"The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today" by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner is a satirical novel published in 1873. It follows a poor rural family's attempts to strike it rich by selling their vast Tennessee land, while their adopted daughter Laura becomes a Washington lobbyist seeking congressional support. Meanwhile, two young men pursue fortune through land speculation. The novel skewers the greed, materialism, and political corruption of post-Civil War America—so effectively that it named an entire era of American history.