18 h 9 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the next great fortune is only gold paint over rotten wood?
In America after the Civil War, the Hawkins family holds tight to a dream: their vast tract of Tennessee land will make them rich. Washington Hawkins carries that hope toward the capital, where promoters, lobbyists and senators crowd around promises of wealth. Nearby stands Colonel Beriah Sellers, warm, talkative and always one deal away from a fortune.
Meanwhile, Philip Sterling and his charming friend Henry Brierly chase careers and railroad schemes. Ruth Bolton studies medicine and seeks a useful life of her own, while Laura Hawkins brings ambition and old wounds to Washington. In The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner turn these tangled hopes into comedy with an angry edge.
What you’ll discover
- A dream that grips Follow a family's stubborn hope as land and promised wealth shape their choices.
- An irresistible hopeful schemer Meet Colonel Sellers, whose warmth and endless plans make the pursuit of riches wonderfully comic.
- Politics beneath the polish Watch public good and private ambition mingle among Washington's senators, lobbyists and promoters.
- Women seeking their way Discover Laura and Ruth, two very different women confronting ambition and a hard society.
- Laughter with sharp teeth Explore how the hunger for wealth can blur a country's sense of honest work.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who enjoy satire, American history and Twain's humor, and anyone curious about how the era got its name. It may suit you less if you want a tightly plotted novel, since two authors' styles sometimes pull apart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A family sets out with a dream
- Colonel Sellers can sell anything
- A steamboat disaster brings Laura
- Philip, Harry and the Quaker girl
- Laura goes to Washington
- The great land bill and its schemers
- What the book says about money and honesty
- Women, ambition and a hard society
- A joint work, a satire and a lasting name
Who’s who
- Colonel Beriah SellersA warm, talkative dreamer who is always about to be rich and who draws everyone he meets into his schemes.
- Washington HawkinsThe gentle, trusting son of Squire Hawkins, who carries his father's hope that the Tennessee land will make the family rich.
- Laura HawkinsA rescued child who grows into a clever, beautiful woman and takes her ambitions and old wounds to Washington.
- Squire HawkinsA hopeful Tennessee father who moves his family west and lives his life waiting for a vast tract of land to pay off.
- Philip SterlingA well-educated young man of the East who needs work and love, and is drawn into the railroad schemes of his friend.
- Henry BrierlyPhilip's charming, quick-talking friend, who sees chances for easy profit in railroads and land.
- Ruth BoltonA serious young Quaker woman of Philadelphia who studies medicine and wants a useful life of her own.
- Senator Abner DilworthyA powerful Senator who speaks of charity and public good while he works the machinery of Congress.
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- Large print hardcover
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The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
by Mark Twain; Charles Dudley Warner· 1873
Hopes of wealth draw families and schemers into politics.
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Language: English
“What is the chief end of man? To get rich. In what way? Dishonestly if we can, honestly if we must.”
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A family sets out with a dream
The story opens in Tennessee, in the small town of Obedstown. Squire Hawkins is a hopeful man with a wife, Nancy, and a growing brood of children. He is not rich, but he has a feeling that fortune is waiting for him somewhere. He has bought a huge tract of Tennessee land, about seventy-five thousand acres, and he believes it will one day make his family wealthy.
The land is a strange sort of treasure. It cannot be sold yet, it earns nothing, and no one can say when it will. Still, the Squire talks about it as if it were already in the bank. His children grow up hearing that they are secretly rich. This habit of mind is the first thing the book teaches you to notice. A whole family can live on a promise, and the promise can cost them more than honest poverty would.
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The author
Mark Twain
1835–1910 · American humorist and novelist
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American author born in Missouri in 1835. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1874 to 1891. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Prince and the Pauper (1881). He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910.
“What is the chief end of man? To get rich. In what way? Dishonestly if we can, honestly if we must.”
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What is The Gilded Age about?
It is a satirical novel about America after the Civil War. It follows the Hawkins family and their hope of a fortune from Tennessee land, and a group of young people who meet railroad schemes and political deals.
Why is it called The Gilded Age?
Gilded means covered in a thin layer of gold. The authors used it for an era that looked rich and shining outside but was shabby and corrupt beneath. Historians later took the phrase as the name of the period.
Who wrote which parts of The Gilded Age?
The book has two authors. Twain is usually credited with the Hawkins family and Colonel Sellers chapters, while Warner is usually credited with the chapters about Philip Sterling and Ruth Bolton in Philadelphia.
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