Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now

Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
Author(s): John A. Sutherland
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 37, No. 3, Special Issue: Anthony Trollope, 1882-1982
(Dec., 1982), pp. 472-493
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3044664 .
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Trollope at Work on
The Way We Live Now
JOHN A. SUTHERLAND
l7WO
FACTS
knownaboutTrollope:thathe inare universally
vented the pillar-box and that he wrote his novels "mechanically."
Both pieces of knowledge require modification.' By examination of
the manuscriptmaterial of The Way We Live Now this article aims
to revisethe vulgar misconception(to some extent projected by the
author himself)of Trollope's workingmethods.2 In the model which
emerges, Trollope would seem faithfullyto have observed his own
maxim that "to thinkof a novel is much harder than to writeit." His
fictionoftenbegan with a commercial transactionand precise, contractual specification. The firststage of subsequent creative work
involvedintenseimaginativeconstruction("thinking"). In the Autobiography, Trollope describes this phase as "castle-building" or
cohabitation with those "old friends" his characters.3 He gives a
1982 by The Regentsof the University
of California0029-0564/82/040472+ 22$00.50
'Trollope did not "invent" the pillar-box (it had been used in France), but he
introduced it into Great Britain.
2Sympatheticinvestigationof Trollope's workingmethods is to be found in David
Skilton's Anthony Trollope and his Contemporaries (London: Longman, 1972),
pp. 134-37; and in Susan L. Humphreys, "Order-Method: Trollope Learns to
Write," Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 8, ed. Michael Timko, Fred Kaplan, and
Edward Guiliano (New York: AMS Press, 1980), pp. 251-71; and by Andrew Wright
in an article entitled "Trollope Revises Trollope," in Trollope CentenaryEssays, ed.
John Halperin (New York: St. Martin's, 1982), pp. 109-33.
3An Autobiography, ed. Michael Sadleir and Frederick Page, World's Classics
(1950; rpt. Oxford Univ. Press, 1980), pp. 43, 155.
(
[472]
Trollope at Work on The Way We Lzve Now
473
vivid account of this preliminaryabsorption in his unwrittennovel
in the essay "A Walk in a Wood."4 Although this activitywas preeminentlymental, it would appear from The Way We Live Now
that some unsystematicnote-makingmightaccompany it.
The second stage ("writing") was strictlysecretarial. The
scrappy aide-memoires made at the thinking stage are entirely
differentfrom the fetishisticallycomplete calendars of work rate
and schedules of length which Trollope compiled for himselfand
filled in before, during, and after composition. The manuscript
itselfwas writtenfluentlyand with no major revisions.Composition
was carefullytimed to be finishedby contract-delivery
date and well
before publication. For Trollope the subsequent chore of proofreading was just that-reading. Trollope, this is to assert, did not,
like Dickens or Thackeray, take methodical advantage of this last
opportunityto improvehis work. Unlike these more hand-to-mouth
practitioners, he was customarily onto thinking about or even
writingthe next novel by the time the proofsforthe last came along.
The Way We Live Now, although only one novel out of fortyseven, is attractiveto generalize from. It was writtenat the time
when Trollope was formulatinghis viewson the art of writingfiction
for the Autobiography. If chapter 12 representstheory,then The
Way We Live Now can be taken as correspondingpractice. It is a
workas massive in conception as in physical size: at somethingover
1,200 manuscript pages and more than 380,000 words, it is the
longest in the Trollope corpus. The novelist had a high price for
it-?3, 000- and he would have wanted to give fullvalue formoney.
He was in a position to do so. Although in his late fifties,he was
fresh, having just returned from an invigoratingtrip round the
world. Finally, The Way We Live Now has the largestmass of prepublication materials which have survivedto us fromthe writingof
the major novels.5 In what follows,I intend to followthe progressof
the workas it can be reconstructedfromthisevidence.
4"A Walk in a Wood" was published in Good Words, Sept. 1879, pp. 595-600.
The essay derivesfromthe epilogue to Thackeray's The Newcomes.
5The plans and workingpapers are held by the Bodleian Library under call mark
MS Don c 10, folios 12-21. The manuscript of the novel is held in the Pierpont
Morgan Library. I am grateful to both libraries for permission to examine the
materials. I am also grateful to the BritishAcademy for a grant enabling me to go
to New York.
474
THE
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
CONTRACT
The contract for an as yet unnamed work was made between
Trollope and Chapman and Hall on 28 March 1873. It specifies
publication in twentymonthlyparts, on the lines of the firm'searlier
OrleyFarm. The dates fixed are from 1 January 1874 to 1 August
1875. (In fact, The Way We Live Now came out from February
1874 to September 1875, a month later than agreed.) The firsthalf
of the workwas to be withthe publisherby the end of October 1873.
It was evidentlyunderstood by both parties that the work (as was
normal with this formof serialization) was to cost one shillingfor a
32-page number, was to carrytwo full-plateillustrations,and was to
be reissued in two volumes at the end of the monthlyrun. Trollope,
as he generally preferred,made over the copyrightentirelyon his
principle that a "lump sum" was more useful than a "deferred
annuity" of royaltyor half-profitpayments. The publishers gave
?3,000 forthe property,payable at ?150 a month over the course of
publication.
As has oftenbeen noted, this kind of serializationwas antique
in 1873 and was associated with the bygone glories of the now dead
Dickens and Thackeray. The publishersmay have been disposed to
revive it for The Way We Live Now by the extraordinarysales
clocked up by the early numbers of Edwin Drood (which theyhad
also published) and by the eight-partpublication of Middlemarch in
bimonthly five-shillinginstallments (Trollope's next novel, The
Prime Minister,was published by Chapman and Hall in this form).
But whateverthe motives and sales hopes, it was evident that from
the firstThe Way We Live Now was forecastin the exact divisions
of the fixed-size,fixed-termmonthlypart.
