Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Vanity Fair (Unabridged)
    Vanity Fair (Unabridged)
    Vanity Fair (Unabridged)
    Ebook1,051 pages17 hours

    Vanity Fair (Unabridged)

    By William Makepeace Thackeray

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.
    Vanity Fair follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. Becky is a strong-willed, cunning, moneyless, young woman determined to make her way in society. After leaving school, Becky stays with Emmy, who is a good-natured, simple-minded, young girl, of a wealthy London family. There, Becky meets the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne (Amelia's betrothed) and Amelia's brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious but rich civil servant home from the East India Company. Hoping to marry Sedley, the richest young man she has met, Becky entices him, but she fails. George Osborne's friend Captain William Dobbin loves Amelia, but only wishes her happiness, which is centered on George.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMusaicum Books
    Release dateNov 2, 2018
    ISBN9788027246366
    Author

    William Makepeace Thackeray

    William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was a multitalented writer and illustrator born in British India. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where some of his earliest writings appeared in university periodicals. As a young adult he encountered various financial issues including the failure of two newspapers. It wasn’t until his marriage in 1836 that he found direction in both his life and career. Thackeray regularly contributed to Fraser's Magazine, where he debuted a serialized version of one of his most popular novels, The Luck of Barry Lyndon. He spent his decades-long career writing novels, satirical sketches and art criticism.

    Read more from William Makepeace Thackeray

    Related to Vanity Fair (Unabridged)

    Related ebooks

    Royalty Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Rise Up!

      Mar 3, 2020

      Rise Up!
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Good Servant

      Aug 8, 2022

      Windsor, March 1932 “Good evening, Miss Crawford.” A smart young man in uniform was waiting on the platform when she stepped off the train. She was startled. “Aye. That’s me. How did you know?” “Easy.” He smiled. “There aren’t that many young ladies

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Brief Ghostly Encounter…

      Nov 30, 2020

      A Brief Ghostly Encounter…
      7 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Sep 30, 2022

      I’m a single mother who struggles financially to get through each month. When my washing machine broke I had no funds to repair it, so I asked my neighbours if I could do my washing at their place. On a Wednesday afternoon my bell rang. At the door w

      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Nov 27, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Grey Pride

      Jun 21, 2017

      Grey Pride
      16 min read

    • Article

      His Lordship’s LAST GAME

      Jan 24, 2024

      His Lordship’s LAST GAME
      9 min read

    • Article

      Past IMPERFECT

      Oct 2, 2023

      Past IMPERFECT
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Jan 11, 2023

      Just before Christmas, historian Lady Antonia Fraser composed a verse on confronting that age-old companion to faith – doubt – at Farm Street Church, Mayfair. Nick Downes is one of the most treasured cartoonists at Oldie Towers (see above right for a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Tales From The Echoing Green

      Jul 19, 2023

      Tales From The Echoing Green
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 16, 2020

      Book Club
      4 min read

    • Article

      Post Office Hotel, Maude

      Dec 19, 2018

      Post Office Hotel, Maude
      6 min read

    • Article

      Double Trouble In Chaotic Comedy

      Nov 25, 2021

      THE ARRIVAL OF THE Christmas season is a reminder that while the West End is the beating heart of British theatre, it is in what used to be called the “provinces” — now more delicately in arts-speak the “regions” — that most of the country experience

      3 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Aug 24, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 283 you were invited to write a poem called Things Fall Apart. Martin Brown wrote some close parody of Yeats, and when his shopping bag burst, ‘The best splat all the kitchen, while the walls / Are caught with passionfruit at veloci

      2 min read

    • Article

      July’s BOOK CLUB

      May 31, 2023

      Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley (£16.99, HB, Transworld) Flo is a shy English translator in Tokyo, stuck in a work rut, and feeling like a failure in love and life. Tokyoite Kyo has flunked his university entrance exams and been sent to live wi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Aug 5, 2021

      profanisaurus@viz.co.uk aroma diffuser 1. n. A scientific device that breaks “essential oils” down into smaller molecules, dispersing them into the air for a pleasant or calming effect on the gullible. 2. n. The arsehole. Barbie’s minge sim. Somethin

      8 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Than Fiction

      Apr 12, 2024

      Stranger Than Fiction
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Vanity Fair (Unabridged)

    4/5

    2,226 ratings82 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I can now place a check mark beside this one in my "must read" classics list. An interesting, cautionary tale filled with detailed descriptions and characters I never really cared about. Yes, Becky is a schemer of the highest order while Amelia is such a doormat, it is not surprising that events develop as they do. Good thing this is billed as being a satire of English society because one can only hope that individuals were not as stupid back than as Thackeray portrays. Characters driven by petty decisions based purely on advancing one's station and over the top efforts to only socialize with the "right" people, does not surprise me. Became a bit tedious in its predictability but then, human nature can be very predictable as well. While the story tended to drag in places, Thackeray does a decent job at providing witticisms for the reader to smile at and nod in agreement. Overall, happy that I have finally read this one, but not be one that I will "re-read".
    • 4/5
      A satire about "highborn" English life in the 19th century. I found Thackeray's writing witty, funny, and biting. Then, as now, it is meant to be read in serialized form, hence I read it via Serial Reader. I couldn't really take too much Thackeray in a day! That being said, I did enjoy the inhabitants of Vanity Fair, although I did not care a whit for any of them. 822 pages
    • 5/5
      This novel, set in part around the famed Battle of Waterloo in which Napoleon gets his ultimate defeat at the hands of the British, goes through 66 chapters of set up for a tumultuous (and brilliant) final chapter in which every supposition in the prior chapters is set on its head. As a whole, this book is witty, wonderful, and enchanting. It is fit to be a classic - indeed, one of the best books I've ever read.

      It is set around the main character, born Becky Sharp. She is a social climber who built her life up from poverty. However, as the subtitle of this book intones, she is an ignoble protagonist. She stirs her hand in every section of the book as a manipulator and as a fraud, yet somehow much good is wrought by her improprieties in the lives of many of her compatriots.

