The tough-mindedness of the social satire in & its air of palpable integrity give this novel a special place in Anthony Trollopes Literary career. Trollope paints a picture as panoramic as his title promises of the life of 1870s London the loves of those drawn to & through the city & the career of Augustus Melmotte. Melmotte is one of the Victorian novels greatest & strangest creations & is an achievement undimmed by the passage of time. Trollopes Now might in the twenty-first century look like some distant disenchanted Then but this is still the yesterday which we must understand in order to make proper sense of our today.