FORECAST
CALCULATIONS
Trollope had not done a twenty-partnovel since Can You Forgive Her? (January1864-August 1865) and had thereforeto lengthen
his sights.His workingcalendar begins withthe calculation:
1873. Carburynovel.20 Numbers.64 pageseach number.260 wordseach
page. 40 pagesa week.To be completedin 32 weeks.
Trollope at Work on The Way We Lzve Now
475
(As in the contract, Trollope uses the blank specification"Carbury
novel"; titlingof both chapter and workwas a late act in his procedure of composition.)
In the above schedule Trollope reckonsin manuscriptpages. It
is evident that one reason for the strikingcleanliness of his manuscriptwas the overridingneed to keep strictmetrical order if he was
to writefast,in one uninterrupteddraft,and fitthe procrusteanrequirementsof the 32-page printednumber. Crossingout, interlineation, and superaddition were luxuries his timetable did not afford
him. There was another control, not apparent in this initial calculation. Unlike Dickens and Thackeray, Trollope measured his
monthlypart into an invariable five chapters. The result in The
Way We Live Now is uniquely symmetrical: 100 chapters in the
novel, 50 per volume, 5 per number.
Trollope made another forecastcalculation at the head of the
Dramatis Personae plan. This ran: "Novel in 20 parts. 32 pages. 520
words = 5 volumes." Trollope is here thinkingin termsof printed
pages. The monthlyserial on the Dickensian-Thackerayan pattern
used larger octavo pages than the conventional three-decker.At a
rough 260 wordsper quarto of manuscriptpage, Trollope could aim
at a 64-page MS number (a targethe in factheld to exactly). He also
reminds himselfhere that the whole length of this new (as yet immaterial) novel will be two-fifthslonger than the three-deckerto
which he had recentlybecome habituated. He was, to all intentsand
purposes, writinga five-decker.It was a challenge to his stamina,
and, as we shall see, Trollope did in fact run into problems around
the 12-14 number area.
THE
WORKING
CALENDAR
As usual, Trollope made a writingcalendar, to be filled in as
he went along. According to it, he began his "Carbury novel" on 1
May 1873 and by the end of the month had completed three numbers (fifteenchapters). He then broke offto writeHarry Heathcote
of Gangoil, which was completed by July 1873. The novelist immediatelypicked up The Way We Live Now and wrotenumbers4-6
between 3 Julyand 30 July. From the end of Julyto 11 August he
took a shortrest. This prepared him for a major effort,the writing
476
Fiction
Nineteenth-Century
of numbers 7-14 from 11 August to 19 September. There followed
another short rest until 10 October, a period in which he records
"reading myown manuscript"(the firsthalf of which was due Chapman and Hall). In the period from11 October to 22 December Trollope polished offthe remaining chapters while nursing a bad foot.
At the end of his calendar he summarizes:
Completedin 34 weeks(insteadof 32) -but fiveweekswereoccupiedon
thisnovel"The Way We Live Now" has
HarryHeathcoteand therefore
beendonein 29 weeks.Dec. 22 1873.
There are points of interestin this record other than the impressiverapidityof the performance. One notes that Trollope did
not begin writingimmediatelyon signing the contract. It is likely
that the intervalwas occupied withthe kind of "thinking"described
in "A Walk in a Wood." It is also noteworthythat Trollope, according to his own account, wrote The Way We Live Now sequentially,
from chapter 1 to 100. (One needs to bear this in mind when
examining the "Chapter plans for the second volume," which
propose a differentorder of eventsfromthat in the printednovel.) It
is also likely,fromthe evidence of theseplans and the MS, that Trollope needed an additional period of "thinking"(19 September-11
October) to resolvethe conclusion of the novel-whether or not, for
instance, to put Melmotteon trialor have him commitsuicide.
In spite of the forecast calculations, which offeredno pause,
Trollope workedon The Way We Live Now in a series of bursts,or
spells of composition. Especially in the firsthalf of the novel, each of
these burstsis devoted to a differentaspect of the plotwork.The first
extends over May and the firstfifteenchapters (it is evident, incidentally,that therewere no startingpangs; Trollope kicked offwriting verybriskly).In thisopening spell (particularlyin chapters 1-2)
Trollope drew closelyon the firstentriesin the "Dramatis Personae"
plan. These opening chapters are, perforce, expository("Let the
reader be introduced to Lady Carbury" runs the firstline of the
novel), and lay out the sets of characters and social settingswhich
are to figure centrally. In this firstconception Trollope evidently
foresaw three more or less equivalent nuclei: (1) Lady Carbury's
West End milieu, with its literarysalon and club life; (2) Squirearchical Suffolk,where Roger Carbury wrestleswith his Tory principles and religious doubts; (3) Melmotte's city world of dubious
Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
477
finance and his campaign to "buy" English society.In the novel as it
was actually written,this three-yokedconception was altered. Lady
Carbury'sliterarycareer (and the literary-critical
racket) was downplayed, and Roger's religious crisis all but disappeared. Melmotte,
correspondingly,outgrewthe firstframe and came to dominate the
narrative. It was quite proper that when Trollope came to commission a design for the monthlycover, it should have featured exclusivelythe Great Financier's rise and fall in vignette.
HarryHeathcote was completed byJuly,and Trollope resumed
the larger novel. Chapter 16 begins with some redundant recapitulation as Trollope evidentlygot the storystraightin his mind. Then,
between 3 and 30 July,he wrote chapters 16-30. His pace had kept
up with the breakneck composition of the firstburst. In number 4
all of the fivechapters are set in Suffolkand representa coming to
gripswiththe theme prefiguredin the "Dramatis Personae" plan:
[undertheRogerCarburyentry]Life at CarburyHall withneighboursthe bishop-RC priest-big squire in nextparishwho has large income
and is in debt.Doubtsabouthis[i.e., Roger's]religion.
