Saturday 27 June 2015

Book review: The Way We Live Now


In 1870's London, Mr. Melmotte, a financier with a mysterious past is rising the ranks of society. The gentry, among them the Longestaffe family, abhor him and want nothing to do with him. But their own financial troubles will force them to seek Mr. Melmotte's help. Mr. Melmotte's daughter, Marie, is flaunted before all the bachelors in London, but loses her heart to the dissolute young baronet Felix Carbury. Carbury's sister Hetta is trapped between two men: her kind and dependable cousin Roger whom she does not love and the young businessman Paul Montague, who seems to be keeping secrets from her.


The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope is a satirical novel, inspired by the financial scandals of the 1870s which shocked Trollope. It dramatizes how greed and dishonesty influenced society and politics at the time. It is Trollope's longest novel with a large host of characters and quite a few subplots.

After reading and enjoying my first Trollope novel He Knew He Was Right last year, I decided this year to read the other Trollope novel whose story I already knew (thank you, BBC...) I must say, it was quite a chore to get through this 'brick' and if not for some audiobook help, I don't know if I'd have finished it. This might say more about my busy and slightly chaotic life then about this book though.

Anyway, I'm glad that I finished it, though it will not be among my favourite classics. The Way We Live Now is quite a dreary book and I found it even downright boring at times. This might have to do with the main theme: money and how it influences society. Not a theme I'm awfully interested in, even though it was fascinating to see how Victorian society was busy with money All-The-Time. It also didn't really help that none of the main characters were truly sympathetic or easy to identify with. They were almost all greedy and looking out only for their own interest, some were downright awful (Mr. Melmotte, Felix Carbury). Trollope undoubtedly is a master in creating life-like characters, but the characters in this novel are just no fun to follow.

I must say something about the female characters though, something I also already alluded to in my review of He Knew He Was Right. I feel like Trollope writes more 'real' female characters than any other Victorian novelist I know so far. His leading ladies are less stereotypically bad or good then those in books of for example Dickens and Gaskell and can often surprise you. For example Marie Melmotte, who at first seems a victim of her father, but turns out to be very intelligent and shrewd. 

Unfortunately the only really sympathetic female character in the book, Hetta Carbury is a bit of a 'wet rag' and I wasn't too fond of her romance story either. That might also be one reason why I couldn't like this book more, the fact that a romance you could root for was missing. 

All in all, though The Way We Live Now is no doubt well-plotted and well-written, it wasn't a great book for me. I will keep reading other Trollope novels though!

11 comments:

  1. I really like the BBC adaptation, but I'm not sure if I could make it through the novel... especially if it's long and occasionally boring. How many pages is it? I do love interesting characters though, and these ones interested me very much in the mini-series. I also liked the the Hetta/Paul romance in the miniseries. Is it the same or worse in the book would you say? Maybe I should keep it in mind for whenever I'm feeling daring and have lots of free time. :P

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    1. I don't remember how many pages, but it was 100 chapters. I brought the book back to the library, so I can't look up the page number for you ;-)

      I don't think the Hetta/Paul romance was so different in the book compared to the mini-series. I wasn't a fan of the romance in the adaptation either. I just couldn't like Paul for his inability to let go of Mrs. Hurtle right away and I thought Hetta deserved better

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    2. That's okay, 100 chapters gives me a good idea! I see, and I know what you mean, that did annoy me quite a bit too, but I liked their romance in spite of it, so maybe I should brave the book someday... :)

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  2. I've never tried any of Trollope's works, and it sounds like I may not enjoy them if I did. After watching the miniseries for He Knew He was Right, I was mightily depressed for a few days because it was such a tragic, self-righteous story. I do think I might have one of his books on my Classics Challenge list, though, so I may be reading some of his work within the next few years.

    Was the miniseries for this any good?

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    1. The main story of He Knew He Was Right was really depressing, but the side-stories really made up for that I thought.

      The mini-series for The Way We Live Now was okay, but as with the book, I couldn't really get behind the themes or characters.

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  3. I've never read anything by Trollope, I think because his last name makes me think of trollops. Somewhat silly reason, but there it is.

    BTW, I tagged you here. Play if you want to!

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    1. Hehe, I always thought his name was pronounced as TrollopE, but then I heard on the audiobook that it was actually Trollop. That is indeed a weird name.

      Thanks for the tag, I'll see if I can schedule some time for it, hehe...

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  4. Great review, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this title! I've been meaning to read Anthony Trollope's books, but I get the feeling it'll be a few more years before I start tackling some of his works (there's still a number of other classics I'd like to read first and that are higher up in the queue) :)

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    1. You're so good with classics, I'm in awe at all that you read, so I've no doubt you'll fly through Trollope!

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  5. Interesting! This might be one I'll have to watch first before deciding whether or not to read it.

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    1. If you lived closer I could lend you the DVD, I have it in my collection!

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