The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope
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The Way We Live Now is a satirical novel by Anthony Trollope. In it he lashes out at the political, financial, commercial and moral dishonesty of the age, inspired particularly by the financial scandals of the 1870s. It was considered by many of his contemporaries as his finest work, and was one of the last Victorian novels to be serialized..
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Money by Émile Zola
littlegreycloud Augustus Melmotte, Aristide Saccard, Bernie Madoff: plus ça change...
Morryman84 Both somewhat highlight the difference in American and old European thought process
Member Reviews
How little human nature has changed!
In this timeless satire about greed, Trollope shows off just how well he understands the cowardliness, the laziness, and selfishness of mankind, the wats we use and manipulate people for our own gains.
Everybody started more or less as a satirical caricature of greed and cowardliness and moral depravities. But then Trollope could not help himself and developed depth and and history and motivations to his characters such that even if we cannot approve of these depravities, we can at the very least understand and empathise with these awfully realistic people.
Upon finishing these incredibly detailed character studies, I am amazed by how my feelings towards each character have changed since the start. This show more is definitely not your usual Victorian novel-of-manners.
The strength of the book lies truly in the comprehensive complexity of the each character. This is of course easier done in the more obviously flawed characters who are somehow more relatable under Trollope's omniscient pen. I cared so little about the "good" people in the end and not just because often goodness in novels equates to boring characters. But that their goodness was mixed with that unbending, illogical stubbornness to cling to idealised principles than to face reality and commonsense. Case in point: I was at first completely invested in Hetta' happiness but when the plot-spotlight was eventually on her, I just didn't care anymore. Contrary to appearances, she is actually the most spoilt of the female characters of her generation. And the most spoilt male award goes to Paul, what a cowardly swine.
Individual praises: As I can't stop mentioning, the characterisations were excellent, tending towards a surprisingly feminist bent, with a few who really stood out in my mind. The evolution of Marie was so organic and powerful, it was a thing to behold; Mrs Hurtle was magnificent, calculating and passionate, modern and independent, I wished her secret soft-heartedness would have allowed her to crush all in her path; the slow humbling of Mrs Carbury, her attempted conniving and clueless meanness were frustrating but so understandably originating from her misguided sense of motherly love that it was almost too real and uncomfortable to read sometimes; and I maintain that out of everyone, Mr Broune, the only actually sensible Good Person, was in fact playing the best long-con game. show less
In this timeless satire about greed, Trollope shows off just how well he understands the cowardliness, the laziness, and selfishness of mankind, the wats we use and manipulate people for our own gains.
Everybody started more or less as a satirical caricature of greed and cowardliness and moral depravities. But then Trollope could not help himself and developed depth and and history and motivations to his characters such that even if we cannot approve of these depravities, we can at the very least understand and empathise with these awfully realistic people.
Upon finishing these incredibly detailed character studies, I am amazed by how my feelings towards each character have changed since the start. This show more is definitely not your usual Victorian novel-of-manners.
The strength of the book lies truly in the comprehensive complexity of the each character. This is of course easier done in the more obviously flawed characters who are somehow more relatable under Trollope's omniscient pen. I cared so little about the "good" people in the end and not just because often goodness in novels equates to boring characters. But that their goodness was mixed with that unbending, illogical stubbornness to cling to idealised principles than to face reality and commonsense. Case in point: I was at first completely invested in Hetta' happiness but when the plot-spotlight was eventually on her, I just didn't care anymore. Contrary to appearances, she is actually the most spoilt of the female characters of her generation. And the most spoilt male award goes to Paul, what a cowardly swine.
Individual praises: As I can't stop mentioning, the characterisations were excellent, tending towards a surprisingly feminist bent, with a few who really stood out in my mind. The evolution of Marie was so organic and powerful, it was a thing to behold; Mrs Hurtle was magnificent, calculating and passionate, modern and independent, I wished her secret soft-heartedness would have allowed her to crush all in her path; the slow humbling of Mrs Carbury, her attempted conniving and clueless meanness were frustrating but so understandably originating from her misguided sense of motherly love that it was almost too real and uncomfortable to read sometimes; and I maintain that out of everyone, Mr Broune, the only actually sensible Good Person, was in fact playing the best long-con game. show less
I am a fan of Victorian novels (though I concede that they can be very long due to the desire to make them last in absence of a wealth of other entertainments.). This non-series novel by Anthony Trollope is one of my all-time favorites.
