THE GILDED AGE The Gilded Age tells the fascinating story of a dynamic era in America, from the 1870s to the early years of the twentieth century, when enormous fortunes were made and lost overnight. This dazzling book provides a glimpse into the period that has left us a legacy of art and architecture derived from European culture.Excerpts from the writings of America's brilliant author Edith Wharton and her contemporaries including Henry James and Mark Twain, coupled with beautiful reproductions of paintings by John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, and others, make this a charming souvenir of the time. The writers' critical and amusing descriptions of the competitive building of mansions, art collecting, and social rituals provide a lively commentary of a time in which such fascinating personalities as J.P. Morgan, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor played an important role.