      This book provides an interesting look into the lives of England in the 1800s. English classism and the pettiness of nobles are on full display. Nonetheless, there are noble, though still flawed and human, characters such as Amelia. The story traverses from character to character as a masterful plot is wrought.

      I especially enjoyed Thackeray's wit - on full display in various comments on the narrative. He writes like a journalist, but not one striving for poor objectivity as is seen in the American practice. He entertains as he tells - and is shown to be a master of the quill.
    • 4/5
      Yet another long, presumably serialized, early Victorian soap opera about a young girl and others, clawing up the social ladder. Great characters and character development. The author's short essays and sarcastic observations are very amusing.
    • 5/5
      I am almost 70, and had never read this book. For some reason I had the idea that it was a dry, musty, boring book. Boy, was I wrong. This was one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in ages. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor. It is funny, enlightening, beautifully written. I read it because someone said it was the English counterpart to War and Peace. I agree, except that it's a lot funnier than W & P.One of my all time favorite books.
    • 4/5
      Interesting study of women trying to survive in a world in which women have few options. Becky would have been more sympathetic if she had been a nicer person but I feel Victorian limits on women prevented that.
    • 4/5
      Such a wonderful book. Becky Sharp is so wicked ! Her friend Amelia is such a wimp I want to hit her every time I read it. It is so funny!!!!
    • 4/5
      I'm glad I finally got around to reading this book. Although long I enjoyed every minute of it. There were sections where there were just too many names to keep track but I realized quickly that it really wasn't necessary to remember all these characters as they play very minor roles. If you don't let your self get frustrated by the names and just go with it you will find a much more enjoyable experience.There truly is no hero to this book. I couldn't find one character that I fully liked. While usually this would turn me off from a book, it didn't in this case. The pettiness that surrounds the characters is still relevant today and makes for interesting and sometimes humorous reading.
    • 5/5
      Two girls and two very different personalities and temperaments, Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp, form the center of this lengthy story "without a hero". By the end I was almost convinced that all is 'vanity' in this world, or at least in this novel. This reminded me somewhat of Balzac (e. g. Cousin Bette), but with more humor.The best thing in the book was the Authorial presence as he comments on the people and their actions at regular intervals. The two most memorable aspects of the book for me were the voice of the author and the character of Becky Sharp, certainly one of the most memorable in all of my reading. Unlike Dickens, the author does not deal with the ills of society at large (e. g. education or debtors' prison), but focuses on the characters of the individuals and the consequences of their character and actions on their lives.The characters seem like puppets on a stage at times, while he uses them to reveal general truths about human nature. Becky is the best example as her greed and selfishness knows no bounds. When dealing with most of the other characters you almost don't mind since they usually deserve the treatment they receive from her; however, her unmotherly actions toward her son betray a more vile nature than one would expect, from anyone that is other than Becky.This is a novel that explores the dichotomy between love and money, those who depend on the largess of others are often disappointed and all the love in the world does not pay the bills. Thackeray manages to keep the story interesting primarily because, in spite of her character flaws, Becky is both smart and charming. He explores her nature in a way that is both profound and detailed and ultimately, with a large supporting cast, creates a world in Vanity Fair that seems not too unlike our own.
    • 5/5
      I read this ages ago. First in my Victorian novel class, and a few years later at a more leisurely pace. It is a real treat. Very pointed satire made even funnier with the sly illustrations. This is certainly one for the ages; pure entertainment
    • 2/5
      Vanity Fair is about the adventures of the young Becky Sharp, born to humble circumstances but given certain opportunities to raise herself, which she takes full advantage of, sometimes to her benefit, more often to her detriment. As heroine's go...well...she isn't one, hence the book's subtitle, "A Novel Without a Hero". It is written as social satire. For a man fully entrenched in Victorianism, the early part of the century provided a great deal of fodder for novel material. But there's nothing funny about it. The Napoleanic War, the fight for Social survival, the harsh realities of a class system, and thrown into this is the avaricious and scheming Becky Sharp, who takes advantage, and with a realism that at times persuades the reader to sympathise with her. In her path, however, she leaves a wake of ruin. Sympathies change, though, as the book progresses, and while, at first, we may have rooted for one non-heroine, by the end, we are rooting for quite another. The book has a happy-ish ending, with a sobering monologue to put all in its place and to cast a shade of reality over it. But one is left, at the conclusion, with the impression that Thackeray rather tired of his characters before he had quite completed his novel. Overall, it was an interesting look into a Victorian gentleman's view of the decades before him, but it is not by any means one of my favourite books of the era.
    • 5/5
      This is a book about women.There are a couple of them in the story and I think the author was 'comparing' and 'contrasting' them.I liked both of them but figure they would most likely be 'out of my league.'
    • 5/5
      Very enjoyable romp through the Regency period, in both London, Hampshire, Belgium and Germany. The book is mainly about two characters, Becky Sharp, a rather brash young woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and Amelia Sedley, a young woman from a rich family, who starts life with all that she wants and needs, but falls upon unhappy times in both love and money. The writing is humorous at times, and the descriptions of the times and the people very entertaining. There is sadness too with lots of love and loss going on. All in all a long book, which you need to invest some time and devotion to, but well worth it.
    • 5/5
      Thackeray's Victorian novel is above all a satire. A journalist turned author, he cast his eyes around him and did not like what he saw. He has been labelled a realist and a searcher after truth and he uses wit, irony and biting satire to expose the corrupt and stagnant society that appeared all around him.Thackeray's society is Vanity Fair. It is a place where individuals are driven by the worship of wealth, rank, power and class and are corrupted by it. Greed and lust predominate. The satire is at times savage and grotesque, but like much great fiction it resonates with modern readers. Today the Wall Street Occupation immediately springs to mind as well as earlier protest movements in the late 1960's. Thackeray's many allusions to Vanity Fair reminded me of Bob Dylan's Desolation Row, however it was some snatches of lyrics from "Its alright Ma, I'm only Bleeding" that seemed particularly relevant:"gargles in the rat race choirbent out of shape by society's pliersOld lady judges watch people in pairsLimited in sex they dareTo push fake morals, insult and stareWhile money doesn't talk it swears......" The novel was published in monthly installments from January 1847 to July 1848 and had an immediate impact. Charlotte Bronte (writing under her pseudonym Currer Bell) in her preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre said: "I regard him (Thackeray) as the first social regenerator of this day - as the very master of that working corps who would restore to rectitude the warped system