The Coming Election explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Speculation and Ruin

  Melmotte's grandiose schemes (Mexican railway, transatlantic cable, etc.) are portrayed as speculative bubbles, with hints of impending collapse.

• Deception and Hypocrisy

  Both sides in the election engage in hyperbolic praise and slander; Melmotte's supporters threaten libel actions while his opponents dig into his past.

• Marriage as Financial Transaction

  Lady Monogram's invitation to Georgiana is explicitly bartered for tickets, mirroring the transactional nature of social and marital alliances.

Characters to notice

• Augustus Melmotte

  The Conservative candidate for Westminster, praised as a commercial genius and attacked as a fraud; his campaign is marked by grand promises and legal threats.

• Lady Carbury

  Sympathizes with Melmotte and discusses the election with Mr. Broune, showing diminished awe of him after his marriage proposal.

• Mr. Broune

  Discusses the election with Lady Carbury, criticizing Mr. Alf's tactics and the cost of libel actions.

• Lord Alfred Grendall

  Overwhelmed by electioneering duties for Melmotte, complains to his son about the workload and worries about Melmotte's stability.

• Miles Grendall

  Assists his father in the campaign, noting his own burdens and questioning whether Melmotte's scheme will last.

• Georgiana Longestaffe

  Arranges to stay with Lady Monogram in exchange for two tickets to Madame Melmotte's reception, a transaction that underscores social bargaining.

• Lady Monogram

  Invites Georgiana Longestaffe for three days in return for tickets to the Melmottes' reception, demonstrating her social calculation.

Key passages

• “The very greatness of Mr. Melmotte’s popularity, the extent of the admiration which was accorded by the public at large to his commercial enterprise and financial sagacity, created a peculiar bitterness in the opposition that was organised against him at Westminster.”

  Melmotte's immense popularity and reputation for business acumen provoked an unusually fierce backlash from his political opponents.

  Sets up the central conflict of the chapter: the polarization of public opinion around Melmotte.

• “As the high mountains are intersected by deep valleys, as puritanism in one age begets infidelity in the next, as in many countries the thickness of the winter’s ice will be in proportion to the number of the summer mosquitoes, so was the keenness of the hostility displayed on this occasion in proportion to the warmth of the support which was manifested.”

  The intensity of the opposition against Melmotte matched the fervor of his supporters, following a natural pattern of extremes.

  Illustrates the dialectical relationship between praise and criticism in the election.

• “If Melmotte’s money did not, at last, utterly demoralise the lower class of voters, there would still be a good fight. And there was a strong hope that, under the ballot, Melmotte’s money might be taken without a corresponding effect upon the voting.”

  There was optimism that the secret ballot would allow voters to accept Melmotte's bribes without actually voting for him.

  Highlights the corrupting influence of money in elections and the hope that the ballot could mitigate it.

• “Miss Longestaffe had the disposal of two evening tickets for Madame Melmotte’s grand reception; and so greatly had the Melmottes risen in general appreciation, that Lady Monogram had found that she was bound, on behalf of her own position in society, to be present on that occasion.”

  Georgiana Longestaffe controlled two tickets to the Melmottes' reception, and Lady Monogram, eager to maintain her social standing, felt compelled to attend.

  Demonstrates the social currency of the Melmottes' events and the transactional nature of friendships.