The way we live now
by Anthony Trollope · first published 1875
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A satirical Victorian novel about financial speculation and corruption, drawing parallels to later bubbles. Suited to lovers of social satire and long, character-rich books.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
From a review of the Anthony Trollope canon in The Economist (2020/04/08 edition): “The Way We Live Now” (1875) is as much a portrait of the last few decades as it is of the high Victorian age, and every bit as addictive as HBO’s hit series “Succession”. The novel’s anti-hero, Augustus Melmotte, is one of the great portraits of the businessman as ogre—a “horrid, big, rich scoundrel”, “a bloated swindler” and “vile city ruffian” who bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Robert Maxwell (and to living figures who had best not be named for legal reasons). Despite his foreign birth and myster
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See also Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now. Which was written in 1875. About the financial scandals of the 1870s.
on “Today’s correction isn’t much like the dot-com bubble” ↗Trollope's The Way We Live Now is a classic, and still very relevant today. I doubt there's a single unique absolute worst novelist. But self-publishing has allowed people with no talent for English, never mind for fiction, to hawk…
on “What I Learned from the Worst Novelist in the English Language” ↗…experiment, enabling people who didn’t live in the 19th century to see what happens when banking and investing is treated like the wild west For those who can read long books, see Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_We_Live_Now The 2001 television version was also excellent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_We_Live_Now_(2001_TV_s... , and only four episodes, instead of…
on “FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns” ↗…Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh Diaries, Samuel Pepys Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope Bevis, Richard Jeffries The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse Hitch-22, essaysChristopher Hitchens Collected Essays, William Hazlitt…
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?” ↗…Game, Hermann Hesse A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh Diaries, Samuel Pepys Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope Bevis, Richard Jeffries The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse Hitch-22, essays, Christopher Hitchens Collected Essays, William…
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?” ↗I happened to read Trollope's The Way We Live Now, which is a fantastic take on the railway mania, at the height of the dot com bubble. Really increased the enjoyment to read about it and see it unfold in real time.
on “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” ↗…point of view of a shocking crime, and through them a mystery is explained, and a complex portrait of India's many faces is revealed. I have a soft spot for satirical Brit-novels, like Vanity Fair, The Way We Live Now, and Wodehouse. Biography Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, by Roger Lowenstein. An insightful biography of the greatest living investor, or maybe of all time. Gates, by Manes and Andrews,…
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗I read “The Way We Live Now” at the height of the first dot com bubble. Amazing. There is truly nothing new under the sun.
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗…answer a different question: "Do you support some unquestionably virtuous cause?" This is the reason that that runners of big cons typically give very generously to charities. See Anthony Trollope's "The Way We Live Now".
on “Notes on Nationalism (1945)” ↗