of things...... His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear the same relation to his serious genius, that the mere lambent sheet-lightning playing under the edge of the summer cloud, does to the electric death spark hid in its womb. Finally, I have alluded to Mr Thackeray, because to him - if he will accept the tribute of a total stranger I have dedicated the second edition of Jane EyreCurrer BellDec 21st 1847 "Why did this mocking misanthropic book that has overtones of misogyny create such an impact at the time and has been regarded as a classic of English Literature ever since? Apart from the social commentary it has a story to tell. Two young women emerge from Mrs Pinkerton's academy for young ladies to take their place in society in the early years of the 19th century. Amelia Sedley was a paying border and coming from a rich merchant family her marriage prospects are good. Her friend Becky Sharpe was kept on at the Academy because of her teaching abilities and the best that she can look forward to is a place as a governess. The two girls could not be more different. Becky is clever and resourceful and an adroit manipulator of other people, she realises she must use her wits and her sex to get ahead. Amelia on the other hand while possessing both beauty and excellent manners is a weak character, unworldly, easily moved to tears and selfishly insular in her outlook. Their stories are told in parallel in the first part of the book, but intersect in the city of Brussels on the eve of the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. This is the midpoint and backbone of the book. Following these climactic events the story moves back to London where Amelia and Becky suffer different fortunes. Amelia having lost her husband at Waterloo sinks into poverty as a result of her fathers failed business ventures. Becky builds on her success in Brussells and reaches for the highest echelons of society. Her marriage to Rawdon Crawley the brother of a barronet and a gambler and swindler to boot does not hold her back. Fortunes change again as the women who both now have a son meet towards the end of the book and enact a rather dispiriting denouement.If this all sounds like a Bildungsroman where the characters moral and psychological development is the focus, then you would be mistaken for thinking so. Few of the characters develop in this way, they remain static and perhaps this is the point of the novel. Society or Vanity Fair allows for no character development. They keep on doing what they do as the all consuming rush for money power and position is the real focus for Thackeray's novel. Amelia remains the childish women she always was. Becky continues to live by her cleverness, her wit and her sex, until she is no longer able to do so. The male characters are too busy making money or seeking glory or like the faithful Dobbin: following a false dream, which when this fades there is nothing left but to do his duty.Thackeray prefaces his novel with the idea of the Manager of the performance. It is this manager who will constantly interrupt the story to speak directly to the reader, telling him his views on the characters and their actions. At one point towards the end of the novel the manager tells his readers that he sat down with some of the characters outside a cafe and the story they told him is the one he is now relating to us. The question that is difficult to answer then is; who is this manager/narrator, is it the author Thackeray himself speaking to us. Are there two voices here. The book is written in a omniscient narrative style with these authorial interludes directed straight at the reader. This allows Thackeray to interpret events, give hints to future events, to recap on previous events, to fill in details and play with the time line. Sometimes it feels as though he is just playing with his readers. A typical example is when Amelia is praying for the safe return of her husband George Osborne:"Have we the right to repeat or overhear her prayers? These brother are secrets, and out of the domain of vanity Fair in which our story lies."This is fascinating because Thackeray is both a satirist/social analyst and a moralist and these points of view do not always sit together comfortably. There is some confusion as to which hat the author is wearing or what voice he is speaking with. This results however in the characters having a sort of life of their own as we are constantly seeing them from different sides. Becky is subject to many of these authorial reviews, which culminate in this wonderful passage towards the end of the novel:"I defy anyone to say that our Becky, who has certainly some vices, has not been presented to the public in a perfectly genteel and inoffensive manner. In describing this syren, singing and smiling, coaxing and cajoling, the author with modest pride, asks his readers all around, has he once forgotten the laws of politeness, and showed the monster's hideous tail above water? No! Those who like may peep down under waves that are pretty transparent, and see it writhing and twirling, diabolically hideous and slimy, flapping amongst bones, or curling round corpses; but above the water line, I ask, has not everything been proper, agreeable and decorous, and has any the most squeamish immoralist in Vanity Fair right to cry fie? When however the syren disappears and dives below, down among the dead men, the water of course grows turbid over her, and it is labour lost to look into it ever so curiously. They look pretty enough when they sit upon a rock, twanging their harps and combing their hair, and sing, and beckon to you to come and hold the looking glass; but when they sink into their native element depend on it those mermaids are about no good, and we had best not examine the fiendish marine cannibals, revelling and feasting on their wretched pickled victims. And so, when Becky is out of the way, be sure she is not particularly well employed, and that the less said about her doings the better"This passage highlights Thackeray's ambivalence towards his heroine. Thackeray's masterstroke is to compare her with the saintly but inept Amelia as their lives run parallel. Becky has battled against the odds to become a player in vanity Fair and has had fun doing it. Nobody has as much fun in this novel as Becky Sharpe. (apart from her admiring husband Rawdon Crawley perhaps)This is a must read for lovers of the Victorian novel and for those who wish to chart the development of the novel in the English language. There are some issues for the modern reader. Thackeray was a journalist with a wide knowledge of current events. His text is sprinkled with personalities, politicians, artists who were well known at the time, but have since faded into obscurity. A thoroughly annotated text is recommended for the reader who wished to pick up on all the references. It is not essential though to enjoy the book, although it will be easier for readers native to England. It is a long novel nearly 700 pages and there is some obvious padding. Thackeray had to produce 32 pages of script for his monthly deadlines and some passages feel like add ons in order to fulfill his contract. Having said that I found the book fairly well structured and some of the recaps were helpful.This is a book to be savoured and enjoyed and for those people unfamiliar with the genre, may find it quite astonishing. A well written biting satire of a corrupt and moribund society is enough to hold my interest. This together with some wonderful characters (who can forget Jos "Waterloo" Sedley or Sir Pitt Crawley) and some purple patches of prose make this a classic in every sense of the word. And don't forget Thackeray's marvellous illustrations; well over a hundred of them.
    • 4/5
      Ok, I'm not going to lie, by and large I have little idea what this was about (it was kinda like shoving four seasons of a television sitcom into one weekend...). That being said, I found it hilarious. The author's writing voice was phenomenal, and the character depth and building was wonderful.
    • 3/5
      Dated material yet quite rich in style. I was surprised how the author uses names to satirize people, the lawyer Mr. Bullocks, for example.
    • 1/5
      I read this in high school for a senior English class for one of our quarterly book reports.

      Absolutely hated the main character.
    • 3/5
      This is a good book but it is very long and I actually gave up for awhile on reading it. But it is a classic so I made it through the rest of the book. It does get dry at times but the plot is amazing and it's worth the read, as long as you can get through the 912 pages.It's definitely a classic and should be read.
    • 4/5
      Where I got the book: audiobook downloaded from Audible.Well, I finally read Vanity Fair, and it took an audiobook to do it. This was written in an era when a novelist could truly indulge himself with long backstories, explanations, scene-setting and bunny trails, and Thackeray makes full use of that power. As a story, the tale of Becky Sharpe and her moral opposite, the rather nauseatingly devoted Amelia, it's good stuff; although, of course, I ended up far preferring wicked Becky. As a portrait of an era it's great, and it has Waterloo in it which is a plus. Now that I've listened to the audiobook I might one day be able to wade through the printed novel with a bit more determination; but Thackeray writes in great solid blocks of text, which is offputting. And a shame, because there are many laughs to be had within these pages; Thackeray plants his barbs with the waspish glee of a maiden lady gossip, or, to bring the analogy up to date, a gay radio host.This would NOT be my recommended version to listen to, and indeed Audible has withdrawn it. The audio quality is very uneven, the narrator's voice grated on me, and she was completely incapable of pronouncing the many foreign words.
    • 3/5
      The story opens with two graduating students leaving Miss Pickerton's academy for young ladies. One graduate, Amelia Sedley, is well loved and receives an enormous send off while her companion, Rebecca Sharp, barely garners a glance. Becky is an orphaned governess, traveling with Amelia as her guest. Once at the Sedley home Rebecca sets out to become betrothed to Amelia's brother, Joseph. Jos serves as Collector of Boggley Wollah in the East India Company's Civil Service. Once that attempt fails Rebecca becomes even more amoral and shameless. In today's terms she would be classified as a psychopath because of her lack of conscience and her inability to feel anything for her fellow man. Amelia is disgustingly sweet and Rebecca is shamelessly indifferent. Neither one makes a satisfying hero in Thackeray's eyes. I found the story to be plotless and pointless. What made the reading more difficult was Thackeray getting confused and mixing up the characters.
    • 4/5
      Vanity Fair is sometimes called the best British novel ever written, but it's totally not. Middlemarch is way better. Honestly, VF's not even in the top ten. So why do people love it so much? Because of Becky Sharp. Which is funny, because she's not what it was supposed to be about.

      Becky Sharp is to Thackeray as Satan is to Milton. The argument has been made in both cases that the author secretly intended us to love their most memorable characters, but that's not true - or at least it's not that easy. While both dominate their stories, both authors are clearly uncomfortable with the fact that that's happened.

      Vanity Fair didn't really take shape until Thackeray turned it into an autobiography: the Amelia / Dobbins story, which he thought of after he'd submitted the first few chapters and which caused an eight-month delay while he reconfigured the story, mirrors his own one-sided love affair with his friend's wife. Dobbins is based on himself. And certainly their story turns out to be an important counterweight to Becky's; without it, the novel would be a slighter work about a femme fatale, arguably more fun but less important. With them it turns into a sprawling landmark in realist literature, one that unarguably influenced War & Peace.

      But Amelia and Dobbins are such milquetoasts that Becky insists on running away with the book. They're nice people, and you root for them, but during their chapters...you wish it would get back to Amelia's frenemy.

      And Thackeray attacks Becky, again and again, viciously. His most telling attack is in her constantly reiterated failure to love her son, which is a mortal sin in Victorian novels as it is in the rest of them. A father can occasionally be forgiven for not loving his children; never a mother. But there's also this deadly passage toward the end of the novel, in which he defensively compares her to the old-school, evil mermaid:"Has [the author] once forgotten the rules of politeness, and showed the monster's hideous tail above water? No! Those who like may peep down under waves that are pretty transparent and see it writhing and twirling, diabolically hideous and slimy, flapping amongst bones, or curling around corpses, but above the waterline, I ask, has not everything been proper?"It frankly feels like Thackeray is punishing Becky for taking over the book that he'd tried to take over himself. He sounds confused: like he wishes the whole novel was a moral one, and realizes only now that it's failed to be that. (Remember, this book couldn't be retooled; it was released in installments, and everyone had already read the rest of them.)

      Consider also the ending. Becky has a moment of magnanimity and reconciles Dobbins and Amelia. Then she turns around and murders Jos. (Don't try to argue that she didn't murder him. Thackeray may not say it, but he leaves little doubt.) Which feels more honest to you? Which feels like something Becky would do? She's a calculating, immoral woman who may have been (but probably wasn't) involved in countless affairs by this time, but did you get the sense that she's a murderess? Thackeray's book has gotten away from him, and he's betraying her in an attempt to snatch it back.

