'A tale of financial skulduggery reminiscent of recent city scandals' Daily Telegraph Trollope's magnificent and prescient satire about a dishonest financier who buys his way into a corrupt society, and throws it into turmoil. ...
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'A tale of financial skulduggery reminiscent of recent city scandals' Daily Telegraph Trollope's magnificent and prescient satire about a dishonest financier who buys his way into a corrupt society, and throws it into turmoil. When the Melmottes arrive in London everyone agrees their manners are wanting, their taste is excerable and their lineage and background decidedly shadowy. But their money is far from revolting, and city society quickly makes allowances for the mysterious financier and his family. Soon hearts, minds and family savings are swept into the whirl of Augustus Melmotte's lavish parties and exciting investment plans - but is it all an elaborate swindle?
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I read "The Way We Live Now" on the recomendation of Jon Meachan, editor of Newsweek, who led an effort to develop a list of 50 books "that make sense of our times." Trollopes's 1875 satirical novel was number one on their list. It describes the financial and moral crisis of Victorian England, a crisis that is very similar to what we are going through today in the U.S. "The Way We Live Now" is a long book with 100 chapters because it was orginally written for serialization in a magazine, a common practice for writers of that era. Nonetheless, it moves quickly and has a surprising number of twists in the plot. I found it a very good read.