The primary storyline concerns Mr. Melmotte, a financier of somewhat murky background, who dazzles all London with his money-making prowess and his interest in a proposed railway line for which shares are being offered. There are numerous supporting stories of those who are involved one-way or another in the schemes. Young titled men who are willing to court his daughter in exchange for her purported fortune, older men who are willing to ignore (up to a point) his dubious social background for a chance to show more get at his fortune, a young man of scruples but somewhat dim understanding who doesn't quite understand how he got caught up in the Railroad Scheme, or how he became involved with an American divorcee who somehow isn't willing to accept that he broke off their engagement, and a very honorable man who lives by his principles and can't quite accept "the way we live now".
It's all magnificently done. It's not particularly difficult to keep the characters straight, despite their numbers, since they are so vividly drawn. And he manages to show the virtues and flaws of all of them, with only one being totally lacking in virtue. The proportions vary a good deal, but all are treated with a clear and tolerant eye, and a good deal of wit.
If you have the patience for a massive, classic, character-driven novel that skewers nobility, country folk, the working class, clerics, financiers and politicians, this is well worth your while. show less
The primary storyline concerns Mr. Melmotte, a financier of somewhat murky background, who dazzles all London with his money-making prowess and his interest in a proposed railway line for which shares are being offered. There are numerous supporting stories of those who are involved one-way or another in the schemes. Young titled men who are willing to court his daughter in exchange for her purported fortune, older men who are willing to ignore (up to a point) his dubious social background for a chance to show more get at his fortune, a young man of scruples but somewhat dim understanding who doesn't quite understand how he got caught up in the Railroad Scheme, or how he became involved with an American divorcee who somehow isn't willing to accept that he broke off their engagement, and a very honorable man who lives by his principles and can't quite accept "the way we live now".
It's all magnificently done. It's not particularly difficult to keep the characters straight, despite their numbers, since they are so vividly drawn. And he manages to show the virtues and flaws of all of them, with only one being totally lacking in virtue. The proportions vary a good deal, but all are treated with a clear and tolerant eye, and a good deal of wit.
If you have the patience for a massive, classic, character-driven novel that skewers nobility, country folk, the working class, clerics, financiers and politicians, this is well worth your while. show less
Amazon says that this stand-alone is " widely acknowledged to be the masterpiece of Trollope's prolific Victorian career." I would definitely put it at or near the top of my favorites of Trollope (though I have only begun to scratch the surface of his works). This is also a very relevant book for our time with one of its major themes/plot lines being how a financial wheeler-dealer/con artist is able to scam the denizens of society and government.
The book is chock-full of characters and plot-lines. It opens with Lady Carbury, who left in straitened circumstances has taken to writing potboilers to keep up the family finances. Her overriding purpose is to secure good marriages for her children, particularly for her ne'er-do-well son Felix show more who has squandered his inheritance on gambling and drinking. The potential mate she has chosen for Felix is Marie, the daughter of the great financier Augustus Melmotte. Melmotte, a Bernie Maddoff-like character, is suppposedly fabulously wealthy, but behind the scenes of his financial manipulations his suppposed wealth is only a paper facade. His sole function is to get people to invest in a great American railroad, not to actually build the railroad, but to to obtain the funds to entice more investors. Politics does not escape Trollope's wit, either, as Melmotte's supposed wealth earns him a seat in parliament.
The book sets forth a vast panorama of Victorian society and highlights its avarice and obsession with money. It satirizes the literary world and publishers, class divisions, gender stereotypes, political systems and much more. The book is on The Guardian's 100 Best Novels in English. I loved it. show less
The book is chock-full of characters and plot-lines. It opens with Lady Carbury, who left in straitened circumstances has taken to writing potboilers to keep up the family finances. Her overriding purpose is to secure good marriages for her children, particularly for her ne'er-do-well son Felix show more who has squandered his inheritance on gambling and drinking. The potential mate she has chosen for Felix is Marie, the daughter of the great financier Augustus Melmotte. Melmotte, a Bernie Maddoff-like character, is suppposedly fabulously wealthy, but behind the scenes of his financial manipulations his suppposed wealth is only a paper facade. His sole function is to get people to invest in a great American railroad, not to actually build the railroad, but to to obtain the funds to entice more investors. Politics does not escape Trollope's wit, either, as Melmotte's supposed wealth earns him a seat in parliament.