      Compare this with Middlemarch, also a landmark realist novel, and also one released in installments, but one in which it's perfectly clear that Eliot had the entire plot, thread by thread, perfectly planned from the beginning. Eliot never lets her book get away from her. And when I say that, and when you consider the fact that Middlemarch includes no character as compelling as Becky Sharp - she would have despised Dorothea - it sounds like Vanity Fair might be more fun than Middlemarch, but it's not. Thackeray's sense of human nature isn't as strong as Eliot's (or as Tolstoy's), and the novel isn't as satisfying.

      It's good, because Becky Sharp escaped from somewhere in Thackeray's brain and took it from him. What doesn't belong to her is just okay.
    • 4/5
      A favourite I have returned to on a number of occasions. Amoral she may be but I can't help but love Becky Sharp for her resourcefulness, especially when compared with the rather insipid Amelia. As a young woman without family or fortune she is forced to rely upon her own cunning to achieve a position in society.
    • 3/5
      This long and complicated story did not live up to the movie for one main reason- the movie strove to make the main character, Becky Sharp, likeable. It really brings a book down when you're supposed to hate the main character. In fact, I'm not entirely certain how I got through 800+ pages feeling conflicted (I wanted to like and root for the main character, but the author thought she was awful). I think we should all feel bad for Becky- she's incredibly talented and intelligent, but, because she's born without money, she's can't shine without resorting to baser methods. It is readable (obviously), though not particularly enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This novel is for the committed: committed to its 800 pages, committed to referencing endnotes and looking things up, and committed to piecing together the plot arcs and disparate characters of this tour de force.This tome is heavy on the vernacular: I advise reading an edition with copious foot- or end-notes. Translation is necessary for many contemporary references. Who knew there were so many hundreds of kinds of carriages? Some of the elements are timeless: jealousy, vanity, gallantry, pining love. These ride under an unremitting setting of high English fashion and society that seems not quaint and historical but monstrous and disorienting. At times this book is a blatant page-turner, in a soap opera titillating way. At other times it's a chore to push through pages of intricate detail about the fabric of mid-19th-century life.For every literary or satirical reference you get, there are bound to be a dozen you miss (unless your area of expertise is the Victorian novel, perhaps). In retrospect, I feel like I would have needed a full lecture series or course to understand the full breadth of this work.
    • 4/5
      I quite enjoyed the book when I eventually got around to finishing it. Despite Becky Sharp's rather unorthodox way of going through life, she is certainly one of the most memorable characters. She is flawed and by no means is she a typical Victorian Lady (as is usually depicted), but she manages to keep the reader's attention. Thackeray successfully manages to satirize society, and shows how vain people can really be.
    • 4/5
      William Makepeace Thackeray was the 19th century equivalent to Jackie Collins but with the inside scoop on the decadent English and French nobility instead of the Hollywood elite. His tale about the overly ambitious but lovely Becky is both a piercing stab at English society and a guilty pleasure to read. I think he meant it to be a morality tale, but I, for one, wanted Becky to rule the world.
    • 5/5
      Although this novel is coralled into the category of "classic" that desuades so many from reading a book it is well worth the time. It exposes the effects of manipulation and greediness, and it shows that people will ultimately get what they deserve. Although the characters inhabit a time apart from ours, they may as well be living in current times. Readers should be able to relate easily to this book.
    • 5/5
      This was a book I enjoyed very much, although towards the end it begun to drag and I started wishing for it to end (reminded me of Sacajawea in that aspect). It has 672 pages and is written in 8 font which you have to read from very close up. The book reminds me Jane Austen and Charles Dickens with the way they criticize victorian society (although the story is set a bit before the victorian era, as it begins in 1805). Only Thackaray is much more sarcastic and mean towards his characters, but he does it in a very.. Polite way! There are so many weaknesses in human nature which are exposed in the novel, Thackaray likes to show every characters dark side together with the good, he seems to want to have the reader disillsioned. All this could have been mightily depressing if it wasn't for the wonderful humour which goes throughout the novel and illuminates it, making the read more easy, fun and bearable. The author succeeds to influence you, as a reader, and to have you at one time cheering a certain character, and at the next chapter booing it, and then cheering it again, as he tells you secret thoughts and reveals all the different layers in the characters, both the good and the bad. What's left, is a pretty glumy but funny picture of human kind, that surprisingly enough, has a happy end. 19.3.07
    • 3/5
      While an enjoyable read on it’s own, only in comparison to other Victorian novels does Vanity Fair really shine. Along with an agreeable sense of shock and indignation, what relief the public must have felt at Becky Sharp’s entrance onto the world stage. In place of Dickens’s cozy sentimentality, the Bronte sisters’ tortured psyches, and Elliot’s scholarly ethics, we have in Becky, at long last, a whip smart protagonist whose sole and blissfully unequivocal desire is to vault into a life of luxury. Such worldliness is an emetic against the hulking morality of Victorian fiction. Of course, it’s still the 19th century, and Becky is duly castigated for her wayward ways, but her punishment is merely an unconvincing plot device; a soggy deus ex machine necessary to avoid damning censure. We all know what she is all about, and we love her for it. Besides providing this critical breakthrough, Vanity Fair provides little else but a decent story with a respectable gallery of funny episodes. There is plenty of satire, but the English had not yet regained the sharp wit they lost in the 18th century, and most of the humor here is still of the meaty-elbow-in-the-ribs-guffaw variety. All of the characters except Becky, and perhaps the inspired figure of Jos "Waterloo" Sedly, are cut-rate Dickens knockoffs, and the narrative itself is a clunky vehicle following an entirely predictable road. Still, Thackery gave us Becky, and thereby saved the English novel from drowning in a turgid sea of good intentions.
    • 2/5
      The two stars I gave this reflect my own liking of the book, not the writing style or anything else. I couldn't finish this book. It was too cynical and depressing for me. None of the characters appealed. Life is too short, and I have too many other books to read. The one thing I did enjoy was Thackeray's description of society and the habits of the times, but again, his moralizing and condemning attitude grated on me at this time.

