The Way We Live Now

First published in 1875, this novel follows the London season in which Augustus Melmotte, a financier of uncertain origin, floats a great American railway and buys his way into Parliament and high society. Lady Carbury writes for money and pushes her son Felix to marry Melmotte's daughter Marie; Roger Carbury of Suffolk loves Hetta; Paul Montague is entangled in the railway and with the American Mrs Hurtle. Around them, a club of idle young men, a ruined squire, and City speculators treat marriage and shares as the same gamble. The plot tracks the boom and the exposure of Melmotte's credit as households choose between land, love, and cash.

Quarter dark red series binding, purple-pink paper boards with the border in dark red. Purple-pink endleaves. Purple-pink slipcase.