The book sets forth a vast panorama of Victorian society and highlights its avarice and obsession with money. It satirizes the literary world and publishers, class divisions, gender stereotypes, political systems and much more. The book is on The Guardian's 100 Best Novels in English. I loved it. show less
Trollope's entry in the Great Victorian Novel stakes, a vast, sprawling Vanity Fair for the 1870s, with far too many characters, far too many subplots, and far, far too many pages that pounds smoothly and steadily on over the waves of literary convention like one of the Transatlantic steamships that play such a large part in its plot. Despite all its self-indulgent predictability, it turns out to be a very satisfying and enjoyable book: Trollope is just so infuriatingly good at what he does, and this is Trollope at the top of his form.
Ostensibly, the book centres around the rise and fall of Mr Melmotte, a businessman who has appeared in London from no-one-knows-where with a tremendous reputation for wealth, power and influence, and is show more soon being courted by investors, politicians, diplomats and - since he has an unmarried daughter - impoverished aristocrats with sons to marry off. Trollope has a lot of fun with the notion that success in modern capitalism has far more to do with someone's reputation for being able to make money than with any actual profitable assets they control. Melmotte's fall is based on as little solid evidence as his initial success - it is not his actual crimes that undermine his credit, but the (false) rumours that he is about to be arrested for them.
But it's probably too narrow to think of this as just a satire of the financial sector - Trollope pulls in all sorts of different aspects of the ways that money, class and gender work together to undermine the moral values that we deceive ourselves into believing we use to guide our lives. Trollope - as usual - digs a bit deeper and cuts a bit sharper than his genial manner conveys, and gives us a little reminder that he was an almost exact contemporary of Karl Marx, whose Kapital had started to appear three or four years before The Way we live now. Not that Trollope was in any way a Marxist, but obviously, those were the ideas that were floating around London at that time.
If Vanity Fair was "a novel without a hero", Trollope also seems to be determined to make this a novel without a villain: neither Melmotte nor the Bad Baronet, Sir Felix Carbury, ever quite manage to dominate the story for more than a scene or two. Trollope keeps undermining their badness and showing us how engagingly weak they are underneath. None of the other men in the book really get out attention for long enough to stand out: there are lots of nice little scenes, but no-one you want to engage with. Even the bachelor squire Roger Carbury, who seems a rather engaging and sympathetic character in the opening chapters, is revealed to us later in the book as a well-intentioned but crashingly pompous bore.
The women do a bit better, but there's only one female character who really leaps off the page, and rather surprisingly that turns out to be the gun-toting American widow-query-divorcée Mrs Hurtle, who gets more grand set-piece scenes than anyone in the book. She breaks all the rules of Victorian fiction and doesn't care who knows it: she even manages to behave outrageously in Lowestoft, something I would not have thought feasible... Meanwhile, Hetta Carbury, who ought by rights to be the romantic heroine, is too feeble to be more than momentarily interesting (as with Thackeray's Amelia, this is probably intentional); the heiress Miss Melmotte shows a certain amount of wit and feminist determination in the later scenes, but Trollope keeps her rather quiet most of the time, perhaps simply because he doesn't want her to turn into a clone of Miss Dunstable. Ruby Ruggles is a one-trick-pony, an anachronistic refugee from a Thomas Hardy novel that hasn't been written yet, and Lady Carbury has potential but is so transparently an affectionate portrait of the author's mother that she has to be kept out of anything more sensational than a few gently comic scenes with editors and publishers. show less
Ostensibly, the book centres around the rise and fall of Mr Melmotte, a businessman who has appeared in London from no-one-knows-where with a tremendous reputation for wealth, power and influence, and is show more soon being courted by investors, politicians, diplomats and - since he has an unmarried daughter - impoverished aristocrats with sons to marry off. Trollope has a lot of fun with the notion that success in modern capitalism has far more to do with someone's reputation for being able to make money than with any actual profitable assets they control. Melmotte's fall is based on as little solid evidence as his initial success - it is not his actual crimes that undermine his credit, but the (false) rumours that he is about to be arrested for them.