    Book preview

    Vanity Fair (Unabridged) - William Makepeace Thackeray

    eebook_preview_excerpt.htmlێI-+~899sAтJRS%iKӏA`;.I#Ùߛ/92s2t)3ɸuٲ?C:Ǵ뇴ijV')>OKiӪ߭^ݔin'ȋڧ`׷_njlr߯㦯z\U]ja\5/?UͰ^U]Jmq>zL]зն?q?ѾnW<K[~ߦhb6·X]VŖo6) ڤײgW6QWMv `}꧗>=_ud쇪@ 4 & ]%+/_v1NfuQjatiK_?}:Wu\dO6{xWݟ&n¹٥,m3M^}k>K[uӑOi[ 4ю{~Cس=[6F;_1TF:Z^'Llu>.DrOI Xqyl[8#S% Na?LRЅmsN8gc@;':6}A,(_ɿ܄[gdL(5G nW=B|:؎a:~ΎIL%&&MG;57~bivCĝ:vCAwZK UWn~͋Tl =g$16ٔQׯک'PϞFٹa7ʘ FdV1}2_W?6FfrfLV2wԒǾ_հƩڢ5W>T7ǢS:є7-XvZOŋf1ƭݗ:׎KX@^6`J: MMďklQawޣڞN޹³c3v.סA σga;td9&@{ږT[SA_I}.glVk11^Ho[aC%a˪ */=Cן͚e ͥx›dwHdYm[?9?'{PE;[Mr@i@j/XjSa Ƿǰ?oP3j׆ޜѯ t_#< E^)A|iڸV;ݼZFm3lTiln%Mzm5`Gק[IljP0;y~4Eѯe 0\ј@M5=/)4egV)jYұ$S&$r;>ko/MZT[i ).^Ykȍ٥~WMrLػ,5f>/}U.x  -÷,C(|xO_M<_1̀ɇEÉ0ŦIM$.p!3'Iպ@OvBAsD+lV{k{_SM=XtwնB3a"ʪn]ֶ?I/1L:1 ]|`EQ~.6Oٔj(zCb'Ȟ--ø=;k C:89 gIPR󀐐ڜdH.f)m63a?c͏KZ[l`3@`7/شxMjՖ 1{]bSR;9g3~9'*Ֆ6Ȗk=@,\Gf'}=]j؜Vw؛KuGmf)cU><5Ng5Bi {c9}znu9WopAO;Vc\7F m;^EZV\-o2DE7,$hS,3ekjN4{~5>7-^Il5>Ć|c'DK,ٮ`ICy[m-nh\᫬b?Mn4+4zip&@T+7ÃM*nm&@#5mB=jk{m=' Ѵ"P;m f6).ZAi%FiMcvG8T;ۇ+NvlMgnz|^fZ/?#eRA] $9LSy k9NWlElSOl5`&xeϋ_@/;=L厺ιw>q؏rGe^`OoFSQ.t]tf$]Sc~\#67LjwKfZwG\GMk} ̏>V5NSX󅱦W+(D^\^tݴ%'zz P]\q%5ᗉɥ-W yĤ<zZv9o[F^nҁALEaz3+ ܶs_ҍk:8IB)xq_5= *v&;?z O~}

