The Way We Live Now

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope, published in 1875, is a panoramic satire of Victorian England’s upper-class society, exposing rampant greed, financial fraud, and moral decay amid the era’s speculative boom. The sprawling narrative centers on the enigmatic financier Augustus Melmotte, whose grand schemes—like a dubious railway from Utah to Mexico—lure aristocrats, ambitious families, and opportunists into a web of deceit, intertwining their romantic pursuits and social climbing. Through characters like the scheming widow Lady Carbury, her dissolute son Sir Felix, and the principled Paul Montague, Trollope critiques a materialistic world where reputation and fortune teeter precariously, culminating in Melmotte’s dramatic downfall.