The Way We Live Now

The Way We Live Now is a satirical novel by Anthony Trollope. Trollope returned to England from abroad and was appalled by the greed which was loose in the land. His scolding rebuke was his longest novel. Containing over a hundred chapters, The Way We Live Now is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s, and lashes out at the pervading dishonesty of the age, commercial, political, moral, and intellectual. Trollope described his motivations for writing the novel as follows: a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid that there seems to be reason for fearing that men and women will be taught to feel that dishonesty, if it can become splendid, will cease to be abominable. If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palaces and get into Parliament, and deal in millions, then dishonesty is no longer disgraceful.