Sometimes a fictional character can take on a life of his own during the writing of a story, and even after publication, capturing the imagination of the author and thereafter of the public. Sherlock Holmes, Scrooge and Tiny Tim, Hamlet, and Uncle Tom have all become iconic in our popular culture. [2] I doubt that any of Trollope's characters make any of the "Top 100" lists; that's part of the Trollope problem: he's just not that well known. But if he were, who would make the list? Mrs. Proudie, Obadiah Slope, Lady Glencora, Mr. Crawley, Plantagenet Palliser perhaps--all these are from the Palliser and Barsetshire collections. And from the other novels--the "singletons"--Augustus Melmotte would certainly take his place. In this century he would be assisted by the strong portrayal by David Suchet in the 2003 BBC production, in which he is described as "this huge monster, Melmotte, sitting like a fat spider, drawing all the other characters into his great scheme." [Footnote 2: Lucy Pollard-Gott, who has launched a website fictional100.com, lists her top ten: Hamlet, Odysseus, Don Quixote, Eve, Genji, Oedipus, Don Juan, Chia Pia-Yu, Sherlock Holmes, and Arjuna.] _The Way We Live Now_ has been described as a work of bitterness and disillusionment, but the tone of the book is not one of bitterness. It is certainly satirical; but one could believe that the character of Melmotte stepped in and ran away with the story, just as he swept through London society in 1873 (the year it was written--remember "_Now_" in the title). One would be hard pressed to say that _The Way We Live Now_ heralded a precipitous darkening of Trollope's view of the world. He did continue to explore the folly of mankind in the novels that followed--_The Prime Minister_, with the appearance of Ferdinand Lopez, an ambitious, unscrupulous foreigner like Melmotte; _Is He Popenjoy?_ featuring the arch villain the Marquis of Brotherton; _The American Senator_; _The Duke's Children_; and _John Caldigate_. The more Trollope experienced the world, the more targets for his satirical pen appeared. _The Way We Live Now_ is replete with such targets. Likeable characters are lacking. Two exceptions are Mr. Brehgert, the Jew who tolerates the frank anti-Semitism of Victorian England with saintly perseverance; and John Crumb, "the dealer in meal and pollard at Bungay," who loves Ruby Ruggles and thrashes the useless young Sir Felix Carbury when he assaults her. (Pollard is a fine protein-rich feed supplement for farm animals; it is a byproduct from the milling of wheat for flour.)