The Story Has Already Been Written

Inspired by the Bernard Madoff scandal, are you? Thinking about putting together an entire novel, based on actual facts?

It's been done already. Anthony Trollope wrote it. Over one hundred years ago.

The Way We Live Now is vintage Trollope, skewering his contemporaries and their pathetic pursuit of instant wealth. The wicked Augustus Melmotte is Bernard Madoff in almost every way, although Trollope inserted a large dollop of anti-Semitism in his telling of the tale.

At a time when men thought they could profit by cornering the silver market, by flipping real estate or selling commercial paper, the lure of riches hung heavy in the air. Trollope was appalled and he used his disgust as inspiration for a long novel that he filled with the sort of intrigue that lies at the heart of a well-crafted fraud.

Rather than railroad shares, Mr. Madoff peddled investments at a time when we look to the financial markets for some instant wealth. As in Trollope's day, a promise of generous dividends was the lever that parted a man from his money, and the end result is largely unchanged. At some point, the artificial construction collapses under its own weight, and the investors discover that there are no generous dividends to be had.

If people would only read more, these things wouldn't happen so easily. The get-rich-quick scheme of Queen Victoria's era failed then, so why would anyone expect it to work this time around?

We must consider, of course, that a novel written in 1875 isn't on the New York Times Best Seller list in 2008, and what trend-setter would be seen with something that dated? Apologies to Mr. Spinoza, as those who don't know history repeat it.