This edition of Anthony Trollope's biting satire on the Victorian culture contains all of the original illustrations.
Written as a withering response to the damage suffered to various economies in the 1870s as a number of financial scandals came out into the open, The Way We Live Now is Trollope's attack upon a society he considered to be ostensibly moral, but in reality dishonest and greedy.
The protagonist is Augustus Melmotte, whose past is ambiguous - however his manner and guile assist in his travelling among high society. Hosting a lavish party in which the major investors of London are invited, Melmotte stirs up a good deal of local gossip and establishes a reputation for himself in spite of rumours about his past failed business ventures.
It is soon revealed that Melmotte is running an elaborate 'pump and dump' scheme involving the construction of railways from the USA into Mexico. By wooing and impressing investors with his apparent success and considerable largesse, Melmotte hopes to attract substantial investment in a company which in fact does not intend to build any such rail line.
Meanwhile we find subplots between members of society arranging marriages in order to strengthen their influence and finances. Other members however are more occupied with frittering away their inheritances - the vice-ridden baronet Sir Felix Carbury the most given to such reckless behaviour. Melmotte's wider family, and a cunning American lady known as Mrs Hurtle, also play their parts.
At length - the book contains 100 substantial chapters - we witness Melmotte connive and con his way to the top of British society. He is elected to Parliament, having successfully presented himself as a figure of rectitude and great charm, while in actuality he is anything but.
Notable for being among the last Victorian novels to be published entirely in serial format, The Way We Live Now ambitiously attempts to exposes the core elements of the Victorian establishment as a sham and front for various sins. Trollope himself would later concede that while certain characters are dull, the novel's best parts lay among its 'wicked and foolish' characters.
Adapted for television multiple times, and for radio in the United States, The Way We Live Now remains an abiding classic.