    rGbޠ.\m3]Kɼ?=3WVF HM$Ökϟ޼Շ?ͧ(G)itj")Ҙy'*vX"**X!Yϛ;)݆1h̛q;4TоU]׫2*x`?drˇq奄EvO9[;p-R,&6(rESdާyDso3R\ȄCۄo&˘|8 6 'TQFjvA)huZcUh[ԦGd&(GIRExdxDӺ=k/w&\;<:n$vpc8 .k~!n#<|W.r-8kJ#]~}T n/NWnD0Lozinuw΢9 t nm-Y9h!BU 5e<{b }U(eY*KeU%>R^u`׋iȪGT/@IW rPmf~9=7OF7}0՟ח'ӘmXaS3UawD}|~ m-ARB5xd8XmEii݌|;Ik3)Bi{g׿C~J 3F ΂$smVvx`o3+Z{|4):4E 'm/Tөm ^9\{ߙu]43d1MoS%EЍԌV؉BN;3ghs#F5rw}@.>p# nZD ;HCgGW3Hx1مq 9dn=t9-op\%aPFzpq&Djx]19:aX~?Gs1~Rh?ْ~d[-LɄit'˭Ү-aMˠBTkAI`RXUVၙV.3(tlvB\_ BSoܢ>6,Rvv=7V)v.9zVvr63fKg^g_1ftD7Ha,kqn1 *{[h{~.87L굹V= p y1y#wl4}ͽ ݡBŜ3Sllma8X:@'Tvz&0HdUF'|m'wH"fwiAd4rF% *Y?psRЄؾYe Fu#㣓w>T-aD+"{g!(f6RN5(H['<MbQm($A >lmca;&cu?=q;v: H`f*_r ;FU ЛWk#|"{ ~qr7m4Rd\";'Tԡ><4Z=xVE^~C/~ *O{P+ӏQ.*\}~!aV[7mߝV8~2H^G{nhfT3dLo ;WlG#NIBϦ'Z3FnM=E9W9%Wx@ջUeh70 , ƃp-S_m>S+sJ Me7#4br2ogmЊhxXl锇vP:  ~ +4riŔ/r;S ζaSx-~[147 +C <8]Ģ ¼&$kN; r(n6׵:L玥wҞt a[6xiY{\3 Doe#c9s,Q؇P[}M#-5Pm͜ҟ`)ǥ8}C:RtKY <v8^LmTS4l.\䔄ŠtY~o<+s.yt2Na2ִ?Rs]E =D i_~(!M`&su8S(`.% %oZVD@qOGH~$LyLIdfG%+Yb82`5Dy~XEvx+y&ޘCWZGxNJ_W{'ӱ}U"z@⑆4t#ofEeEPqڿos@ۅ5C5â0h㮗|-15Q;_u؏rضx|iUT5pJs `$?9e ~m"v8d =wcaX俛mӹR;NCuh`!`d[(0;Nb6߹'ڞ G4E!6]~/m=\*&M~ .UOϷ8N19]w_ެ|RU_M,9 }^9=qSslTrdFD i>-*IZ)zˠ5LM 54YUeRB >JjF@\@=zQg:ˉpAwCض?\ݍL߽)od:; |#r& m#X0-`8K1fs:Ja므eЍ6 ^Q37s*:X˝uT-ZkYmI@FE՟̂4Ju? zϨm&$P#֚1a֑DP8O}'^{c@/ g;Mvӌ !{d`-f7O;iWZO,Z2xFΌ FYh%>afp ߺ,,qAV;pY2 }|@>t=uR~)]e ^P0KLXu.z[+Կ~бoݲ?+4}Cրw*W#(34eS.Iڟ9jak?o9:T#:- ]d;1' T2unqmRLP =R^?s;U2ʋESޑ~dB+TFM}MͲ88kyyrc 8qC܆ҦDgj4R1vFqpg.íYn-ѳ,U{y++7M%4+p O w7qUER>4- ) Z#᯻y.d"ԇ ˮTt.vϚWqJi4Ncy祱TbaT#k;hE< {.,G3(OtUNгT|wPZAd/U q ;{6A%抠 Iݥ֎܅)C`Ej־߶I 8kDGX~8:*?Q+(Y\)--[hjMO H -y\4m8P*Z=TmPy&:;yƛWއ:d89 j18$&AmC'PHƺk3HurKR#^ yud\4<A‹> smoj+Wi7 4V9^DQ$zR4W=F+sD1pȍu,"D.w "V%ռ휢6zӿ}UBΤ'rin"5S7::]RC)\\WS}aW*~Tf! &˿*~K`v>w|Ov 4Sb3H,AWD]$`'Ra`pfc;,.A WK%[xɢ vVlEN\ 7J]V}:|8ǀ|, egSfP]kMn`djpEH ;qݻ򢛤 +)*g bLq wZ4,CZʪ]Ք<E1y3䌂͔GJ1紛fR) Q ̡ tE,9"nW젱U:}K岈 = 90+˿߯>#B\-\J udQrCހ !EŴcA0JFm`'S< 8'F(/Y"PgMO漎/n/-)A&%fvEJ  lc;MrLU$`t@K*p&:Þ}|,!4B ʹe}+`=c  > vJB 3"u@q#녬JIҳqԱ8fnQgRCu}8[g9B\m;v렃vM'Ϡ7wKf_HةAJ MzL8^`+91]IػG 6~Ēme?B?)]:?cP@B=s^fQ7 IzD֌H(q^]Ԧ{ko'+W凊TW~. n*x"VR֙ikFv{{?f>#oJ$}[*:eyY"ɀб h^%4S< %HZzSiBj|Tsw\CjW)}[rw8lޙ}IZl욶ZrTS^D}U,D$CSgXfySQnZv5AtE'_V?N:&zBإO3DaM[*k+-gIrhKS[&zjVxt$&'U&Ψo :6 e[mlz]R Kz_dǨYPK<6RujFw`Lɰ$6zi݉j}fp>M7 *BwNc`/^`o:8ՓؔoVu!nM'BhfяZ-s+/Gqq >[yf/YǁJ**vt2(]D}fX.[U;B&SgFA4#FMBA허"_~DRLB9a^ E#*jJ"H;JN}_/^dry%\Y8ar_83ySqZv\a;#)=< )wHCuJϏ>p^:-3YT*rWCjJ֛Dʘ7:4zHhYc~V0!`_u]YŸ1g&*sG@!O~r<AAЎv 6F8L?4?Aߓ}YPAi@: ]WvJ(ڋf$uS\& C5"V%ɔs)"0|Gi*tA4hLڭ\ˣ,~(gE@G`_=dsvucv$wͣ[I2.q%룒Nؔ7lJ<;?"4"0nu xD,! 5KD1#z61-YtrwG nD3&ز`Xt'i Zmgz_wLgURDſ4[fˆ?Oa ՙ7{Mj 6-:XPauzQ}E⍲ڪS:+]:;3Sá+}W̔ś,;zEp^E,l}Oǣ#2@OovȔ B$;ҋ%S$Re$Hi`X8͌ fO$?cgRɠK[59ˤM Ķ pwK00o1Z엦}Έw6n n.E0#[qeWulj`'kX Ԩ6cAOώ2%(P͑~i Ey#+<j BŷnuSVH x";hDmu< ~œK?5w'hXF-7똎-"کHNvd @BW )ZQ~$ 3+x)5#WykJY9ob/ K¹iW#mLJs5/U V ly!tI%fAaի,=vjw 5 29tjYBmJŒ\"ʨPoOXV%!bm\29);'9).Z72nZKw.1@e@_;CK^,XClkJ+VFʼjY/ჷ)ԺwlmJ}wf\2nC: ppuVq64! ;hQu="B|Dg,uS 0פz Xvxc=ʤ% VqU~^tV uVG{eg4ATlԱ98ס4ʳ:MΈ\hT7UH'4sJʸt:lq ~N&vȔdFhlg#A,,#Eż433!