by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
First published 2018
Colonel Sellers dreams of vast fortunes while scheming through the corrupt machinery of post-Civil War Washington. He promotes wild investment schemes and chases political favor, embodying the era's rampant materialism. Around him swirl lobbyists, senators, and speculators, all grasping for wealth and influence in a system where everything has a price. The novel follows multiple characters as they navigate a world where political power serves private gain and moral principles bend to financial pressure. Sellers represents the American optimist twisted by an age of unprecedented opportunity and equally unprecedented corruption. Twain and Warner expose how the promise of prosperity corrupts both the powerful and the hopeful. The story captures a nation transformed by industrialization but poisoned by greed, where public service becomes private enrichment and democratic ideals crumble under the weight of gold.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century, political-thriller
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, greed, moral-decay
Setting: Washington
Period: Post-Civil War
466 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform