# Ezekiel Brehgert — The Way We Live Now character guide

> Ezekiel Brehgert in The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Brehgert, Mr. Brehgert, Herr Brehgert

**First appearance:** 0059-lx-miss-longestaffe-s-lover

## Snapshot

A Jewish banker whose proposal to Georgiana Longestaffe drags her family's genteel prejudices into the open, and whose quiet decency shames the Christians around him.

## Who they are

Brehgert moves through the City with the wealth and credit that Melmotte only pretends to possess, and when he offers marriage to the impoverished Georgiana, her parents recoil not from his character but from his faith and his trade. He is, by Melmotte's own reckoning, the most good-natured man alive — a quality that makes his handling of the forged documents all the more startling. His courtship forces the Longestaffes, and the reader, to weigh what English society claims to value against what it actually does.

## In the story

### [XL: “Unanimity Is the Very Soul of These Things.”](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/chapters/xl-unanimity-is-the-very-soul-of-these-things)

Mentioned as having met with Melmotte about the Moldavian loan.

### [Miss Longestaffe's Lover](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/chapters/lx-miss-longestaffe-s-lover)

A wealthy Jewish widower and partner in Todd, Brehgert, and Goldsheiner; has proposed to Georgiana and been accepted.

### [Miss Longestaffe Writes Home](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/chapters/lxv-miss-longestaffe-writes-home)

Arrives elegantly dressed at Lady Monogram's party, but is ignored and leaves after learning Georgiana has been taken away by her father.

### [Miss Longestaffe Again at Caversham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/chapters/lxxviii-miss-longestaffe-again-at-caversham)

The Jewish financier to whom Georgiana is engaged; his intentions are uncertain after Mr. Longestaffe's intervention.

### [The Brehgert Correspondence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/chapters/lxxix-the-brehgert-correspondence)

Writes to Georgiana explaining his position on her father's objections and later breaks off the engagement after her conditional reply.

### [The Inquest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/chapters/lxxxviii-the-inquest)

Manages Melmotte's affairs with honesty and energy, forms a friendship with Mr. Longestaffe, and discusses his past engagement to Georgiana, explaining his financial losses.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/characters/brehgert
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_we_live_now_se/characters