But it's probably too narrow to think of this as just a satire of the financial sector - Trollope pulls in all sorts of different aspects of the ways that money, class and gender work together to undermine the moral values that we deceive ourselves into believing we use to guide our lives. Trollope - as usual - digs a bit deeper and cuts a bit sharper than his genial manner conveys, and gives us a little reminder that he was an almost exact contemporary of Karl Marx, whose Kapital had started to appear three or four years before The Way we live now. Not that Trollope was in any way a Marxist, but obviously, those were the ideas that were floating around London at that time.
If Vanity Fair was "a novel without a hero", Trollope also seems to be determined to make this a novel without a villain: neither Melmotte nor the Bad Baronet, Sir Felix Carbury, ever quite manage to dominate the story for more than a scene or two. Trollope keeps undermining their badness and showing us how engagingly weak they are underneath. None of the other men in the book really get out attention for long enough to stand out: there are lots of nice little scenes, but no-one you want to engage with. Even the bachelor squire Roger Carbury, who seems a rather engaging and sympathetic character in the opening chapters, is revealed to us later in the book as a well-intentioned but crashingly pompous bore.
The women do a bit better, but there's only one female character who really leaps off the page, and rather surprisingly that turns out to be the gun-toting American widow-query-divorcée Mrs Hurtle, who gets more grand set-piece scenes than anyone in the book. She breaks all the rules of Victorian fiction and doesn't care who knows it: she even manages to behave outrageously in Lowestoft, something I would not have thought feasible... Meanwhile, Hetta Carbury, who ought by rights to be the romantic heroine, is too feeble to be more than momentarily interesting (as with Thackeray's Amelia, this is probably intentional); the heiress Miss Melmotte shows a certain amount of wit and feminist determination in the later scenes, but Trollope keeps her rather quiet most of the time, perhaps simply because he doesn't want her to turn into a clone of Miss Dunstable. Ruby Ruggles is a one-trick-pony, an anachronistic refugee from a Thomas Hardy novel that hasn't been written yet, and Lady Carbury has potential but is so transparently an affectionate portrait of the author's mother that she has to be kept out of anything more sensational than a few gently comic scenes with editors and publishers. show less
First things first, the page count given here is inaccurate. The first volume is 478 pages, the second 474 and they’re both presented in the same book. So there is a lot of it, perhaps even slightly too much. Nonetheless, I was consistently impressed and fascinated by both events and characters. Having not read any Trollope before, I was expecting something in the nature of Dickens. ‘The Way We Live Now’ is a great deal more insightful and nuanced regarding the condition of women than I’ve ever known Dickens to be. I was expecting Melmotte to dominate the narrative. To be fair, he does when present in it. For a great deal of time, however, he is not present and then the reader gets to know Hetta Carbury, Mrs. Hurtle, Marie show more Melmotte, Ruby Ruggles, and Lady Carbury, among others. All of them have to deal with dilemmas relating to their lack of financial independence as women and the strong social obligation they face to get married. The amazing lack of obligation faced by young aristocratic men is placed in contrast to this. Dolly Longstaffe and Felix Carbury in particular are hopeless wastrels, regarded as idiots by their own families, yet impossible to control even when their money has all been frittered away. Yet the old, aristocratic ways are also starting to erode in the face of new money, exemplified by Melmotte. In short, the novel has impressive insight into matters of gender, antisemitism, class, and wealth inequality. It is clear-eyed about the ways in which power and money corrupt and thus feels unsettlingly contemporary at times.
