*The Way We Live Now *is Anthony Trollope's radical exploration of the dangers associated with speculative capitalism, edited with an introduction and notes by Frank Kermode in Penguin Classics.

*The Way We Live Now *is Anthony Trollope's radical exploration of the dangers associated with speculative capitalism, edited with an introduction and notes by Frank Kermode in Penguin Classics.

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.

Frank Kermode's introduction explores the real-life inspiration for Trollope's masterly satire. This edition also includes detailed notes.

Anthony Trollope (1815-82) had an unhappy childhood characterised by a stark contrast between his family's high social standing and their comparative poverty. He wrote his earliest novels while working as a Post Office inspector, but did not meet with success until the publication of the first of his 'Barsetshire novels',* The Warden (1855). As well as writing over forty novels, including such popular works as Can You Forgive Her?* (1865), Phineas Finn * (1869), He Knew He Was Right (1869) and The Way We Live Now *(1875) Trollope is credited with introducing the postbox to England.

'Trollope's masterpiece ... its examination of how hopes of easy money can corrupt remains relevant today'* Observer*