Chapter 16 gives us "The Bishop and the Priest" and a spiritually
restless Carbury squire as the easy-going Anglican primate and
fanatic Roman Catholic quarrel across him. The "big squire" in the
next parish is Adolphus LongestaffeSr., whose debts have enforced
an intimacywiththe sordid (but wealthy)Melmotte-eventually this
intimacyis to resultin the sale of the family'sother estate in Sussex.
But even at thisstage one can see strainsdeveloping. It is difficultto
get Melmotte into East Anglia-the Whitsun excursion is implausible. Even more difficultis to retain for the vacuous Roger the
role of "hero." During this period of composition Trollope must
have decided to relegate him.
The third spell of writingtook in the bulk of the novel, numbers 7-14 (11 August-19 September). During this burst Trollope
exploits the tangles of Paul Montague's love life and his promotion
to the main role vacated by Roger. Winifredmay well have been an
afterthought.Her existenceis insertedinto the margin of the "Dramatis Personae," apparently answering the admonition about
scrapes which must be devised for Paul. The firstmention of her,
which we find in a tailpiece to chapter 6 of the printed text, was a
superaddition,the manuscriptreveals.
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
478
If Trollope can be said to have problems in the writingof The
Way We Live Now, theycan be located in thisspell, as I shall argue
later. It was, even by Trollope's standards,hard going: fortychapters
in under six weeks. Afterhis rest,Trollope concluded the novel at a
comparativelyleisuredpace.
THE DRAMATIS PERSONAEPLAN
This is rathermisleadinglycalled an "advance layout" in Sadleir's Commentary, where it is reproduced typographically with
more regularity than it actually possesses. This is how I read it:
Presumed
period
1873
Matilda
every
Tuesday
opens25
January
February
Todd.
Novel in 20 parts. 32 pages. 520 words = 5 volumes
Lady Carbury. widow of late General Sir Michael
C. Bart. (dead in India) leftwith ?1000 a yearhad left her husband, but not in adultery, (from
his hard temper & her impetuosity)had gone back
and been forgiven-but the evil report remained.
living in Byr-yansteft
Square Welbeck Street-with
son & daughter-spoiling the son & helping to pay
his debts-clever impetuous. Thoroughly unprincipled from want of knowledge of honesty, an
authoress, very handsome, 4& 436f-trying all
schemes with Editors &c. to get puffed-infinitely
energetic. bad to her daughter fromwant of sympathy- flirtsas a matter of taste, but never goes
wrong; capable of great sacrificeforher son.
The chiefcharacter
Sir Felix Carbury. Bart. 25. been in the Guardssold out (enquire about this). Magnificentlybeautiful. dark, with perfect features. brown eyes.
utterlyselfish.recklessfromutterthoughtlessness.
debts paid by mother, by sisterslover, by the lady
who loves him; - but all is hopeless. His fatherhad
lefthim ?1000 a year-He and his sisterto divide
the mother's?1000 at her death.
Dies.7
Begins
Jan.
25 Feb
1873
Lady
Carbury
had run
away.
Felixa
coward
61tcouldbe "47" thatiscrossedout.
7Sadleirmisses"Dies" out ofhistranscription.
Giventhecontextitcould lookforward to Lady Carbury'sdeath; but the balance of probabilitysuggeststhatit is
Felix who is intended to die.
Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
Brehgert
and Goldsheiner
479
Henrietta Carbury-Hetty by some. Harry by her
brother:- almost as handsome as her brother,but
thoroughlystrong and good - antagonistic to her
mothers dodges - courted by her cousin Roger
Carbury the head of the family,a man of wealth
and position, considerablyolder than herself-she
-2-&
21. But in love with Paul Montagu. She almost
yieldswhen she is made to believe that Paul is bad,
but never quite does so. is entitled to ?6000, on
her marriage with the consentof eitherher mother
or her cousin, who is executor under her father's
will. Loves her brother.
Roger Carbury, of Carbury Hall, in Norfolk,44
38- straightforward - about ?2000 a year - ready
Mrs.
Hurtle
Winifred
lodgesin
Suffolk
Street8
money,-very good. horriblyin love withhis cousin
- hero of the book. propertywill go to the other
Carburys-takes Paul Montagu by the hand, and
sacrificeshimselfat last.
Life at CarburyHall with neighbours;-the bishop
-R. C. priest-big squire in next parish, who has
large income & is in debt. Doubts about his religion; -finds it easier to love his neighbours than
his God. staunch old Tory.
Paul Montagu-Hetty's lover. Gets into some Caradoc
scrapes which must be devised. Marries at last Carson
under the auspices of Roger-quite true in his Hurtle
living, but a scapegrace; has glimmeringsof radical policy forthe good of the people, and disgusts
Roger Carbury-lives at last at Carbury Hall and
marriesHetta -Suffolk Street
Bishop of Elmham-old Longley, Yelgnol. Yeld.9
Father John Barham -Pervert. Waltham priest.
verypoor. 10
8Trollope also has him lodge in Sackville Streetin the novel- a small error.
9Trollope modeled Elmham's Bishop on the formerArchbishop of Canterbury,
Charles Longley, who had taught him at Harrow. He gets the name "Yeld" by reversingand playing with "Longley."
'l0n a letterof 26 January 1875 Trollope revealed that he had an original in mind
for Barham from his acquaintance at Waltham: "He was a thoroughlyconscientious man, an Oxford man, what we call a pervertand you a convert" (The Letters
of Anthony Trollope, ed. Bradford Allen Booth [London and New York: Oxford
Univ. Press, 1951], p. 332.
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
480
Hepworths of Eardly rich ?7000.
Primeros Span-
iards by descent.
Longestaffe Esq. squire of Caversham
&
Adolphus
Pickering
in Norfolk
neighbour of Roger Carbury-with
Park
Lady Diana
Caversham
Pomona
Longstaffe and
Squercum
lawyer
property much in-
young Dolly the heir-large
volved. hot tempered & cross grained.
