
Animal Farm
Andrew Palmer considers whether George Orwell's allegorical tale of the Russian revolution may have
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Jan
20
Jan
29
‘In social life we hardly stop to consider how much
of that daring spirit which gives mastery comes from hardness of heart rather
than from high purpose, or true courage.’
― Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now
Anthony Trollope (1815 -1882) was one of the most popular and prolific
novelists of the Victorian age. His famous works include the Barchester and
Palliser novels in which the author places the variegated society of the time
under scrutiny, examining, exposing and dissecting the attitudes, morals and
foibles of the age. This approach of holding his magnifying glass over the
scurrying inhabitants of British society was also applied to his longest novel,
The Way We Live Now, published in two
volumes in 1875.
The novel deals with what Trollope called ‘the commercial profligacy of
the age’. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s. The Way We Live Now is a dark satire
that portrays a society in which gambling – on the Stock Exchange and in
gentlemen’s clubs - has become the dominant activity. The acquisition of wealth
is the sole object concerning most of the central characters in the book.
At the centre of this huge satirical panorama is Augustus Melmotte, a
financier of obscure origins and seemingly fabulous wealth. He is presented as
an odious and scheming charlatan. For Trollope he represented the international
money makers who had settled on London luring country gentlemen into giving their
names to shady and dubious directorates on the promise of huge dividends.
Trollope believed that these financiers were transforming England into a land
of greed. Coupled with this was the plight of the impoverished aristocracy who
were desperate to improve their lot by marrying into this new money.
Melmotte establishes his office in the City of London and purchases a large
house in Grosvenor Square , hosting lavish parties where he the lures rich and
powerful to invest in a scheme to float a company to construct a railway line
from Salt Lake City in America to Vera Cruz in Mexico. Melmotte’s plan is to
ramp up the share price without paying any of his own money into the scheme,
thus enriching himself while at the same time he is fully aware that the railway line will never
be built.
Interwoven into this over-arching scenario are a number of subplots. One involves Lady Carbury’s desperate attempt
to arrange a marriage between her dissolute and feckless son, Sir Felix and
Melmotte’s only daughter, the rather strange Marie who is besotted with the
young baronet. Although Felix cares not a jot for the girl, he goes along with
the scheme purely because he sees that such a union would ensure his future
financial security. However, things fall apart when Felix drunkenly gambles
away the money Marie has obtained for their elopement.
Another plot involves love rivals Roger Carbury, Lady Carbury’s cousin, a
middle-aged country squire and his friend, the young dashing engineer, Paul
Montague. Both these men have fallen deeply in love with Lady Carbury’s
daughter, Hetta. Their desire to win her causes a breach in their friendship.
There are further complications for Paul for he is being pressured by an earlier
love, an American lady, Winnifred Hurtle, who demands that he honour his vow
made several years ago to marry her. She has come to England in a determined
attempt to win him back.
These various intertwining dramatic strands and the dark fate that eventually
consumes Melmotte ensure that the mood of this sombre novel is sustained to the
end. Remarkably the first reviews were poor. Trollope wrote rather defensively
in this autobiography, ‘I by no means look on the book as one of my failures,
nor was it taken as a failure by the public.’ However it wasn’t until the 1940s
that The Way We Live Now came to be
recognised as Trollope’s greatest achievement. Respected novelist Amanda Craig
wrote quite recently:
‘Trollope could portray as wide a social range as Dickens and his
sympathy for women is unexpected and delicate; his bluff manner conceals
something more subtle. Above all, he is a God confident of his creations… His
dialogue and sense of drama makes his characters breathe; his ear for the way
people speak is impeccable.’
It would be difficult to take a novel of such great length and complexity
and turn it into a motion picture without losing the heart, soul and subtlety
of the piece. Indeed no one has tried but it has been serialised in two
television productions by the BBC. The first was in 1969, a five part
adaptation by Simon Raven with Colin Blakely as Melmotte. It was filling the
Saturday night slot on BBC2, which had been the home of the very popular Forsythe Saga. A second adaptation was
screened in 2001 in four parts. This was a wonderful realisation of the novel
adapted by Andrew Davies, the go to man for classic novel dramatisations. The
series boasted a superb cast with Cheryl Campbell as Lady Carbury, Matthew
McFayden as Sir Felix and Cillian Murphy as Paul. David Suchet’s performance
was a remarkable tour de force, capturing the true nastiness of the financier
while at the same time illuminating his tragedy. At the 2002 BAFTA Awards,
director David Yates and producer Nigel Stafford-Clark collected an award for The Way We Live Now, which won Best
Drama Serial. Suchet was nominated as Best Actor but lost out to Michael
Gambon.
There was an interesting radio version broadcast in 2008, which updated
the story to the modern day by Jonathan Myerson which he called The Way We Live Right Now.
As with all great novels, no matter the period in which they are set, the insight into the human condition presented in its pages still speaks to the modern reader with relevance and perception. That certainly is the case with The Way We Live Now, Trollope’s greatest work.