For example, on the different standard for great financiers:
On femininity:
On the Suffolk’s political tendencies:
In 140 years, plus ça change! To me, ‘The Way We Live Now’ is really a tale of hubris. It seems to bring the themes of Greek tragedy into the realm of globalised financial capitalism. It’s a pity that such novels don’t seem to be written now, humanising the dynamics of vast wealth inequalities and how the value of intangible financial instruments can capriciously collapse. Haven’t we seen a lot of that lately? show less
For example, on the different standard for great financiers:
”Such a man rises above honesty,” said Mrs Hurtle, “as a great general rises above humanity when he sacrifices an army to conquer a nation. Such greatness is incompatible with small scruples. A pigmy man is stopped by a little ditch, but a giant stalks over the rivers.”
On femininity:
”...But when a woman has no-one to help her, is she to bear everything without turning upon those who ill-use her? Shall a woman be flayed alive because it is unfeminine for her to fight for her own skin? What is the good of being feminine, as you call it? Have you asked yourself that? That men may be attracted, I should say. But if a woman finds that men only take advantage of her assumed weakness, shall she not throw it off? If she be treated as prey, shall she not fight as a beast of prey? Oh no; it is so unfeminine!”
On the Suffolk’s political tendencies:
Suffolk is very old-fashioned. Suffolk, taken as a whole, did not like the Melmotte fashion. Suffolk, which is, I fear, persistently and irrevocably Conservative, did not believe in Melmotte as a Conservative Member of Parliament.
In 140 years, plus ça change! To me, ‘The Way We Live Now’ is really a tale of hubris. It seems to bring the themes of Greek tragedy into the realm of globalised financial capitalism. It’s a pity that such novels don’t seem to be written now, humanising the dynamics of vast wealth inequalities and how the value of intangible financial instruments can capriciously collapse. Haven’t we seen a lot of that lately? show less
“Nadie que se relacionara con Herr Vossner había supuesto nunca que fuera un hombre honrado, pero como ladrón había sido tan agradable que incluso los que más habían sufrido su rapacidad lamentaban su ausencia con una ternura que casi orillaba con el amor.“
No creo que Trollope sea un visionario, por lo que deduzco que esta historia, llena de humor por otra parte, del mundo cínico, corrupto e implacable de las finanzas, y todo los que lo rodean, no era algo nuevo a finales del siglo XIX, cuando se escribió la novela. Una obra larga, pero ágil e interesante, cuya energía decae un poquito al final, y que también hace una crítica durísima de la nobleza en la sociedad londinense.
La historia de un estafador con mucho dinero al show more que incluyen en un negocio ferroviario en EEUU-México que consigue convertir en una burbuja millonaria en la que las acciones se distribuyen, venden y compran, según su iniciativa. Sus supuestos éxitos financieros lo transmutan en una figura imprescindible para la ciudad, y acaba por ganar unas elecciones en las que tanto el partido como la jurisdicción por la que se presenta son decididas a última hora, sin ideología, sin vínculos con nadie, salvo con el comité de banqueros y palanganeros que lo apoyan “con la ausencia de todo el prejuicio de clases por el que el partido se ha hecho famoso desde que se habían introducido las votaciones. Algún liberal desafortunado debería enfrentarse a él, por el bien del partido, pero las apuestas iban a diez contra una a favor de Melmotte.”
Melmotte es el protagonista de la historia, pero a su alrededor se movilizan una serie de pirañas, vagos, inútiles, que buscan dinero fácil para seguir viviendo sin dar palo al agua. Un montón de jóvenes aristócratas y advenedizos que, azuzados por sus padres y madres, sólo muestran interés por negocios fraudulentos e inestables o por la búsqueda de una heredera, aunque sea sin títulos, que le devuelva esplendor monetario a sus títulos nobiliarios. Pura meritocracia. Las mujeres se llevan aquí la peor parte, ya que son moneda de cambio para que todos estos parásitos sigan adelante. Algunas de ellas son los personajes más humanos, compasivos e incluso inteligentes de la obra de Trollope.
La falta de escrúpulos y el desprecio por todos aquellos que los tienen es la tónica en esta sociedad que se nos presenta, no como un asomo de lo que podíamos llegar a tener, sino como un etapa completamente asentada de la que sólo podemos llegar a mejorar. El trabajo de robar a la humanidad en bruto, dice el narrador sobre uno de los personajes en un momento dado, por magníficas representaciones falsas, no era tan solo un deber, sino el placer y la ambición de su vida.