Country
going to the dogs. All of them spending too much
money.
George
(Mrs
Sophia
Georgiana
Whitstable)
-
-
Toodlam
Editor of the "weekly
Mr Nicholas [Bflfe] Broune-
Literary Chronicle Gazette Morning Breakfast Table.
Square
Pall
Fond of ladies.
Mr Booker editor of the "Moning
Shand
Breakfast Table
Morrish
writer of
supposed
Literary Chronicle, -a
Alfred
in Trafalgar
Mall-office
criticism. very poor.
Mr Ferdinand Alf. Editor of the evening "Pulpit."
great swell
& Loiter -publishers
Latham Leadham
Marianna Treegrene Marie Melmotte, the heiress,
daughter of amtel
Emanuel
Augustus
S. Tr-eegfefieMelmotte the gfeat Ameic4an French
swindler
Madame
Melmotte-fat
Jewess.
Herr Vossner, purveyor to the BearGarden
Duchess
of Stevenage.
Castle Abbey.
Grendalls.
Lord Alfred.
Miles Grendall second son
: thGrtCdall in
[
]* gustavus
t1y"
Ruby Ruggles 23-Daniel
Ruggles of Sheepsacre
-John Crumb.
* [illegible word crossed through]
The framing of this plan ("presumed period 1873 . . . The
chief character," etc.) indicates that Trollope drew it up for guidI'The earlychaptersof themanuscriptrevealthatTrollopeat firstintendedto
haveanotherparasiticGrendalloffspring
figurein theaction.
Trollope
at Work on
The Way We Live Now
481
ance, before startingto write. The "Suffolk"(i.e., Carbury) group
of characters were firmlydrawn. Paul Montague was a less clearly
focused element. The London plot, centered on Melmotte, was
hazier still. Indeed, Melmotte himselfwas at thisstage a provisional
character, ambiguouslyJewish,French, or American. Some instrumental figures,like Squercum and Brehgert,were marginal additions and probably afterthoughts.Fiskeris altogetherabsent. There
are large changes of emphasisin the novel as written.Melmotteeventuallyranks as "chief character." Felix is not loved by his sister,nor
does he die (if it is he, not Lady Carbury,who is intended to expire).
Roger and his theological qualms were neglected. So too was Paul's
political fanaticism.
The functionof this plan was, to speak metaphorically,to act
as a trigger,releasingcharactersinto an existencewhose fullcomplications could later emerge more or less spontaneously.The relevant
passages in the Autobiographyare familiar:
withthecharAt . . . timesI have been able to imbuemyselfthoroughly
actersI have had in hand. I have wanderedalone among the rocksand
woods,cryingat theirgrief,laughingat theirabsurdities,and thoroughly
withmyown creationstillit
enjoyingtheirjoy. I have been impregnated
to sitwiththepen in myhand....
has beenmyonlyexcitement
[The author'scharacters]mustbe withhimas he liesdownto sleep,and as
he wakesfromhis dreams.He mustlearnto hate themand to love them.
them,and evensubHe mustarguewiththem,quarrelwiththem,forgive
mitto them.12
NONCE PLANS I
Trollope wrotethe Dramatis Personae plan on a piece of quarto
paper folded so as to give four writingsurfaces. On the last side he
jotted down some random notes relative to a later period of
composition:
Dinnerat club 18 April.FiskerstartedSaturday19th.
SamuelCohenlupe.
Montague.
Roger'smarriedsisterin California-had befriended
HamiltonK. Fisker.Montagueand Montague(Paul ?720 per an/ or $3600)
Fiskerville
'2An Autobiography, pp. 176, 233. But as this plan reveals, it is logically impossible fullyto imagine characters withoutsome correlativeplot elements. Even at this
early stage Trollope saw some interestinglyremotecomplications.
482
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
at Liverpool. 4 March. Board meets on Thursday.
Mrs Hurtle liveswith Mrs Pipkin. 5 children. A widower
["South Central and Mexican Railway" at bottom of sheet]
["Montague's pledge. No 5. p. 20" along right-handedge]
The bulk of entries here feeds chapters 9 and 10 ("The Great
Railway to Vera Cruz" and "Mr Fisker's Success"). Since Paul's
pledge is indeed mentioned on MS page 20 of the fifth number,
Trollope must have kept this plan by him until well into his second
spell of composition. At thisstage the commercial plot seems to have
established itself more firmlythan it firstdid.
CHAPTER
PLANS FOR THE SECOND
VOLUME
The expository Dramatis Personae plan served Trollope for the
firstvolume. For the complications and resolution of the plot in the
second volume he evidentlyneeded somethingdifferent.The following chapter plan was most likely drawn up as he embarked on the
narrative's last fiftychapters. Its foresight is remarkable, even if, as
we shall see, Trollope was obliged to reorder the sequence of events
and alter the climax. With this plan in mind, it is hard to take at
face value his assertion in the Autobiography, "I never could
arrange a set of events before me."'13 For The Way We Live Now he
obviously could.
In reading the plan the following key is necessary. In general,
entries summarize the main elements of chapters. The number pre-
ceding the entryis that of the chapter as it appears in the ultimately
printedtext. The number followingthe entryis that of the chapter
as Trollope preconceived the sequence of narrativebefore writing.
It is clear that Trollope eventuallydid a good deal of rearranging.
The last number, in parentheses, records the MS pages written for
the chapter. For chapters 51-56, Trollope also entered the part
number (I 1).
No 10
Chapt. 46 Lowestoffe12
47 Montague at Carbury 16
48 Ruby and Mrs Pipkin 8
49 Marie and Felix in the Square 12 Felix and his mother
50 Marie is offbut Felix does not go
'3AnAutobzography, p. 320.
