The Gilded Age | The Gilded Age

At a glance:

Author: Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner
First Published: 1873
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Satire
Time of Work: Late 1840’s to early 1870’s
Setting: United States
Principal Characters: Washington Hawkins, Laura Hawkins, Colonel Beriah Sellers, Philip Sterling, Harry Brierly, Senator Dilworthy, Ruth Bolton
Genres: Long fiction, Satire
Subjects: United States or Americans, Nineteenth century, Politicians, Moral conditions, Corruption, Entrepreneurship or entrepreneurs, Real estate, Land settlement, Coal or coal mining
Locales: Washington, D.C., Tennessee, Missouri

Squire Hawkins of Obedstown, Tennessee, received a letter from Colonel Beriah Sellers asking Hawkins to come to Missouri with his wife Nancy and their two children, Emily and George Washington. Moved by the Colonel’s eloquent account of opportunities to be found in the new territory, the family traveled west. On the journey, they stopped at a house where a young child was mourning the death of his mother. Feeling compassion for the orphan, Hawkins offered to adopt him. His name was Henry Clay.

The Gilded Age | The Gilded Age

At a glance:

The Story:

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