Description
While Mark Twain has some considerably better known novels, his co-authored book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today is seen as a classic example of a satirical work about society flaws where most – if not all -the content is still pertinent today. Twain wrote the book alongside his friend and neighbor Charles Dudley Warner. Each wrote half of the novel, with the final chapters being a joint effort. The novel is an attempt to criticize the greed, incompetence, superficiality as well as waste associated with that era. The novel was published in 1873, and while it wasnt a great hit then, it has remained as valid today. The term gilded is taken from one of Shakespeares works, King John, in which the character calls gilding gold or painting lilies is a waste. Gilding gold would actually mean putting gold on top of gold, which is excessive and wasteful. Another meaning might be related to the stark contrast between what would have been the Golden Age and the Gilded Age in which cheap materials would have been covered by gold to cover the poor quality. Twains chapters deal with a Tennessee family which, despite being poor, owns a 75,000 acre unimproved land. The family patriarch, Silas Si Hawkins, tries to sell the land but ultimately fails. His family is also drifted through their lives in hope of immediate enrichment. The familys beautiful daughter, Laura, goes to Washington to become a lobbyist, and after an unsuccessful attempt she enters a twisted society that rids her of her innocence. Warners chapters describe two business partners, Philip Sterling and Henry Briefly, who try to acquire land for the purpose of speculation. Twain and Warner may not have touched on subjects such as industrialization or monopoly which were characteristic to society due to having written the novel at the start of that age, but they have certainly succeeded in creating a timeless satire that will remain pertinent for centuries to come.