Publisher's summary

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In this world of bribes, vendettas, and swindling, in which heiresses are gambled and won, Trollope's characters embody all the vices: Lady Carbury is 'false from head to foot'; her son Felix has 'the instincts of a horse, not approaching the higher sympathies of a dog'; and Melmotte - the colossal figure who dominates the book - is a 'horrid, big, rich scoundrel...a bloated swindler...a vile city ruffian'. But as vile as he is, he is considered one of Trollope's greatest creations.

Trollope's highly regarded satire is about the dishonest and villainous financier, Augustus Melmotte, who captivates and buys his way into the corrupt aristocratic society of London, throwing it into turmoil.

Described by The Guardian as 'the darkest of Trollope's 47 novels' it is also the longest with gloriously rich subplots. Inspired by the financial scandals of the 1870s, the novel is a dramatization of how greed and dishonesty permeated life during that era.

The Way We Live Now has become recognised as Trollope's masterpiece and was featured at Number 22 in The Guardian's 100 best novels.

Narrator Biography

Timothy West is prolific in film, television, theatre, and audiobooks. He has narrated a number of Anthony Trollope's classic audiobooks, including the six Chronicles of Barsetshire and The Pallisers series. He has also narrated volumes of Simon Schama's A History of Britain and John Mortimer's Rumpole on Trial.

Timothy West's theatrical credits include King Lear, The Vote, Uncle Vanya, A Number, Quarter, and Coriolanus and his films include Ever After, Joan Of Arc, Endgame, Iris, and The Day of the Jackal. On television, Timothy has appeared in Broken Biscuits (BBC), Great Canal Journeys (across 3 Series), and the regular role of Stan Carter on EastEnders (BBC).

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A tale of financial skulduggery reminiscent of recent city scandals." ( Daily Telegraph)

What listeners say about The Way We Live Now

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Superlative

I absolutely agree with Larry (reviewer from San Antonio); Trollope couldn't find a better narrator than Timothy West.

Trollope constantly surprises us, he never takes the easy option - none of his characters is totally good or totally bad. For instance, one starts off wanting Mrs Hurtle to be a villain and Paul Montague a hero, but neither turns out to be either. Even Melmotte himself is not the devil incarnate.

My only problem is that I have read most of Trollope! However, if Timothy West is the narrator, I will listen again to books I have already read.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

A fantastic read. Timothy West does a masterful job of interpreting the many characters. Anthony Trollope never gets old. Amazingly relevant plot.

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6 people found this helpful

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Love it and highly recommend!

Any additional comments?

Loved the back-story of greed, avarice, malice, and several other well-described sins. Engrossing and interesting from start to finish. Great narration.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Simply Supreme

Anthony Trollope tells an intelligent and engaging story about plausible characters and Timothy West is one of my all-time favorite readers.

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4 people found this helpful

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Good book

I really enjoyed this story. It was a good story and nice and long.

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Masterpiece

I am in love with Timothy West's narration. This book was rivetting! So much so, that I am going to travel from Australia to London to soak up Trollope's world next month and prowl around. The story and the characters became more real to me than my own daily experiences, almost. Trollope always presents the character and the problem from many different and fascinating perspectives. I could not put this reading down. I used to go for ten mile walks each day so I could listen to it uninterrupted. Beyond marvellous!! Thank-you Timothy West for your ineffably wonderful narration.

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THE OUTSTANDING TIMOTHY WEST

As Trollope is beyond praise, it remains to be said that with audio the qualities of the narrator are as vitally important as a musician interpreting a great composer. Timothy West is a narrator whose performance does justice to the greatness of Trollope, and that is not easy for this novel is packed with male and female characters. West does a marvelous job interpreting them all, and is equally successful interpreting the novelist himself, for Trollope is an ever-present voice in all his works. I got enormous pleasure listening to this long, long novel.

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Timothy West and Trollope

Absolutely superb narration, yes this book is long but I never lost interest for even a second.
Timothy Wests interpretation of all the characters voices was utterly masterful.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly Good Trollope - Excellent Narration

I took a chance with this book due to other reviews and was very glad I did. The only other Trollope book I've read was Framely Passage and disliked that - couldn't finish. This one is nothing like that one (Nor like the one I'm listening to now - Can you Forgive Her? - which is more like FP, in that, the story is about one dimensional characters who do dumb things constantly and then are unhappy with their lives. boohoo. CYFH? is social commentary on bland-superficial people, while TWWLN is a broader, more interesting social commentary on that time - much more Dickens-like). This book is fairly rich but not overly complex story with some interesting characters. Because I liked this book so much, I was not put off by the extensive thought process detailed for some of the main characters. It seems this author wanted the readers to fully understand (to possibly relate to) a characters' thoughts on why they did what they did. This might turn off some readers, as it seemed redundant in some places, so I offer this as a caution.

The narration can't be overly praised - this is among the very best I've ever listened to. He went far beyond creating voices for the various characters, but acted them out as if he were on stage. This narrator is why I went on to listed to Can You Forgive Her?, and he is very good with that book, but nearly as good as a performance as with this one!

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What to say?

I have left reviews for the preceding Anthony Trollope novels that I have addictively listened to, so I haven't much more to wax lyrical on this brilliant writer's subject and characters: intelligent, witty, kindly critical (if there can be such a thing) of the flaws of his characters and of society at that time (and so much of the criticism continues to be relevant for "the way we live now". Truly. Not much has changed) and politically insightful writing. Haha, no one seems to find my reviews helpful, if votes are anything to go by, but I have an audible-listener's crush on Timothy West so that is why I am here writing a review yet again. This time to say: if you haven't yet listened to any of these books yet, you shall be richer for the experience and NOW is as good a time as ever! ;-)

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