Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now (1875) satirizes Victorian greed and moral bankruptcy. Trollope, living in Australia for 18 months, returned to London in 1872, to find a society mired in corruption.

In his autobiography, Trollope described this London in the harsh language of a moralist: “If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palace with pictures on all its walls, and gems in all its cupboards, with marble and ivory in all its corners, and can give Apician dinners, and get into Parliament, and deal in millions, then dishonesty is not disgraceful, and the man dishonest after such a fashion is not a low scoundrel.”

The Way We Live Now is recognized as Trollope's masterpiece, and is number 22 on The Guardian’s list of greatest novels of all time.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE (1815-1882) was a British novelist and journalist was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. He also wrote perceptive novels on political, social, and gender issues, and on other topical matters