A new wave of writers are modelling their state-of-the-nation novels on the model pioneered by a great VictorianWith all the current noise about Dickens, it would be easy to miss the fact that another Victorian is casting his shadow over today's literary landscape. Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now remains the supreme example of the state of the nation novel, a sprawling tour de force with a huge cast of characters and a labyrinthine plot. The shifting viewpoints, keen engagement with contemporary themes, and use of London as a microcosm: this is the model upon which a number of important recent novels have drawn.With our robber-baron bankers, our financial panics, our privileged political elite and our disenfranchised migrant workers, ...