemes; Philip falls in love with Ruth Bolton, a Quaker girl who studies medicine, and eventually finds coal through hard work. Laura shoots Selby in a New York hotel and is tried for murder; the trial is a farce, and she is acquitted on grounds of insanity. The land bill fails when Dilworthy's bribery is exposed, but he escapes punishment, and Laura, abandoned by her supporters, dies alone. The novel satirizes speculation, political corruption, lobbying, journalism and the courts in Washington, though its plot is uneven because of the two authors' different styles. Students can read it alongside the history of the post-war decades to see how the satire matches real scandals of the time.

Top Lessons

• Speculation

  The Tennessee land ruins the Hawkins family by encouraging dreams instead of work.

• Corruption

  Twain and Warner satirize Congress and lobbying.

• Justice

  Laura's trial exposes a flawed legal system.

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