Esa agilidad en la forma de contar, y las diferentes pequeñas historias que rodean a los muchos personajes de la obra, mantienen el interés de una traducción, siento decir, que deja bastante que desear y que nos impide sacarle mucho más partido a la obra. La ristra de apellidos que seguramente tienen un sentido satírico, como el de Lady Monogram, de soltera Julia Triplex o la Familia Primero, lo perdemos en el caso de Mr. Ramsbottom, la señora Pipkin, Flatfleece o Cohenlupe. Además entiendo que para una editorial pequeña es muy costoso publicar un libro como este y casi imposible llegar a una segunda edición pero, a pesar de su valentía, deberían ser más cuidadosos con las erratas. show less
No creo que Trollope sea un visionario, por lo que deduzco que esta historia, llena de humor por otra parte, del mundo cínico, corrupto e implacable de las finanzas, y todo los que lo rodean, no era algo nuevo a finales del siglo XIX, cuando se escribió la novela. Una obra larga, pero ágil e interesante, cuya energía decae un poquito al final, y que también hace una crítica durísima de la nobleza en la sociedad londinense.
La historia de un estafador con mucho dinero al show more que incluyen en un negocio ferroviario en EEUU-México que consigue convertir en una burbuja millonaria en la que las acciones se distribuyen, venden y compran, según su iniciativa. Sus supuestos éxitos financieros lo transmutan en una figura imprescindible para la ciudad, y acaba por ganar unas elecciones en las que tanto el partido como la jurisdicción por la que se presenta son decididas a última hora, sin ideología, sin vínculos con nadie, salvo con el comité de banqueros y palanganeros que lo apoyan “con la ausencia de todo el prejuicio de clases por el que el partido se ha hecho famoso desde que se habían introducido las votaciones. Algún liberal desafortunado debería enfrentarse a él, por el bien del partido, pero las apuestas iban a diez contra una a favor de Melmotte.”
Melmotte es el protagonista de la historia, pero a su alrededor se movilizan una serie de pirañas, vagos, inútiles, que buscan dinero fácil para seguir viviendo sin dar palo al agua. Un montón de jóvenes aristócratas y advenedizos que, azuzados por sus padres y madres, sólo muestran interés por negocios fraudulentos e inestables o por la búsqueda de una heredera, aunque sea sin títulos, que le devuelva esplendor monetario a sus títulos nobiliarios. Pura meritocracia. Las mujeres se llevan aquí la peor parte, ya que son moneda de cambio para que todos estos parásitos sigan adelante. Algunas de ellas son los personajes más humanos, compasivos e incluso inteligentes de la obra de Trollope.
La falta de escrúpulos y el desprecio por todos aquellos que los tienen es la tónica en esta sociedad que se nos presenta, no como un asomo de lo que podíamos llegar a tener, sino como un etapa completamente asentada de la que sólo podemos llegar a mejorar. El trabajo de robar a la humanidad en bruto, dice el narrador sobre uno de los personajes en un momento dado, por magníficas representaciones falsas, no era tan solo un deber, sino el placer y la ambición de su vida.
Esa agilidad en la forma de contar, y las diferentes pequeñas historias que rodean a los muchos personajes de la obra, mantienen el interés de una traducción, siento decir, que deja bastante que desear y que nos impide sacarle mucho más partido a la obra. La ristra de apellidos que seguramente tienen un sentido satírico, como el de Lady Monogram, de soltera Julia Triplex o la Familia Primero, lo perdemos en el caso de Mr. Ramsbottom, la señora Pipkin, Flatfleece o Cohenlupe. Además entiendo que para una editorial pequeña es muy costoso publicar un libro como este y casi imposible llegar a una segunda edición pero, a pesar de su valentía, deberían ser más cuidadosos con las erratas. show less
Trollope's writing reads surprisingly contemporary, compared to his peers. Only the occasional long sentences betray him. He writes of a society that is changing, where women are allowed more liberties and able to exert their character and have a say in their marriages. Many of the women in the novel are strong-willed to some extent like Lady Carbury, Marie Melmotte, Hetta, Ruby Ruggles and Mrs. Hurtle. This is in contrast to the men, most of whom are weak, except Roger Carbury and Augustus Melmotte. I can't help thinking that Augustus Melmotte sounded very much like our modern-day Trump.
