In “The Way We Live Now,” Anthony Trollope portrays
Augustus Melmotte as a wildly wealthy individual with a questionable past. In a society
where ancestry and heritage meant everything, the uncertain lineage of Augustus
Melmotte, Esq., his wife and his daughter presented a range of problems for people who
wished to remain in respectable society. His sudden arrival in London was quickly
followed by rumors of a dishonesty and treachery. In short, he was not character who was
to be trusted or admitted into decent society.
Augustus
Melmotte reported that he was an Englishman, but both his accent and his mannerisms
spoke to the contrary. Moreover, his wife was clearly a foreigner of poor
breeding.
“He admitted that his wife was a foreigner,--an
admission that was necessary as she spoke very little English. Melmotte himself spoke
his 'native' language fluently, but with an accent which betrayed at least a long
expatriation.”
Melmotte’s money purchased his entry into
London society at a time when many who held strong social positions lacked fiscal
solvency. Still, many were skeptical of forming close ties with him. In fact, some even
believed that social contact with him was corrupting, as indicated
here:
“The old-fashioned idea that the touching of pitch
will defile still prevailed with him. He was a gentleman;--and would have felt himself
disgraced to enter the house of such a one as Augustus Melmotte. Not all the duchesses
in the peerage, or all the money in the city, could alter his notions or induce him to
modify his conduct.”
Melmotte’s problems were many, but the
most troublesome were his marriage to a seemingly low-class foreign wife and the
possibility that he was a blatant crook who robbed people through the use of deception
and fraud. Nonetheless, his enormous wealth proved too tempting for many to ignore and
he was briefly allowed into respectable London society.
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