The Way We Live Now (Modern Library) [Hardcover]

Anthony Trollope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 1996 | Series: Modern Library

"Trollope did not write for posterity," observed Henry James. "He wrote for the day, the moment; but these are just the writers whom posterity is apt to put into its pocket." Considered by contemporary critics to be Trollope's greatest novel, The Way We Live Now is a satire of the literary world of London in the 1870s and a bold indictment of the new power of speculative finance in English life. "I was instigated by what I conceived to be the commercial profligacy of the age," Trollope said.
   His story concerns Augustus Melmotte, a French swindler and scoundrel, and his daughter, to whom Felix Carbury, adored son of the authoress Lady Carbury, is induced to propose marriage for the sake of securing a fortune. Trollope knew well the difficulties of dealing with editors, publishers, reviewers, and the public; his portrait of Lady Carbury, impetuous, unprincipled, and unswervingly devoted to her own self-promotion, is one of his finest satirical achievements.
   His picture of late nineteenth century England is of a society on the verge of moral bankruptcy, where the traditional virtues of Tory squirearchy, represented by Roger Carbury, prove to be no match for the financial genius of Augustus Melmotte. In The Way We Live Now Trollope combines his talents as a portraitist and his skills as a storyteller to give us life as it was lived more than a hundred years ago.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Trollope's 1875 tale of a great financier's fraudulent machinations in the railway business, and his daughter's ill-use at the hands of a grasping lover (for whom she steals funds in order to elope) is a classic in the literature of money and a ripping good read as well. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"The Way We Live Now is the essence of Trollope. If he had written no other novel, it would have ensured his immortality."


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 825 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (March 5, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067960183X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679601838
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget Dickens, Trollope is where it is at!, December 3, 1999

By 

"marymoll" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way We Live Now (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

I consider it to be a tragedy that Anthony Trollope's works are largely forgotten and overlooked by the reading public. So many well-educated people have never even heard ot him, although his novels are some of the best representatives of what a good novel should be! His beautiful storytelling in "The Way We Live Now" is just another example of Trollope at his best. A master raconteur, his vivid descriptions and cutting satire make this work one of his most controversial (at least at the time) and indeed one of his most respected. Though his longest work, it certainly does not seem long because he keeps the reader on his toes, so much so, that he is dying to know what will happen next. The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is the fact that it is difficult to find a character whom you can like. Each one, and there are many, has one or more particular faults, and we, as the readers, quickly realize that no one is perfect. Even the sympathetic characters are prejudiced at times. This, I believe, is a marked contrast to Dickensian personnages who much of the time are almost too angelic or cruel to be believable. Trollope give us a lesson in true human nature, one that will be very hard for me to forget.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 19th Century Tale that Could Have Taken Place in 2008, March 16, 2010

By 

Gary L. Misch "glm" (Syria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Way We Live Now (Kindle Edition)

I bought this book based on a Newsweek recommended reading list. It concerns greed, pursuit of position, and fraud in late 19th century London, but most of the story line reads as if it could have been set in 2008, during the financial scandals on Wall Street. There is even a Bernard Madoff type figure in the story. There is also a BBC/PBS adaptation available on DVD. It is also excellent, but necessarily lacks some of the richness of detail that we find in the book. I don't think of Tollope's books as page turners, but I got to a point where I didn't want to put this down. Perhaps in a few years the material won't seem as fresh, but right now it's very timely.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, December 25, 2001

By 

M. S. Tucker "subversive snot" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way We Live Now (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

This work of literature encompassing life among the upper-crust of society in Victorian England is by far the best fictional representation I have ever read.

Trollope creates fantastic characters from the saintly/virginal society girl who pines for a lover, to a dastardly gentleman who squanders his families small fortune on rather unsavoury habits such as gambling and less than scrupulous women.

Most of this is told through the perspective of the matriarch of one family (Lady Carbury) who's only wish is that her son (a scoundrel at best) marry well and with any luck above his station (which he tries to sabotage at every turn) and for her daughter to marry into wealth at any cost whatsoever. That with the general gossip and the "Newcomer's from Paris" (The Family Melmotte) who left Paris hurriedly it seems under a rather dark cloud of suspicion will keep you glued to this book throughout. It is a very lengthy novel (481 pages) but you will be desperately turning the pages in the Appendix hoping for just a bit more!