Early printing of BAL 3357. Rebacked with original black morocco spine labels laid down, new gilt rules. Edges rubbed, corners exposed. Includes fold-out with tear along one panel repaired with Japanese tissue. 1874 Full-Leather. xvi, [17]-574, [2] pp. 8vo. First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America -- an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peacetime optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naivete of their own time in a work which endures as a valuable social document and one of America's most important satirical novels.