Trollope
at Work on
The Way We Lzve Now
483
[These fiveentriestake up a whole side. They are widelyspaced out
and Trollope was evidentlyconcerned with tottingup MS pages. At
the footof the page is a calculation: 20 x 64 = 1280. This represents
the total number of pages to be written.The remainder of the plan
which followsis writtenneatly,in a much smaller hand, on the other
side of the paper.]
51 11-2 Paul and MrsHurtle.IA. (12)
1 (10)
52 11 SirFelixafterhismisfortune.
withMelmotte.2 (14)
53 11-3 His interview
? RomanCatholicism3 (16)
54 11-4 Melmotte'sElection
55 11-5 Rogerand theBishopat Carbury.4 (8)
56 11-5 Rogerand thepriest5 (12)
57 MelmotteReturned6 Nidderdale6 (12)
64 Alf'sspeeches.Lady Carbury'sdoubts.Threatsoflibel. 7 (12)
65 MissLongestaffe
at Lady Monogram's.8 (12)
68 Marie'sangerat SirFelix9 (10)
63 Melmotteretur-ne4
as candidate.In thecityas MP 10 (12)
[Trollope later circledthisentryand indicatedthat it was to come
betweenthelaterentries60/14and 66/15.]
59 The Dinner11(12)
62 The Party12 (17)
61 Lady Monogramat theparty13 (7)
60 MissLongestaffe's
lover14 (12)
66 HettaacceptsPaul Montague15 (12)
69 Marieagreesto marryNidderdalein herdespair16 (16)
73 Marie and Nidderdale.he is [illegible.Contextsuggests"willing"]17
(10)
58 Dollyand hisfather-Dollyand Squercum18 (12)
70 Felixat MrsPipkin's.Felixand Ruby19 (12)
MrsHurtlecomes19A
75 Squercum[?] attacksMelmotteforthemoney20 (12)
MarieendeavourstogetFelixback21
67 FelixtellshissisterofMrsHurtle22 (10)
Lady Carburyand herbooks23
78 Lady Pomona'sdespairat thetrialmarriage24 (10)
["marriage"is added in whatlookslikea laterink]
72 Hettaagain refusesPattiRogerand tellshim25 (14)
76 HettarenouncesPaul 26 (13)
74 Sceneat theBeargarden27 (12)
77 Melmotteat thetral withMarie28 (13)
["withMarie"is added in whatlookslikea laterink]
Nidderdaleat lastwillnotmarry29
Longestaffe's
despairabouthismoney30
79 MissLongestaffe's
lover.She is takenhome31 (14)
Milesand Felixbothexpelled32
RogerCarburyand thebishopaboutWestminster
33
484
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
80 Felixand Ruby36 (10)
MrsHurtleand Paul 37
She sendstheletter38
71 Crumbcomesand hits[?] Felix39 (12)
Xr
71 SirFclix.
[ 40
FiskerreappearsabouttheRailway41
Scenein Grosvenor
Square 42
The trial14 Melmottedead 43 [added in an apparently
laterink]
A2heE-jaI HQ4
4
X
J^
s
_vA -
w
L .
L 'J
LadyCarbury'sdespair46
Melrlnttetrbe impripcnLe
triuph
A1fs
A
47
bDuttthe trial 48
Hettaforgives
Paul 49
Roger'sbehaviour50
Apart fromchapters46-50 the whole plan was writtenneatly,
in one draft.The printedtextchapter numbersare, however,added
later. So too are the manuscriptquantitynumbersin parentheses(they
tally exactly with what we find in the manuscript). The numbers
1-50 (which representthe original order of chapters that Trollope
anticipated) were writtenat the same time as the plan. All the lead
entriesup to the second 71/40 ("Sir Felix dies") are ticked off- presumably as the chapter was written.After71/40 Trollope crosses
out itemswhich were clearlyat odds withthe novel as it was actually
emerging.
The plan gives us insightinto Trollope's extraordinaryflexibility. Weaving these elements into an entirelynew sequence must
was he that practically
have been a complex business. Yet so thrifty
nothingwas discarded. Up to 57/6 the entrieskeep an accurate and
parallel record (was it during the eleventh number, one wonders,
that he wrotethe plan?). At 57/6 Trollope was forced to desert the
order of events laid down, because of problems with Melmotte.
Originallyhe was to be "returned"(i.e., to parliament) at thispoint.
But the event was postponed to 63/10, and then a long loop carries
it forwardto between 60/14 and 66/15. (In the printed novel MelmottewinsWestminsterin chapter 64.)
After 57/6 Trollope's order of composition and narrative arrangement diverged broadly from the plan. But the content of
chapters, wherevertheyeventuallycame out, diverged remarkably
little.Admittedly,in chapter 47 thereis onlyhalf a terminalpage of
Paul at Carbury and in chapter 69/16 Marie's agreement figures
Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
485
only verybriefly.In 53/2 "his" must be taken to referto Broune or
Nidderdale, not Felix, as Trollope may originallyhave intended. In
56/5 we encounter not Roger and the priestbut Melmotte and the
priest. In 79/33 "Roger and the bishop about Westminster"is lost
altogether; it was presumably part of the religious subplot which
Trollope largely discarded. The second element of 79/32 also disappears; Miles and Felix are not expelled from the Beargarden,
which is in no state to expel anyone afterVossnerdecamps. In 77/29
"Nidderdale at last will not marry"is postponed to chapter 83 of the
printedtext,and "Longestaffe'sdespair about his money" to 88.
Most interestingare those elementswhich Trollope, findinghe
could not weave them into his new pattern, discarded or changed
utterly.Melmotte originallywas to have gone on trial for forgery.
