"Trollope did not write for posterity. He wrote for the day, the moment; but these are just the writers whom posterity is apt to put into its pocket." - Henry James "A wise man told me I would learn more about life from a great novelist than from any other source. I did not believe him. Now I wouldn't dream of going on holiday without a Trollope. He has enlarged my world." - Sir Alec Guinness "Trollope kills me, kills me with his excellence!" - Leo Tolstoy "Trollope's novels are filled with belief in goodness without the slightest tinge of maudlin." - George Eliot The Way We Live Now was Trollope's longest novel, and is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s; Trollope had just returned to England from abroad, and was appalled by the greed and dishonesty those scandals exposed. This novel was his rebuke. It dramatises how that greed and dishonesty pervaded the commercial, political, moral, and intellectual life of that era. Augustus Melmotte is a financier with a mysterious past. He is rumoured to have Jewish origins, and to be connected to some failed businesses in Vienna. When he moves his business and his family to London, the city's upper crust begins buzzing with rumours about him - and a host of people ultimately find their lives changed because of him. Once Melmotte left the scene, a more familiar cast of bounders and rogues takes over..." Melmotte sets up his office in the City of London and purchases a fine house in Grosvenor Square. He sets out to woo rich and powerful investors by hosting a lavish party. He finds an appropriate investment vehicle when he is approached by an American entrepreneur, Hamilton K. Fisker, to float a company to construct a new railway line running from Salt Lake City, USA, to Veracruz, Mexico. Melmotte's goal is to ramp up the share price without paying any of his own money into the scheme itself, thus further enriching himself, regardless of whether the line gets built. Amongst the aristocrats on the company's board is Sir Felix Carbury, a dissolute young baronet who is quickly running through his widowed mother's savings. In an attempt to restore their fortunes, as they are being beset by their creditors, his mother, Matilda, Lady Carbury - who is embarking on a writing career - endeavours to have him become engaged to Marie, Melmotte's only child, and thus a considerable heiress. Sir Felix manages to win Marie's heart, but his schemes are blocked by Melmotte, who has no intention of allowing his daughter to marry a penniless aristocrat. Felix's situation is also complicated by his relationship with Ruby Ruggles, a pretty farm girl living with her grandfather on the estate of Roger Carbury, his well-off cousin. In the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway Board meetings, chaired and controlled by Melmotte, Fisker's partner, Paul Montague, raises difficult questions. Paul's personal life is also complicated. He falls in love with Lady Carbury's young and beautiful daughter Hetta - much to her mother's displeasure - but has been followed to England by a former American fiancée, Mrs Winifred Hurtle. Mrs Hurtle is determined to make Paul marry her based on the fact that they had lived together in America, and that she offered him "all that a woman can give". It is Lady Carbury's plan, advised by her literary friend Mr Broune, a distinguished London publisher, for Hetta to marry her cousin Roger. Roger has been Paul's mentor, and the two come into conflict over their attentions towards Hetta, who steadfastly refuses to marry her cousin.