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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780140433920
ISBN number: 0140433929
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 816
Printing Date: April 01, 1995
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 419609
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Augustus Melmotte is a fraudulent foreign financier who preys on dissolute nobility - using charm to tempt the weak into making foolish investments in his dubious schemes. Persuaded to put money into a notional plot to run a railroad from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, the capricious gambler Felix Carbury soon becomes one of his victims. But as Melmotte climbs higher in society, his web of deceit - which also draws in characters as diverse as his own daughter Marie and Felix's mother, the pulp novelist Lady Carbury - begins to unravel. A radical exploration of the dangers associated with speculative capitalism, this is a fascinating satire about a society on the verge of moral bankruptcy.
Amazon.com Review:
Trollope's 1875 tale of a great financier's fraudulent machinations in the railway business, and his daughter's ill-use at the hands of a grasping lover (for whom she steals funds in order to elope) is a classic in the literature of money and a ripping good read as well.
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Rated by buyers 
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Technically an excellent novel but, unlike the wonderful Barset chronicles, we read of dark dreary cynical people in a decaying English society. I for one was quite happy to turn the last page and leave this world.
We find Trollope's usual ingredients here: imperfect people finding themselves in morally ambiguous situations, the moral calculus by which these situations are resolved, Trollope's profound understanding of how important money is (and his surprising insights on liquity and high finance!) the artful manner in which the author speaks directly to his audience, the realistically if mechanically developed plot.
But there's hardly anyone to like here. Not Felix Carbury, the closest thing to an evil man I've found in the Trollope novels I've read, not his mother Lady Carbury, not the financial magnate Augustus Melmotte, not the good but intransigent Roger Carbury, not his rival and former friend the meek and mousey Paul Montague. How on earth he found two women to love him I can't imagine. We sympathize with Melmotte's daughter Mary but can hardly come to like her, there not being much to either like or hate in her. There'd be Mrs. Hurtle whom we might like if the thoroughly disapproving Trollope gave her half a chance. But he doesn't; she is American after all.
In the end, I break my rule of giving five stars to widely recognized classics, for two reasons. First the ending of each subplot is too engineered and too formulaic even for a 19th century victorian classic. Trollope virtually admits this much by having the editor Mr. Broune tell Lady Carbury how novels ought to always end, and then proceeds himself to follow his character's advice. Perhaps he was warning readers not to expect too much.
Second I found the novel profoundly racist in a manner someone like Trollope should never have allowed. Moral relativism is one thing but an apology for immorality is quite another. It's one thing to compromise with a racist world and say "we can get this much now, that's good" and quite another to say "they've gotten enough, let them be satisfied and let us yield no more". In his treatment of Jews, Americans, and Europeans of mysterious ancestry Trollope shamefully sets himself amongst the latter.
Explicitly Trollope sympathizes with these people and shows them to be noble and good, but he then ties up the various stories hinting it's better not to mix blood lines. If Trollope wanted to offer more than cynicism in this moral tale, then Melmotte's Jewish friend should have gained his English bride and Mrs. Hurtle should have found marital bliss in England. I suppose that wouldn't have pleased Trollope's paying readers the 1870s...
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Rated by buyers 
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No need to buy this book, it is interesting enough to read it off your computer screen. I think that says a lot. Very contemporary and thus has survived passage of time, contains a lot of anti-Semite statements which when compared to a Dickens or a Thackeray seemed excessive.
Rated by buyers -
"The Trillion Dollar Meltdown" by Charles Morris mentions this book and I; a bit of an adventuresome sort thought I would read it.
I found the book charming to a fault; I was completely enamoured with the characters; and enjoyed the book immensely.
During the entire book tho, I could not help but remind myself that had it not been for the classical style of the writing itself, one would think this book had been written about America's financial industry at present.
Definately a great read, and highly recommended that one place it on the Summer Reading schedule.
My only complaint is the number of bl&tant typographical errors, which at times made reading a tad difficult and humourous.
Rated by buyers 
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I read Anthony Trollope's novel after I had seen the BBC mini-series of the same name. Although I had read a lot of Dickens, Thackeray and Elliot I had never read any of Trollope's novels. I am glad that I watched the BBC adaptation because this novel is as delightful to read as those of the famous novelists mentioned above.