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Author Information
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Anthony Trollope was born in London, England on April 24, 1815. In 1834, he became a junior clerk in the General Post Office, London. In 1841, he became a deputy postal surveyor in Banagher, Ireland. He was sent on many postal missions ending up as a surveyor general in the post office outside of London. His first novel, The Macdermots of show more Ballycloran, was published in 1847. His other works included Castle Richmond, The Last Chronicle of Barset, Lady Anna, The Two Heroines of Plumplington, and The Noble Jilt. He died after suffering from a paralytic stroke on December 6, 1882. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Way We Live Now
- Original title
- The Way We Live Now
- Original publication date
- 1874-02 to 1875-09 (monthly serial publication) (monthly serial publication); 1875-07 (book) (book)
- People/Characters
- Augustus Melmotte; Sir Felix Carbury; Henrietta 'Hetta' Carbury; Madame Melmotte; Marie Melmotte; Ruby Ruggles (show all 25); John Crumb; Paul Montague; Dolly Longstaffe; Roger Carbury; Croll; Mrs. Winifred Hurtle; Ferdinand Alf; Georgiana Longstaffe; Ezekiel Breghert; Nicholas Broune; Lady Matilda Carbury; Elise Didon; Mrs. Pipkin; Lady Julia Monogram; Lord Nidderdale; Alfred Booker; Hamilton Fisker; Daniel Ruggles; Mr. Squercum
- Important places
- London, England, UK; Welbeck Street, London, England, UK; Fetter Lane, London, England, UK; Bruton Street, London, England, UK; Abchurch Street, London, England, UK; Carbury Hall, Suffolk, England, UK
- Related movies
- The Way We Live Now (2001 | IMDb); The Way We Live Now (1969 | IMDb)
- First words
- In December 1872, Anthony Trollope returned to England. Braced by a year and a half in the colonies, he found the moral stench of London intolerable. Like some enraged father he resolved to horsewhip a generation grown delinq... (show all)uent in his absence. He justified The Way We Live Now's corrective fury in a passage written the following year and published posthumously in his Autobiography:
a certain class of dishonesty, dishonest magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid that there seems to be reason for fearing that men and women will be taught to feel that dishonesty, if it can become splendid, will cease to be abominable. If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palace with pictures on its walls, and gems in all its cupboards, with marble and ivory in all its corners, and can given Apician dinners, and get into Parliament, and deal in millions, then dishonesty is not disgraceful, and the man dishonest after such a fashion is not a low scoundrel. -Introduction, John Sutherland, 1982
Long novels are not necessarily short on thrill. Spectacularly, and one two separate levels, The Way We Live Now offers us the excitement of large undertakings. We feel this both inside the novel - most memorably, perh... (show all)aps, in the chapters that tell of the dinner for the Emperor of China - and as attaching to it, through the author's efforts to create an action equal to the bold sweep of his title. -Introduction, Introduction, Peter Merchant, 2004
Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury, upon whose character and doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own house in Welbeck Street. La... (show all)dy Carbury spent many hours at her desk, and wrote many letters - wrote also very much besides letters. She spoke of herself in these days as a woman devoted to Literature, always spelling the word with a big L. Something of the nature of her devotion may be learned by the perusal of three letters which on this morning she had written with a quickly running hand. Lady Carbury was rapid in everything, and in nothing more rapid than the writing of letters. -Chapter 1, Three Editors - Quotations
- In the City Mr. Melmotte's name was worth any money,-though his character was perhaps worth but little.
As for Felix,—he had grovelled in the gutters as to be dirt all over. Nothing short of the prolonged sufferings of half a life could cleanse him. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Happily up to this time Mr Septimus Blake had continued to keep that gentleman as one of his Protestant population in the German town,—no doubt not without considerable trouble to himself.
- Blurbers
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Hutton, Richard Holt; James, Henry
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 823.8
- Canonical LCC
- PR5684 .W3
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 3,199
- Popularity
- 5,371
- Reviews
- 64
- Rating
- (4.15)
- Languages
- 6 — Dutch, English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 113
- ASINs
- 46