The trial is firstmentioned in 78/24 where it was to have caused
Lady Pomona despair. Trollope kept the despair but gave it a new
source. In the printed chapter 78 it is the prospect of Brehgert as
son-in-lawthat sinksheartsat Caversham. The trialnext came up at
77/28 where the scene of Melmotte at the Old Bailey (presumably)
was substitutedby the argument with Marie which we find in the
published novel. In 71/39 Trollope (if my reading is correct)was to
have Crumb kill Felix (who "dies" in the Dramatis Personae plan, it
will be remembered). There would thus have been another trial. In
43 and 44 the trial figuresagain - although Trollope crossedout the
entriesand put in the alternativeconclusion "Melmotte dead." If I
read 47 correctly,Melmotte was to go to prison and the odious Alf
was to triumphover his opponent.
In an article in thisjournal P. D. Edwards points to Trollope's
twominds over how to dispose of Melmotte.14 But what has not been
noted is how the manner of the financier'sdownfallwas kept open to
the last minute of composition. In the printed text his death comes
in chapter 83 ("Melmotte Again at the House"). Having disgraced
himselfin parliament, Melmotte retiresto his studyto drink. This is
how the chapter originallyconcluded in the MS:
He was habituallyleftthereat night,and theservantas usual wentto his
bed. But at nineo'clockon thefollowing
morningthemaid-servant
found
himasleep.
'4"Trollope Changes His Mind: The Death of Melmotte in The Way We Live
Now," NCF, 18 (1963), 89-91.
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
486
In a later hand and ink Trollope crossed out "asleep" and replaced
it with"dead" and squeezed in the continuation:
Drunkas he had been,-more drunkas he probablybecame duringthe
and penalnight,-still he was able to deliverhimselffromtheindignities
tiesto whichthelaw mighthavesubjectedhimbya doseofprussicacid.
A sleeping Melmottewould have awakened to face immediate arrest
and Alf's jubilation at his fall. Trollope evidentlykept this option
open foras long as he possiblycould.
THE
MANUSCRIPT
The manuscript of The Way We Live Now conformsto Trollope's practice at this mature stage of his career. He writeson both
sides of quarto sheets, in regular script, to predeterminedlength
and with remarkably few alterations. He maintains a consistent
28-31 lines and around 250 words per page. On the left-hand
margin there are three numerical entrieswhich indicate the partnumber, the chapter, and the manuscriptpage withinthe number.
Trollope wrote to a normal number length of 64 of his manuscript
pages. Following everycompleted number in the MS there is a sum
whose significanceeludes me. But since the firstpart is always "64"
(e.g., 64 x 96, 64-167) I assume it has to do with fixingan exact
number of lines in the printedwork.
At timesthe appearance of the MS is so perfectas to give riseto
the suspicion that Trollope may have supplied the printerwith fair
copy. In the second number, for instance, there is a run of twelve
MS pages, blemished only by twenty-onesynonymcorrections(e.g.,
"recommend" for "advise") and tiny deletions. But the likelihood
that Trollope made a fair copy is almost nil. For one thing,to do so
would have been against his usual practice; moreover,he had little
time to do so. If he produced numbers 7-14 in just under six weeks,
it is unlikelythat he could have allowed himselfthe luxury of redrafting.And fromthe MS itselfthereis ocular evidence as to spontaneity.One of the more frequentof Trollope's correctionsis that in
which his mind momentarilyruns ahead of itself and has to be
reined in. Thus:
"You and Grassloughwere neververypals" (1/32, p. 24; Trollope was
aboutto write"veryfriendly").
Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
487
he took her in his arms, and embr-aee4kissed her lips as well as her cheeks
(9/20, p. 341; Trollope here gives Paul Montague a little more lover's
daring).15
This kind of scribal error typically happens when a writer is composing. In copying, words tend to be dropped or repeated; such slips
are not found in The Way We Live Now manuscript.
Reading the manuscript is somewhat frustrating for anyone
hoping to make startling discoveries. There are, however, small illustrations of Trollope's liveliness to be found. These are no less
impressive for being extremely economical. For example, at their
firsttense meeting in England, Winifred asks the backsliding Paul:
"Well, speak out. Is there another woman that you love?" To this
outright question, Trollope firsthad the wretched young man reply:
"I do love another." This, however, was crossed out and replaced by
"There is another." (6/11, pp. 212-13). The weak ambiguity and
passive grammatical form are entirely in character. It leaves sufficient aperture for Winifred to insert cunning levers and prize Paul
away from his firm intention to be true to Hetta.
There is no reason to suppose that Trollope could not have
been an extensively revising writer, had he so wished. In the massive
length of The Way We Live Now's manuscript there is just one
major scene revision. But it is so effective as to make one wonder if
he would not have done well to give himself more scope for this kind
of improvement. The revision is found at 5/47 (p. 196). Felix is at
the Beargarden and determined to get his IOUs paid by Miles Grendall. Miles of course has no intention of ever paying any gambling
debt. In the MS, Trollope firstpictured his shiftiness thus:
Miles took three or four long puffsof smoke, so as to give himselftime for
thought. Then he heaved himselfforwardand whisperedinto the ear of his
companion. "You come to me tomorrowin the cityand I'll tell you about it
all." Then he threwhimselfback in his chair, and smoked away withinfectious complacency. "What time?" asked Sir Felix. "Any time-Two." It
need hardlybe said that Mr. Miles Grendall had already made up his mind
that he need not attend in Abchurch Lane the followingday.
Having written this, Trollope crossed it out, and wrote into the margin of the page the following altered version:
'5References are to be understood as follows. The first numeral is the part
number. The second, afterthe slash, is the page number Trollope gives in the MS.
The third number is the page number as found in Robert Tracy's edition of The
Way We Live Now (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974).
488
Fiction
Nineteenth-Century
"Will any fellow come up-stairs and play a game of billiards?" said Miles
Grendall rising from his chair. Then he walked slowly out of the room,
leaving Sir Felix to take what revengehe pleased. For a moment, Sir Felix
thought that he would expose the transaction to the whole room; but he
was afraid, thinking that Miles Grendall was a more popular man than
himself.
