Key themes
- Financial fraud and the society that celebrates it
- The corruption of old values by new money
- Satire so exact it becomes sad rather than funny
About this book
From a review of the Anthony Trollope canon in The Economist (2020/04/08 edition): *“The Way We Live Now” (1875) is as much a portrait of the last few decades as it is of the high Victorian age, and e
Published serially 1874-75, The Way We Live Now is Trollope's longest and most ambitious novel. He wrote it partly in response to the financial scandals of the early 1870s. It was poorly received on publication and is now considered his masterpiece.
Discussion questions
- Augustus Melmotte is a fraudster who becomes a social celebrity. What is Trollope saying about the relationship between money and respectability in Victorian England — and how contemporary does this feel?
- The novel was written in response to what Trollope saw as a general dishonesty in English society. Is it a topical satire or something more lasting?
- The subplot involving the American heiress Winifred Hurtle gives the novel some of its most interesting passages. What is Trollope doing with the American character in an English social novel?
- The novel is very long — Trollope wrote it in an astonishing nine months. Does its length feel justified, or does the satire become repetitive?
- The Way We Live Now is Trollope's darkest novel. Given his usual realism and good humour, what does this darkness say about how seriously he took the problem he was diagnosing?
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