Mark Twain
In the last extended piece of fiction from beloved American fiction writer and humorist Mark Twain, Satan proudly surveys fin-de-siecle civilization and marvels at its hypocrisies. Twain was heavily invested in this story and rewrote it multiple times over the course of several decades. Although critics regard it as a serious work of satire, it is full of the side-splitting humor for which Twain's writing is known.
The only book that Mark Twain ever wrote in collaboration with another author, The Gilded Age is a novel that viciously and hilariously satirizes the greed, materialism, and corruption that characterized much of upper-class America in the nineteenth century. The title term—inspired by a line in Shakespeare's King John—has become synonymous with the excess of the era.