{ L$Y~% xI`A0>C ڕ 2?~ i_Ϊ3«LR1Kّ6]p&"3u.֊HCy2[xUCC1E:b)&x^دOIqd).:RȔgNqM4Cb$,/]QZ8X bM ~4"#yd+=ɢTPzۡqrXyUoUEBvY 7;3 NpI++-lGǽZi'X1]T3! R]2ANHƟ0F33(OczZ9B n*ƘY׽%lsl~_ `m_`TtR@k2:7s/a\TDB8y=5@mO#y1E"+l~辖;(;fLmwD,{ }SP5&p "ؠf$Z;  &}[*ԣN3ρ?\9fT¤#\g'Rvetum}*W%^CdC}fqYGPIG$tB)c- %d9x鷄^ h( Y#f)*NϮ(k64ZoPw[7Exqс*Go۲{fev]h(|_l0&gc |V&.9z9jgx||=d~U{%NUDceIPa%[jV31SL'(4IaBUR룇ԞL UQFxP`Hn sWNAw8ٟW7&`R3xG!9m\6Fh*/.D"o'JB\xyC@ȡ<#T:`!m*s7S˕z"z,Y@ QW Uq*Tͤ%ս_؝͐]WWoJٗGG`I|T:58XcNmJ'5{ i1D%F wnd8JM(B҄fNbHS42܌;!Rd<0W3,h!tWQQe/jskb+ "h),<ܲj-DXiJYUCEάS1~ep6V%I^%a"&={b\2~LVȑGm/f"eDPUÂ{6oJ}LbMlf!iDTI<#ds΋u;)w 3ESr|E]7>ʂj=eQ8"L 問rG4#c0<ũO#MLoÀk q_3{q٣ݤNKkV@Pjmns{2Of,@Jɽ+)|\$'P|lj1fvcPqunazlNJ'dj5bO}m'2x!Rr,U,F9~zt4:?G4c 0Uéz_uh=Nx.I$e͛$/P4x9ըK"wE۞#χWYS"/ڂQ`DOi$*Ёf-6ctT-3f@8HPLD]3ɛO 5!&Ɔ1$:Ynj]Q"xWRtӓѯ\&A f<}P T =/s4SURD*ptQ_(GݚթO~Wx4;j=U*AjK-LB K؊%O|hH-8Q A:XxNc(% v7a-2Mڂg_r^ x9^? ~8ŀ iuMs17`O!Bv ur4tThMY #Ll@Sh왫g4\c BLM$FQ%uyn3K)_-R:Q/Xh*L8#JâpftRPL%CjR̐Wd +,E%6jgG HwluD+MrS(U‹fo?Tu6P\gEnW!NKj|y6E!.Uo@\c5v1: U7zw :(=IZm+A)OGf42\Ƃ A97f>ⱴ*^45~l-k9B{Hr137CAV}"$Gb*"9CY«HfMmZ>tT{5rL`@'[6$~k5 H OK(( !WAG hN7sZ&'3*iD%S0V=,ㅬp@ˈJ] Y,M]>J0xv\WTo|dl')7_zT|IU9(~8 @D #}^ B z%WFϫ)Fs]$G<]q<?ңzyۥQmu7WWju_\m&⊏TZ]Ϣ|&h BAKÛZӮ:/`>N6D%̴̀&"(n:%]J,E[vA_[aZH)X@E&laB->_g)=ȸr3Y1l_F8MP-fyeҮ'`z2:bG 1u3 Vlf8~y^cR"$6## ["gFOP@|K;?8u ca]W,88?nM h 3RN6lQCͼ;N߫_X eצ\}>/?v߻mqQmvlN+zKILDUAՏSm]ܽ7)x |Ar:HYn:fFYE_aBɸ!jw\{2[wc]xK3>6\k]63HXTa_6Jt Ygb]i1+\+^̒NE7XUM]D@*5?ŜG1Y<T0YX_%(L_JZpznIQem^<%O5}Ք8W`@=\+W^+ROyޭK ZENƔ(u"_ه5yrA5´a|=)?y*~T=w눗I.)W@16hhkWUF+D˲nmpӄM9X#=Όe taKUs> f#f50<ɍ+M .0C =nuNNkO FWㅺ^%#HToig0a=(W_ū]\x\iHP0ɨݝ`Oǘס?I $ \pV:nc]^#O/v-@Щ? MpLb EACC |qbzޤm\rFX[՚P)Ew^DsrpEX6ɞ:lQSUoXDž5C"ZLK=LrFxG'6&ƏdXNzœ4-0B>&rÅ&A\0HH>Ҏ9ɵs~E jlŋyL񘶳,]}.\ 3̚ciB V ٩6xTwO~ 9d d6itֱB,tds638p:r.[8sd#Qn$EPus}e^ob΀7ӤgeVcA {3kW9"ͼNИ#e 2f!&Xw i,Bȭ8O!nDP ucQs̓faOfK c8@&IrN$%ދ8Jݝ8U)lqH Pa-[$DTyJɬ!:6}wg~5Enx/  ]Q{ %`5&}`SPaƆm'႘WX)x5 ET}z .2uyJXP¼eԤ5y;W+7B&1uEM@;AނN !ژ0å'urYs@C5i1Ñi:UHC=s)|j+& &,5y (#2C1;RJnSNJ]W^ܟ~O>;d ((c)PeY2L]ozlt D+?xBoĉ/޵翆6|!|I˥J]W7Ѐ ۛu #DdI [pd%ƘKGFPS%OO|36S#qjQ9g1 T]/Ǚ &?Cv,E͋k0.2c+T;.=ͪtjpnce8Bhڳpkd$9|*}=,QxMSHW"#GJ8lV4]]+gD ҷZS8gŃ3%cno偍TI L?!%z1L "K{lӅDݔ jlXBsᛍ7_Ύ' qAs1 Ļ*8x}e^F SYq fn+wc{PEq<7gv{'?q(+R@fA:tOhc raeqV4Adef6.~:W)@ѓ ¯D ی Ew(Z@JCo1Eem 2Wx+˩TC=o@>Ln=jN tBWjs9Mg^_d~/.`U1,<9@訩.NZjNGoyW RAu,g^s%<맦LϝT˟E}z,ɘ;i#2Ňf._H"l䶉r޻-2;^5f-:cZVJ>c.j7f΢hĜFH.O]a@ȣ)AQ%] Z34ocUEwrSaUL%':6ɫqr38XWh %ޚ*KޞG!: @D P%b4{;CB6gf>hFLK^E<1-#TAvX}T\f%/̺S΂5Wq}I_ӰmFp6̇5`@Ukd

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1