With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Merchant. Canterbury Christ ChurchCollege Trollope paints a picture as panoramic as his title promises, ofthe life of 1870s London, the loves of those drawn to and through thecity, and the career of Augustus Melmotte. Melmotte is one of theVictorian novel's greatest and strangest creations, and The Way We LiveNow is an achievement undimmed by the passage of time. Trollope's 'Now'might, in the twenty-first century, look like some distant disenchanted'Then', but this is still the yesterday which we must understand in orderto make proper sense of our today.