The Way We Live Now

   Published in 1875, The Way We Live Now is considered by many to be Anthony Trollope’s greatest novel.  Its scathing satire reveals the author’s deep disillusionment with British society in the late Victorian era.  The majority of his characters are shallow, vapid, and easily manipulated by shrewd operators.  Trollope’s more clever characters, though in the minority, dominate the characters around them, and indeed dominate the story itself with their colorful schemes, their wicked triumphs, and their infamous failures.  The Way We Live Now is a satire, astutely observing the clash of the old and new in British society and poking fun at both sides throughout the story.  The novel itself is good, with delightfully and surprisingly modern plot twists, but its Trollope’s characters that drive this story and ultimately distinguish it as a great novel.

The Way We Live NowWritten by Anthony Trollope
Pages: 766
Ranked: 26 of 100

   The novel itself tells many stories--love stories, stories of ambition and greed, and, most interestingly, the story of several families striving to better their status in London society.  The Grendalls and the Longestaffes, two such families, are intent upon keeping up appearances; despite their great financial strains, both families maintain houses in the country and in town simply because it befits their status in society.  The young men persist in hunting and riding, as well as recklessly drinking and gambling at their clubs.  Despite their lack of funds, none of the major characters are engaged in any sort of profitable trade--one or two maintain a seat in Parliament and many sit on the board of directors for a fictional Mexican-American railroad, but no one in the novel actually works.  Among this level of society, to maintain an actual trade was considered un-gentlemanlike; furthermore, engaging in any type of work was to essentially lower one’s status.  Many families instead sought to attach themselves to families with greater wealth.  It is this situation that the great financier Augustus Melmotte, Trollope’s most colorful character, worked to exploit for his own gain.  

   Arriving from Paris with millions in “new money,” Melmotte sought to elevate his own status within London society by attaching his family to the old aristocratic families like the Grendalls and the Longestaffes.  To accomplish this, Melmotte virtually auctions his daughter off, selling her not to the bidder with the most money, but to the bachelor with the highest rank.  Initially, Melmotte is forced to work hard to win over society; he hosts grand parties, inviting the crème de la crème of London society, but he is so coarse and uncouth that he is not permitted to converse with his guests.  In time, however, rumors of his vast wealth combine with several families’ need for money and Melmotte becomes the most celebrated figure in London.  Despite personally loathing the man and the general class of “new money,” the novel’s aristocrats are forced to ingratiate themselves to Melmotte, becoming toadies in his retinue.  Melmotte employs many of these gentlemen as his secretaries, lording over them as he enjoys his new status.  He meets foreign royalty, entertains the Chinese Emperor, and wins a seat in Parliament.  Melmotte rises to such great heights that it becomes inevitable that he, like the fabled Icarus, is destroyed by his own need to ascend higher and higher.

   The storyline surrounding Melmotte is fascinating and entertaining.  Melmotte is an intriguing figure, at once both ignorant and clever.  His lack of understanding of British society makes him coarse and unappealing, but his insight into human nature allows him to easily manipulate those around him.  Trollope describes Melmotte and his schemes with an ironic tone, frequently hinting at his own disillusionment in a society that allowed men like Melmotte to rise to grandeur.  It’s often hard to tell whom Trollope despised more: men like Melmotte, or the men and women whom Melmotte so easily defrauds.  Most remarkable, however, is the timelessness of this storyline.  Though it is set in Victorian England, Melmotte and his contemporaries could easily find their counterparts in today’s world, a world which saw Bernie Madoff rise and fall in similar fashion.  Furthermore, Melmotte is a great character because though he is a caricature, he is a believable one; the reader can easily picture him in a modern New York or Washington office, deftly entrapping modern elites in elaborate investment schemes.  

The scholar in my couldn't resist underlining
or marking my favorite lines and passages

   While Melmotte’s story arc is the most interesting for its timelessness, the historian in me is compelled by the situation of women in Trollope’s novel.  Like many women of the era, Marie Melmotte is betrothed by her father to a British aristocrat for whom she has no feelings or attachment.  Throughout the novel, Marie is pursued by several young men who dislike her person but are greatly attracted to her fortune.  Marie’s engagement to a Lord Nidderdale resembles more of a financial transaction than an actual courtship, a practice that was fairly common in history.  Similarly, another character, Georgiana Longestaffe, engages herself to a man more than twice her age solely because he was financially well off.  Despite being repulsed by the man’s religion and appearance, Georgiana is driven by a fear of spinsterhood and poverty to accept an offer from a man whom she dislikes.  In several instances throughout the novel, Trollope’s female characters sacrifice personal happiness to suit certain monetary needs.  In many ways, this makes the women of The Way We Live Now the most sympathetic characters--the young men blithely ignore their responsibilities in favor of gambling and gaiety, thus compelling the women to step in and remedy the situation through a profitable marriage.  Excepting Melmotte, the women are also the most interesting and artful characters of the novel.  Trollope’s female characters demonstrate greater personal growth and strength than do their male counterparts.  One or two men redeem themselves, but overwhelmingly it is the women who dominate the pages with their strong personalities, their difficult situations, and, ultimately, their graceful handling of their affairs.

   The Way We Live Now is a great novel because, through satire, Trollope portrays society in a harsh, but honest light.  While many of his characters are caricatures of all that Trollope despised in British society, his characterizations are real and believable.  The reader can easily understand and follow each character’s motivations because, in large part, they all relate back to basic aspects of human nature--greed, desire, desperation, etc.  But most importantly, Trollope’s characters are human--while Melmotte is a swindler and a bully, we also see his desperation, his fear, and his insecurity.  We despise Melmotte, but we also come to feel for him, to pity him.  The ability to create such a dynamic character, and set him in such among other similarly believable figures, makes The Way We Live Now a wonderful and enjoyable read.