The Way We Live Now

The mysterious financier Augustus Melmotte buys a great house in London, where he succeeds in persuading many prominent Londoners to invest in his fictitious railroad, the South Central Pacific and Mexican. Melmotte also attempts to secure for himself a place in the House of Commons and to marry his daughter to a titled aristocrat. His daughter, however, falls for the rakish Felix Carbury and steals the money to finance their elopement; Felix gambles it away and jilts her, and she marries an American speculator as crooked as her father. Melmotte`s various schemes and forgeries lead to his unmasking and, in one of Trollope`s most powerful scenes, he kills himself. Although unpopular and considered almost unbearably cynical when it first appeared in 1875, THE WAY WE LIVE NOW is widely considered Trollope`s masterpiece--a scathing indictment of the materialism and greed that permeated the Victorian Age, and a devastating satire of the effects of crass commercialism on politics, the upper classes, the literary world, marriage, and financial institutions. It also contains the memorable portrait of Lady Carbury, an unscrupulous writer who will do anything to promote her books. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.