# Is "The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (Chapman and Hall, 1874) is identified by: The true first edition is the issue in twenty monthly parts, Chapman and Hall, London, February 1874 – September 1875, catalogued as "first edition in the original monthly parts" by Bonhams, Christie's and Forum Auctions and collated at Sadleir 44. The census claim of "Chapman & Hall 1875" names only the book form and understates the case.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first edition is the issue in twenty monthly parts, Chapman and Hall, London, February 1874 – September 1875, catalogued as "first edition in the original monthly parts" by Bonhams, Christie's and Forum Auctions and collated at Sadleir 44
- Points: octavo parts in the original blue printed pictorial wrappers, the front wrapper designed around a globe on which Father Time sits dejectedly amid scenes from the financier Melmotte's career; forty wood-engraved plates after Lionel G. Fawkes, signed "LF" — Sadleir originally mis-attributed these to Luke Fildes and later corrected the attribution, and the Fildes error is still repeated in the trade; and the inserted advertisements, which must collate as Sadleir sets out and include the separately titled "The Way We Live Now Advertiser"
- In a parts book it is the advertisements, not the text, that decide a genuine set
- The first edition in book form is the two-volume large octavo, Chapman and Hall, London, June 1875, reported in bright green cloth decorated in black and gilt; its sheets are the unsold sheets of the parts printing, so the book text is not a resetting or a reprinting
- Neither format carries a printing statement or number line
- Publisher imprint reads Chapman and Hall
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anthony Trollope |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall |
| Year | 1874 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first edition is the issue in twenty monthly parts, Chapman and Hall, London, February 1874 – September 1875, catalogued as "first… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first edition is the issue in twenty monthly parts, Chapman and Hall, London, February 1874 – September 1875, catalogued as "first edition in the original monthly parts" by Bonhams, Christie's and Forum Auctions and collated at Sadleir 44. Points: octavo parts in the original blue printed pictorial wrappers, the front wrapper designed around a globe on which Father Time sits dejectedly amid scenes from the financier Melmotte's career; forty wood-engraved plates after Lionel G. Fawkes, signed "LF" — Sadleir originally mis-attributed these to Luke Fildes and later corrected the attribution, and the Fildes error is still repeated in the trade; and the inserted advertisements, which must collate as Sadleir sets out and include the separately titled "The Way We Live Now Advertiser". In a parts book it is the advertisements, not the text, that decide a genuine set. The first edition in book form is the two-volume large octavo, Chapman and Hall, London, June 1875, reported in bright green cloth decorated in black and gilt; its sheets are the unsold sheets of the parts printing, so the book text is not a resetting or a reprinting. Neither format carries a printing statement or number line.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim of "Chapman & Hall 1875" names only the book form and understates the case. The twenty monthly parts (Chapman and Hall, February 1874 – September 1875) precede and are the first edition; the two-volume book followed in June 1875 — released ahead of the serial's own conclusion because the parts were selling badly. Both are collected, the parts being the senior and far scarcer object; the Trollope Society's chronology independently records the parts as February 1874 – September 1875 with book publication in June 1875. A Harper & Brothers (New York) first American edition also appeared in 1875, in publisher's green cloth with gilt spine titling, illustrated after Fawkes, of 408 pp. plus publisher's advertisements; it is a US reprint and does not compete with the London parts for precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is possible for an 1875 Trollope; the tells are remainder and reprint issues. Roughly eight months after book publication Chatto & Windus bought up the remaining Chapman and Hall sheets and issued them under a Chatto & Windus title page and binding — the same printed sheets, but not the first edition, and the substituted title page is the tell. Chapman and Hall separately offered the two volumes bound as one in the same green cloth, sold notably at railway stalls; this is a publisher's alternative binding of the original sheets rather than a remainder, and both original title pages are reported present in it. The Tauchnitz (Leipzig) 1875 issue is a continental reprint. Any copy with a Chatto & Windus title page, and any later one-volume Chapman and Hall reprint, is a "first thus" at best.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Way We Live Now* by Anthony Trollope a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-way-we-live-now
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.