Published in 1873, this scathing satire gave the era its name. The novel follows the feverish scrambles for wealth and power of its characters, who engage in speculative schemes, political bribery, and relentless social climbing.
Twain and Warner keenly critique America’s post-Civil War political malfeasance and the unbridled greed that lay beneath a surface of prosperity, highlighting the moral compromises inherent in the nation’s swift economic expansion.
William Dean Howells illustrates the moral quandaries posed by new wealth and the quest for social acceptance. Silas Lapham, a self-made paint magnate, attempts to navigate Boston’s established high society, confronting difficult decisions that test his integrity.
Howells offers a thoughtful exploration of business ethics, class anxiety, and the definition of a gentleman, genuinely reflecting the tensions between ambition and character during America's critical industrial period.
Offering a panoramic view of late 19th-century New York City, this novel follows editor Basil March as he moves to the metropolis and encounters a wide cross-section of society.
The narrative explores the stark conflicts between labor and capital, the chasm between wealth and poverty, and the social problems emerging from rapid, unregulated urban growth. Through sharply observed scenes, it confronts the moral dilemmas of privilege and economic injustice in a transforming America.
Set in the 1870s, Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel paints a subtle, masterful portrait of upper-class New York society. Through the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer caught between his conventional fiancée and her scandalous cousin, Wharton dissects a world bound by rigid codes of decorum.
She brilliantly reveals how social ritual and the imperative to maintain appearances suppress individual desire, exposing the profound tensions beneath an elegant surface.
Lily Bart is the tragic heroine at the center of this powerful novel. Beautiful and charming, Lily navigates New York's perilous social landscape, seeking to secure her status with a wealthy marriage.
Wharton skillfully demonstrates how the relentless pursuit of social position and the commodification of women combine to create a brutal, unforgiving system. The novel is a devastating critique of a society that celebrates beauty and privilege but offers no mercy to those who fail to play by its rules.
In one of her most incisive works, Wharton introduces Undine Spragg, a voracious and ambitious Midwesterner determined to conquer society. Undine’s relentless pursuit of wealth, status, and power through a series of marriages exposes the transactional nature of relationships among the elite.
The novel offers a sharp critique of "new money," consumerism, and the clash between raw American ambition and the traditions of old New York and Europe.
This quintessential tale of urban migration follows Caroline "Sister Carrie" Meeber as she leaves rural Wisconsin for the glamour and peril of Chicago. Carrie’s rise from poverty to stage stardom reflects the broader socio-economic changes and moral ambiguities of the period.
Dreiser provides sharp observations on consumerism, desire, and the invisible forces of a modernizing society that shape human ambition and destiny, capturing both the allure and harsh reality of the American Dream.
Inspired by the life of a real-life tycoon, Dreiser’s novel follows Frank Cowperwood’s bold rise in the world of high finance. Driven by insatiable ambition, Cowperwood masterfully navigates financial speculation and political corruption in post-Civil War Philadelphia.
Dreiser provides an intricate look at the ruthless drive for power and wealth that defined Gilded Age capitalism, portraying a morally ambiguous protagonist who embodies the era’s energy and excesses.
Presenting the brutal underside of Gilded Age prosperity, this novel offers an unflinching look at urban squalor in the tenements of New York. Crane tells the tragic story of Maggie, a young woman whose life is destroyed by poverty and a hypocritical social environment.
This pioneering work of American naturalism critiques the harsh conditions that industrial capitalism inflicted upon the urban poor, arguing that environment, not character, determined one's fate.
Set in late 19th-century San Francisco, this novel is a powerful study in human degeneration driven by greed. It focuses on a brutish but simple dentist whose life unravels after his wife wins a lottery, awakening a destructive avarice in them both.
A masterpiece of American naturalism, McTeague examines how the obsession with wealth can corrupt and ultimately destroy individuals, illustrating the destructive impulses connected to the era's materialism.
The second novel in Norris's unfinished Epic of the Wheat trilogy, The Pit dramatizes the speculative frenzy of the Chicago Board of Trade. The story centers on Curtis Jadwin, a powerful commodities trader who attempts to corner the global wheat market, portraying capitalism itself as a chaotic, uncontrollable force of nature.
The novel captures the epic scale of Gilded Age commerce and the immense fortunes won and lost in its financial arenas.
Set in the Creole society of late 19th-century New Orleans, this novel tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a wife and mother who begins to question the restrictive social conventions that define her existence. As she seeks emotional and artistic fulfillment, Edna rebels against her prescribed roles, embarking on a path toward greater autonomy.
Controversial in its time, the novel is celebrated today for its profound psychological depth and critique of patriarchal norms.
Published anonymously in 1880, this novel provides a cynical insider’s critique of the political corruption and social decay in Washington D.C. The story follows Madeleine Lee, a sophisticated widow who moves to the capital seeking to understand power, only to be disillusioned by the widespread graft and moral emptiness she finds.
Adams, a member of a distinguished political family, exposes the hypocrisy behind the nation’s democratic ideals during the Gilded Age.
Published at the close of the era in 1906, this explosive novel exposes the horrific conditions faced by immigrant laborers in Chicago's meatpacking industry.
Following the Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family, Sinclair details the unsanitary practices of the "Beef Trust," the exploitation of workers, and the soul-crushing poverty they endure. The book’s shocking impact served as a powerful catalyst for Progressive Era reforms, including the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
This novel chronicles the decline of an aristocratic family at the turn of the 20th century as their city is transformed by industrialization. The Ambersons, whose fortune was made in a quieter time, resist the rise of the automobile and the soot-filled city it creates.
Tarkington masterfully dramatizes the displacement of old-world gentility by the grime and speed of the modern industrial age, showing how progress makes entire ways of life obsolete.
While set in the years immediately following the Gilded Age (1902–1912), this novel masterfully examines the era’s enduring legacy. Doctorow weaves historical figures like Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan, and Booker T. Washington into a narrative with fictional families—one wealthy, white, and suburban; the other poor, Black, and urban.
The book captures the convergence of wealth, race, and nascent celebrity culture, mirroring the explosive social upheavals born from the Gilded Age’s contradictions.