Classic
The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope
Summary
The mysterious financier Augustus Melmotte arrives in London trailing rumors and an apparently limitless fortune, and society's aristocrats, editors, and matchmaking mothers scramble to attach themselves to his railway scheme. Trollope surrounds the swindle with a cast of idle young men, mercenary suitors, and corrupted writers, indicting a culture where credit and reputation replace substance. The novel's portrait of financial fraud and social rot reads as freshly with every modern market scandal.
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Historical Context & Significance
Trollope wrote the novel as a deliberate satire of the dishonesty he saw on returning to England in the 1870s and published it in 1875. Once considered too bitter, it is now widely judged his masterpiece.