”There are a thousand little silly softnesses which are pretty and endearing between acknowledged lovers, with which no woman would like to dispense, to which even men who are in love submit sometimes with delight; but which in other circumstances would be vulgar,— and to the woman distasteful. T...more

A great novel, perhaps Trollope's best. But it's not the one I usually recommend to those who have never read Trollope and want to try him. For one thing, it's very long. For another, it's pretty dark. There are a lot of characters in this novel, and almost every one of them views money as the su...more

I first read this book back in... hmm... 1998? 1999? Loved it, and was inspired to pull it off the shelf for a re-read in light of the unfolding financial collapse/bail-out. Everything I read about Wall Street firms reminds me of the 4 guys gambling in their private club, the "Beargarden" -- craz...more

The more that I read Victorian literature the more I am convinced that back in those days it was all about authors showing off. The educated public who could actually read and write were in much smaller proportion to the whole society than today. These people wanted to spend their hard earned shi...more

This is TWWLN. We have Augustus Melmotte, a tinpot proto-Trump, weaselling his malign mannerless ass into power and parliament. We have heaven-kissed moral fulcrum Roger Carbury, with his pathological jonesing to shag his boring cousin. We have Hetty Carbury, the boring cousin with no life prospe...more

I can see why people speak of The Way We Live Now (1875) as Trollope’s masterpiece. It’s quite superb. It’s a vast novel (a hundred chapters), but it never dragged in the least for me. Trollope is fairly light on description and leans hard on dialogue, with which he has a wonderfully deft touch....more

Not just the way they lived in Britain in 1873, but the way we live now in 2017 America. Trollop wrote with sharp satiric intent about a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, [that] has become at the same time so rampant and so sple...more

“Who does not know that sudden thoughtfulness at waking, that first matutinal retrospection, and prospection, into things as they have been and are to be; and the lowness of the heart, the blankness of hope which follows the first remembrance of some folly lately done, some word ill-spoken, some...more

As good the third time as the first. A brilliant, engaging read, a fascinating exploration of money, power and class in the Victorian period.

Virginia Woolf called Middlemarch "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people," one of my favorite things anyone's ever said about a book. They're sortof surprisingly rare, right?

Top Five Novels For Grown-Up People
5. Remains of the Day
4. War & Peace
3. Mrs. Dalloway
2. The Way We...more