The Way We Live Now (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Often considered Trollope's greatest novel, this satire of British life, written in 1875, leaves no aspect of society unexamined. Through his large cast of characters, who represent many levels of society, Trollope examines the hypocrisies of class, at the same time that he often develops sympathy for these characters who are sometimes caught in crises not of their own making. Filling the novel with realistic details and providing vivid pictures of the various settings in which the characters find themselves, Trollope also creates a series of exceptionally vibrant characters who give life to this long and sometimes cynical portrait of those who move the country.

Lady Carbury, her innocent daughter Henrietta (Hetta), and her attractive but irresponsible son Felix are the family around which much of the action rotates. They are always in need of money and Lady Carbury writes pap novels to support the family (and Felix's drinking and gambling). In contrast to the Carburys, and just as important to the plot, are the Melmottes. Augustus Melmotte, who has come from Vienna under a cloud of financial suspicions, has acquired a huge estate for himself, his foreign wife, and his marriageable daughter. Boorish, but determined to become a leader of society, Melmotte provides moments of humor for the reader, though he is scorned by an aristocracy which is nevertheless beholden to him for his investments.

When Melmotte becomes the major investor in a plan to build a railway from California to Mexico, Paul Montague, a handsome engineer who has been working in America, arrives in town. A ward of Roger Carbury, cousin of Felix and Hetta, he soon finds himself in love with Hetta--and in competition with Roger for her hand. Felix courts the Melmottes' daughter for her fortune, and she falls in love with him while he dallies with a local domestic worker. Investors dash to buy shares in the Mexican railway, and their investments ending in the sticky hands of Melmotte, who has bigger plans.

Often addressing the reader directly, Trollope fills the novel with action and subplots which illustrate a wide variety of themes, often depicting his characters satirically to illustrate the social, political, and financial ills of the day. Ahead of his time for his depiction of the lively, intelligent woman whose role is defined (and limited) by her social and financial position, Trollope creates a number of resourceful women--and a number who are willing to do almost anything to marry a wealthy man. As is customary in Victorian novels, the good are rewarded here, and the evil are punished, but Trollope's characters, unlike those by Dickens, for example, usually control their own destinies. Broad in scope, thoughtful in construction, complete in its depiction of 1870s' England, filled with wonderful characters, and absolutely engrossing to read, The Way We Live Now is one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. Mary Whipple

Trollope's masterpiece of love, business, ambition & fecklessness is as pertinent today as it was when it was first published. Sharp, witty and compassionate: a fabulous read.

I have a paperback edition of this already, but it was so good to see that I could download a free one to my kindle. First published in book form in 1875 this had already had a popular run in serialization form. At the time this was considered to be Trollope's best work, and indeed apart from the 'Barchester Chronicles' series you can't really dispute that even today.

What Trollope wrote here will always be relevant, as greed will always be with us. This is a scathing satire on the greed that occurs when people think that they can make a lot of money quickly. The story itself has great characters and is an easy read, despite its length, indeed when I first read this from the library it was the first Trollope novel I ever read, and from there on I have read loads of other of his books over the years, with ones like this that I always return to.

This particular tale is ultimately based around what happened with the 'South Sea Bubble', but we still see the same things occuring again and again, and amazingly people still thinking that the next new thing isn't going to be a bubble. If you have never read Trollope before this is as good a place as any to start, and who knows, you may become a life long fan of this writer. Remember though, this is a 19th Century novel, so you have sub-plots as well as the main plot. I know some people don't like that these days, but I always feel that it gives another dimension, and ultimately when you think about it, in real life you are never dealing with just one thing at a time.