Tra la, tra la, Trollope

Reviews may be a bit thin on the ground here for awhile, as I've undertaken to read The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope, which in the Penguin edition weighs in at around 750+ pages. In small print. I must have wanted to read it, as I already owned a copy somehow, but the catalyst for actually doing so is a once a year book group I'm in. (Although last year was the first year and this year may well be the final one.) I've read Trollope before, and enjoyed him, and I would say that he is a very smooth writer. I find little resistance in myself to the project. Still, I feel a bit melancholy reading this, as I know in an earlier era in my life there seemed to be more time for big, leisurely books than there is now. I suspect that is true for many of us.


I am going to be very curious to hear what others have to say about the book, as it has some interesting parallels to the present day financial world, which I suspect some of my friends will be able to draw out better than I can.


There are several marriage plots going in the book, and as I reach the halfway mark, none of them are even close to being resolved. I am very interested to see how our plotmaker does this, because in two separate threads, a young woman must choose between the sensible choice and the romantic choice. In one case, neither answer seems very good. In the other, neither answer seems very bad. I am interested to learn what Trollope thinks is the right solution to these conundrums, and whether I agree with him.

What's funny about the cover art of the older edition I'm reading is that it's the same painting but reversed, and they've cut out the man on the left in the above version entirely...

To be continued...