The story starts with the introduction of Lady Carbury and her good-for-nothing son Sir Felix Carbury but soon many other characters are introduced. Among this the great financier and swindler Auguste Melmotte is the most interesting. As in the Dickens novels, the villains are the most fascinating characters here. There are some side stories like that of Hetta Carbury-Paul Montague and Ruby Rubbles-John Crumb. But to tell the truth, these stories are not as enjoyable to read as the others except that they introduce us to some great characters like Mrs. Hurtle and Roger Carbury. Mrs. Hurtle is very interesting because her ideas of how a woman should take control of her own destiny are very modern. Roger Carbury is in fact the only character who behaves honorably and sensibly throughout the novel with the addition of maybe Hetta Carbury but she is of too little consequence to deserve any interest.
Another character to note is Marie Melmotte, Melmotte's daugher who becomes the object of many a titled personality's attentions not because she is beautiful and her family is respectable but because her father is very rich. She evolves through the novel and comes out as one of the strongest characters.
Involvement of Dolly Longstaffe and Lord Nidderdale are also very enjoyable because although they are very mercenary in their attitude there is a comic element to their existence.
Anthony Trollope's depiction of the society in the Victorian times is very interesting. In the earlier novels that I have read, like Jane Austen's novels of the Edwardian era, although people are governed by monetary concerns, they always take care to stay within some principles like never condescending to marry someone in trade. Here we see that land owners are willing to associate with City people. There is a changing attitude against Jewish people too. I don't agree with the opinions of some reviewers who think the novel is anti-Semitic. Although Melmotte is thought to be a Jew and Georgiana Longstaffe's engagement to Mr Brehgert is considered scandalous by her family, Trollope takes care to express his views about people's hypocrisy when he says the Christians who are outraged at such connections never visit the church themselves. Also, in spite of carrying out transactions with Melmotte, Mr Brehgert comes out as quite a decent and honest man. Another interesting point concerning religion is made through Roger Carbury's friendship of a Catholic priest. Although this side story sounds a bit contrived, it is interesting to note that one of the most respectable characters in the story is quite open-minded about having dinners with a priest though in time he gets annoyed with his over his over-zealousness in trying to convert himself.
All in all a very enjoyable satire and though it may look a a bit long to today's reader, I read in almost in a breath except for a few chapters where I wanted them to finish so that I could get to the adventures of more interesting characters.
Rated by buyers -
Often considered Trollope's greatest novel, this satire of British life, written in 1875, leaves no aspect of society unexamined. Through his large cast of characters, who represent many levels of society, Trollope examines the hypocrisies of class, at the same time that he often develops sympathy for these characters who are sometimes caught in crises not of their own making. Filling the novel with realistic details and providing vivid pictures of the various settings in which the characters find themselves, Trollope also creates a series of exceptionally vibrant characters who give life to this long and sometimes cynical portrait of those who move the country.
Lady Carbury, her innocent daughter Henrietta (Hetta), and her attractive but irresponsible son Felix are the family around which much of the action rotates. They are always in need of money and Lady Carbury writes pap novels to support the family (and Felix's drinking and gambling). In contrast to the Carburys, and just as important to the plot, are the Melmottes. Augustus Melmotte, who has come from Vienna under a cloud of financial suspicions, has acquired a huge estate for himself, his foreign wife, and his marriageable daughter. Boorish, but determined to become a leader of society, Melmotte provides moments of humour for the reader, though he is scorned by an aristocracy which is nevertheless beholden to him for his investments.
When Melmotte becomes the major investor in a plan to build a railway from California to Mexico, Paul Montague, a handsome engineer who has been working in America, arrives in town. A ward of Roger Carbury, cousin of Felix and Hetta, he soon finds himself in love with Hetta--and in competition with Roger for her hand. Felix courts the Melmottes' daughter for her fortune, and she falls in love with him while he dallies with a local domestic worker. Investors dash to buy shares in the Mexican railway, with their investments ending in the sticky hands of Melmotte, who has bigger plans.
Often addressing the reader directly, Trollope fills the novel with action and subplots which illustrate a wide variety of themes, often depicting his characters satirically to illustrate the social, political, and financial ills of the day. Ahead of his time for his depiction of the lively, intelligent woman whose role is defined (and limited) by her social and financial position, Trollope creates a number of resourceful women--and a number who are willing to do almost anything to marry a wealthy man. As is customary in Victorian novels, the good are rewarded here, and the evil are punished, but Trollope's characters, unlike those by Dickens, for example, usually control their own destinies. Broad in scope, thoughtful in construction, complete in its depiction of 1870s' England, filled with wonderful characters, and absolutely engrossing to read, The Way We Live Now is one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. n Mary Whipple
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