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The Gilded Age, A Tale of Today

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today is an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. The term gilded age, commonly given to the era, comes from the title of this book. Twain and Warner got the name from Shakespeare's King John (1595): "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess." Gilding a lily, which is already beautiful and not in need of further adornment, is excessive and wasteful, characteristics of the age Twain and Warner wrote about in their novel. Another interpretation of the title, of course, is the contrast between an ideal "Golden Age," and a less worthy "Gilded Age," as gilding is only a thin layer of gold over baser metal, so the title now takes on a pejorative meaning as to the novel's time, events and people.

Although not one of Twain's more well-known works, it has appeared in more than 100 editions since its original publication in 1873. Twain and Warner originally had planned to issue the novel with illustrations by Thomas Nast. The book is remarkable for two reasons–-it is the only novel Twain wrote with a collaborator, and its title very quickly became synonymous with graft, materialism, and corruption in public life. (Description by Wikipedia)

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00 - Preface (TriciaG)
01 - Chapter 1 (TriciaG)
02 - Chapter 2 (David Dwight)
03 - Chapter 3 (David Dwight)
04 - Chapter 4 (Charles RUHE)
05 - Chapter 5 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
06 - Chapter 6 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
07 - Chapter 7 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
08 - Chapter 8 (Charles RUHE)
09 - Chapter 9 (Charles RUHE)
10 - Chapter 10 (Charles RUHE)
11 - Chapter 11 (Charles RUHE)
12 - Chapter 12 (airandwaters)
13 - Chapter 13 (airandwaters)
14 - Chapter 14 (airandwaters)
15 - Chapter 15 (airandwaters)
16 - Chapter 16 (samohtar)
17 - Chapter 17 (Dee Wykoff)
18 - Chapter 18 (John Kooz)
19 - Chapter 19 (Michael Reuss)
20 - Chapter 20 (Nicole Kay)
21 - Chapter 21 (TriciaG)
22 - Chapter 22 (TriciaG)
23 - Chapter 23 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
24 - Chapter 24 (Richard Wallis)
25 - Chapter 25 (Richard Wallis)
26 - Chapter 26 (Richard Wallis)
27 - Chapter 27 (Dee Wykoff)
28 - Chapter 28 (Piper Hayes)
29 - Chapter 29 (Floyd Wilde)
30 - Chapter 30 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
31 - Chapter 31 (TriciaG)
32 - Chapter 32 (Jillian T. Weiss)
33 - Chapter 33 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
34 - Chapter 34 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
35 - Chapter 35 (Richard Wallis)
36 - Chapter 36 (Richard Wallis)
37 - Chapter 37 (Richard Wallis)
38 - Chapter 38 (wvthcomp)
39 - Chapter 39 (wvthcomp)
40 - Chapter 40 (Piper Hayes)
41 - Chapter 41 (Piper Hayes)
42 - Chapter 42 (Piper Hayes)
43 - Chapter 43 (Kenneth Sergeant Gaghan)
44 - Chapter 44 (Kenneth Sergeant Gaghan)
45 - Chapter 45 (Tom Lennon)
46 - Chapter 46 (Tom Lennon)
47 - Chapter 47 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
48 - Chapter 48 (Richard Kilmer (1942 - 2022))
49 - Chapter 49 (Michael Reuss)
50 - Chapter 50 (Kalynda)
51 - Chapter 51 (Kalynda)
52 - Chapter 52 (Lisa Meyers)
53 - Chapter 53 (Lisa Meyers)
54 - Chapter 54 (Dee Wykoff)
55 - Chapter 55 (Michael Reuss)
56 - Chapter 56 (Michael Reuss)
57 - Chapter 57 (jennm)
58 - Chapter 58 (TriciaG)
59 - Chapter 59 (Piper Hayes)
60 - Chapter 60 (Michael Reuss)
61 - Chapter 61 (Michael Reuss)
62 - Chapter 62 (Michael Reuss)
63 - Chapter 63 (Michael Reuss)
The audiobook The Gilded Age, A Tale of Today falls under the genres of , . It is written by , .