Miles coolly cuts an impotent and outfaced Felix. It is a striking improvement on the sly Miles of the firstpassage. Clearly, too, if Trollope could do it so felicitously here he could have done it elsewhere
in the manuscript. But it would have meant frittering away time
that his schedule simple did not allow.
TROLLOPE
UNDER
PRESSURE
It would appear that Trollope found the thirdspell of composition (11 August-19 September) mostproblematic. He wroteextraordinarily fast at this stage: eight numbers (7-14) in under six weeks.
The plot of the novel was at its most tricky;there is the elopement,
the crisisof Paul and Winifred'saffair,the visitof the Emperor of
China, Melmotte's rise and fall. Things were also complicated for
Trollope by the fact that he was more used to writingat threevolume length. This meant that he would normallyfinisha novel
around what was the fourteenthpart of The Way We Live Now. For
thisworkhe had to spin out anotherthirtychapters.
There are two main sources of evidence to support the contentionthat Trollope wrotethissectionof the novel (and particularly
numbers 11-14) under some strain. The firstwhich will strikeany
reader is the congestionand in some places the awkwardnessof the
plot. The otherevidence is the greaterthan usual amount of surgery
which Trollope was obliged to performon the MS. Like a bowler in
cricket he began to lose control of his length, overpitching and
underpitching.
Trollope's adjustmentsto this stretchof the manuscript novel
can be brieflysummarized. Originally he intended chapter 39 to
end with a nice surprise. Paul Montague goes to Islington to visit
Mrs. Hurtle, and the door is opened by, guess who? Ruby Ruggles.
Chapter 40 was intended to open with Ruby's alarmed "Oh laws,
Mr. Montague, is that you?" Trollope, however,sacrificedthis nice
bridge between chapters and graftedwhat was intended to be the
Trollope at Work on The Way We Lzve Now
489
opening of chapter 40 back onto the end of the old chapter 39. This
left a new chapter 40, centered on Melmotte. ("Unanimity is the
verysoul of thesethings.")
At the end of the ninthnumber Trollope was forcedinto more
tinkering.There was evidentlyovermatterin the copy supplied the
printer, and at 9/55 (p. 366) he removed, in proof presumably,
some fiftywords descriptiveof Paul's fear that Felix will blab about
Mrs. Hurtle to his sister. At the end of the number over one hundred words were cut (like the previous passage, theystand unobliterated in the MS) describingMr. Longestaffe's"heavy heart" about
the developing battle between Squercum and Melmotte. Neither of
thesepassages contains informationessentialto the plot. But neither
is redundant, and in normal circumstances Trollope would have
preferredthem to stand.
In number 11 the carpentryis harder to uncover. The MS
reveals that chapter 53 was originallyintended to begin at what is
now its fourthparagraph. Trollope evidentlylatched on some five
hundred words concerned with the aftermath of the elopement.
With number 12, he plunged into the complexitiesof the Pickering
pondered in adforgery,whose details he may not have sufficiently
vance. In the margin of 12/29 (p. 469) he insertedthe information
that "[Dolly's] father,some time since, had put before him, for his
signature,a letter,prepared in Mr. Bideawhile's office,which Dolly
said that he had refusedeven to read, and certainlyhad not signed."
This is the firstintroductionof what is to cause Melmotte'sdownfall
and it could usefullyhave been prepared forearlier than this in the
narrative. In the same twelfthnumber Brehgertis abruptly introduced, a figure who is hereafter to have principal status in the
action. Again in this number, Trollope had difficultyin getting
length right. Two long sentences had to be added to the ends of
chapters58 and 60.
Length was again a problem in number 13. Trollope found it
necessaryto add some 750 words to the end of chapter 64, "The
Election" (pp. 520-22, from "It was verymuch to be member for
Westminster").This addition is not to be found in the MS, and was
probablymade in proof. As it happens, the reader can be extremely
grateful for the emergency that provoked the supplementation.
Trollope devised a superb passage describing Melmotte's somber
jubilation as he simultaneously contemplates his parliamentary
grandeur and his commercial doom:
490
Fiction
Nineteenth-Century
Whatevertheymightdo, quick as theymightbe, theycould hardlypreventhistakinghisseat in theHouse ofCommons.Then iftheysenthimto
forlife,theywouldhaveto saythattheyhad so treatedthe
penal servitude
memberforWestminster!(p. 521).
There are other indicators of strain around numbers 13-14.
Chapter lengths,forinstance, begin to varyfromthe normal 12 MS
pages. Thus chapter61 is unusuallyshortat 7 MS pages while chapter
62 is unusually long at 17 MS pages. The chronological organization
of eventsaround Melmotte's imperial dinner, party, and election is
somewhat incoherent. The account of the dinner and the afterdinner party is awkwardlyinterruptedby chapter 60 which introduces the long previous business of Brehgert'swooing Georgiana.
Trollope fitsit in by using such unsettlingconjunctions as "A few
days before that period in our storywhich we have now reached,
Miss Longestaffewas seated in Lady Monogram's back drawingroom" (p. 482). There are othernigglingfeaturesof the narrativeat
this stage. Trollope for the firsttime introducesthe business of the
shared house and desk in Bruton Street. It helps explain the otherwise improbable forgerybusiness but it makes implausible scenes
such as that in number 9, where LongestaffeSr. cannot get hold of
Melmotteand is forcedto cool his heels in Abchurch Lane. Logically
he could have bearded Melmotte at any time he wanted, using his
own key and the privilege of entryto his own home. The whole
machineryof the shared house (and even more so the shared desk) is
a forcedcontrivance. Nor is it worked out consistently.We are told
at the beginningof chapter 55 "a fortnightbeforethe election" (i.e.,
the last week in June) that Melmotte has taken the Longestaffes'
Bruton Street house for a month. The reason is that his Grosvenor
Square mansion has to be fittedout for the great dinner. But in
chapter 49 (30 June, by the novel's calendar) Marie is still living at
GrosvenorSquare. And in chapter 50 (July4) it is evidentlyto Grosvenor Square and her indignant familythat Marie is returnedafter
the elopement fiasco. On July5 (chapter 56), however, we understand that Grosvenor Square is suddenly uninhabitable from
workmenbeing employed there. As with the uncertain chronology,
this confusiondoes not break the plot down. But it creates areas of
vagueness. And I would suggest that Trollope may have pushed
himselftoo hard at thisphase of composition.
Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
491
Afterhis rest in September Trollope returned apparently refreshedto the novel. He wrotethe concluding numbers more slowly
and - to judge by the MS - withoutany of the earlierstrain.
CHRONOLOGICAL
RECKONING
The time-schemeof The Way We Live Now is veryclose and
somewhat controversial. As Bert Hornback points out, 98 of the
novel's 100 chapters occupy February-September1872 and "fortyfive days account for sixty-sixof the novel's chapters." Hornback
goes on to argue that Trollope must have guided himselfthrough
the tangle of his multiplot novel by constant referenceto an 1872
calendar. 16 In an answering article P. D. Edwards refuted this
alleged recourse to a mechanical aid. Trollope, he pointed out,
made up his own calendar for the novel's main events and incorporated it into his list of chapter titles for the novel.'7 Since one
knows that titlingwas one of the last of Trollope's acts of composition, it is certain that he made this list (which again seems to have
been writtenat one sitting)afterthe novel was complete. From the
way the dates are cramped in alongside the chapter titles,however,
it is evident that he must have inserted them later-presumably
while he was checking the novel and weeding out errorsbefore dispatching it to Chapman and Hall. It is worthnoting that the list of
chapter titlesis stillheaded "Carbury Novel" with a trial titleoffto
one side of "The lifewe live now."
It would seem that Trollope made more or less rough calculations as he went along. His calendar for the novel's action was at
points fairlyelastic. Thus against chapter 43, "The City Road," he
writes,"say Wednesday 26." Nor is he punctilious where he doesn't
have to be. For the last number he givesonlyone time marker,specifyingthe collapse of the Beargarden as occurringon 10 August.
On the back of this chapter and date list Trollope made out a
day-by-daytable from Wednesday July 17 to Tuesday September
16. In it he inserteda fewplot eventsbut apparentlygave up using it
almost immediately.
'6Bert G. Hornback, "Anthony Trollope and the Calendar of 1872: The Chronologyof 'The Way We Live Now,"' Notes and Queries, 208 (1963), 454-57.
17p. D. Edwards, "The Chronology of 'The Way We Live Now,'" Notes and
Queries, 214 (1969), 214-16.
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
492
NONCE PLANS II
In a spare column of the ink-written chapter and date list there
are the following notes jotted in pencil:
Lady Carbury'selopementMelmotte had arrivedwithinthe last 12 months.
page 21? can thisbe altered?
12 months?24
Melmotte'shouse south side of the squareMelmotte has been in prison at Hamburgh.
The reference is obviously to chapters 2 and 4. Lady Carbury's possible adultery was a delicate matter for Trollope. He brings it up in
the text, but after airing the possibility of infidelity,concludes that it
is none of the reader's business to know. In chapter 4 we learn that
Melmotte'shouse is on the south side of GrosvenorSquare (in later
sectionsof the novel Trollope forgetshimselfand makes it Portman
Square). Melmotte's adventures in Hamburg are withheld until
much later in the novel- but clearly Trollope wanted a criminal
aura to be presentfromthe first.
One can decipher the meaning of the date-memoranda by
reference to 1/38 (p. 28) of the MS, where Trollope wrote:
The giver of the ball was Augustus Melmotte, Esq., the fatherof the girl
whom Sir Felix Carbury desired to marryand the husband of the lady who
was said to have been an Itali-an[crossed out, "a Bohemian" added] Jewess.
It was thus that the gentleman chose to have himselfdesignated, though
withinthe last twelvemonthhe had arrivedin London fromParis.
In the printed version of the novel the last sentence reads: "though
within the last two years." It must have struck Trollope while reading the proofs (when these notes were made) that even Melmotte
could not have won over English society in twelve months.
It is probable that Trollope made many such fugitivenotes on
these lines at everystage of compositionand revision. This survives
only because it is attached to a more substantial working paper.
PROOFS
AND SUBSEQUENT
EDITIONS
On the folder in which he kept his papers for the novel Trollope wrote: "Commenced 1 May 1873. Finished 22 Dec. 1873." For
Trollope at Work on The Way We Live Now
493
Trollope, then, the work was effectivelyfinishedwhen he sent the
MS off to the publisher, not when he had corrected proofs. The
proofsof The Way We Live Now have not (as far as I know) survived.
And it is unlikelythat theywould be veryinformativeiftheyhad. As
has been said, he did not take thisopportunityto improvehis novel.
And in thisforbearancehe is verydifferentfromhis idol Thackeray.
The novel did not apparently sell well. According to Sadleir
therewere copies lefton hand whichwere later disposed of to Chatto
and Windus. There were subsequent cheap editions during the few
years of life that remained to Trollope, but he did not apparently
revisethe novel forreissue (as he did earlier with The Three Clerks,
forinstance).
The conclusion one draws is obvious enough. Trollope's secretarial exactitude and the aggressive account he gives of it in the
Autobzographyhave masked the substantial creative effortwhich
went into his fiction. And on the evidence of the plans which have
survivedone needs perhaps to be skeptical of the novelist'sown protestationsof unpreparedness. Trollope's self-deprecatingdescription
of himselfcharging at his plot like a horseman at a fence he cannot
see does not stand up in the light of the workingmaterials which
have survivedfor The Way We Lzve Now.
UniversityCollege, London