The way we live now (1875)

The alarming thing about financier Augustus Melmotte is how quickly good society discovers that his money improves his manners. Investment schemes, marriage prospects and access to the right drawing rooms feed one another. This is the choice for anyone who enjoys watching reputations manufactured in public. It is a long, deliberately repetitive social pressure cooker, not a compact financial thriller. Its prejudices about nationality and Jewishness also deserve a critical eye.