The Way We Live Now

Hard going with many despicable characters, and a few upright characters - but worth following through to the end. Values in the making.

This book is a must-read for any aficionado of the Victorian novel, and will amaze readers who know Trollope only through the Barsetshire novels and wonder if he had the ability to step back from Victorian society and subject it to rigid scrutiny. The Way We Live Now is far more bleak than most of Trollope's work, yet not irredeemably so. The clear moral focus is still there as is Trollope's acute understanding that there is good and bad in all of us. For all the withering portraits it includes, the main characters are never caricatures. Even moral touchstones such as Roger Carbury are shown in all their murky complexity while they guide us through the still murkier world of speculation, vanity and avarice. And secondary characters such as Lord Nidderdale and Georgiana and Dolly Longestaffe are absolute gems. This is a masterpiece of the first order, one to read again and again and cherish. It brilliantly describes "the way we live now" and has wise counsel as to "how we should then live."

I consider it to be a tragedy that Anthony Trollope's works are largely forgotten and overlooked by the reading public. So many well-educated people have never even heard ot him, although his novels are some of the best representatives of what a good novel should be! His beautiful storytelling in "The Way We Live Now" is just another example of Trollope at his best. A master raconteur, his vivid descriptions and cutting satire make this work one of his most controversial (at least at the time) and indeed one of his most respected. Though his longest work, it certainly does not seem long because he keeps the reader on his toes, so much so, that he is dying to know what will happen next. The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is the fact that it is difficult to find a character whom you can like. Each one, and there are many, has one or more particular faults, and we, as the readers, quickly realize that no one is perfect. Even the sympathetic characters are prejudiced at times. This, I believe, is a marked contrast to Dickensian personnages who much of the time are almost too angelic or cruel to be believable. Trollope give us a lesson in true human nature, one that will be very hard for me to forget.