Barry Lyndon

By William Makepeace Thackeray

Barry Lyndon is a picaresque novel by William Makepeace Thackeray about a member of the Irish gentry trying to become a member of the English aristocracy. Redmond Barry of Bally Barry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family, fancies himself a gentleman. He is a hot-tempered, passionate lad, and falls madly in love with his cousin, Nora. The lad tries to engage in a duel with Nora's suitor, an English officer named John Quinn. He is made to think that he has assassinated the man, though the pistols were actually loaded with dummy loads. Redmond flees to Dublin, where he quickly falls in with bad company in the way of con artists, and soon loses all his money. He goes on to experience a series of military adventures eventually descending into decadence. Redmond eventually bullies and seduces the Countess of Lyndon to marry him. Eventually Barry Lyndon is separated from his wife, and lodged in Fleet Prison. He spends the last nineteen years of his life in prison, dying of alcoholism-related illness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Jun 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9783736807891

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.

Reviews for Barry Lyndon

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5*

Perhaps I had too high expectations of this novel... I loved Vanity Fair & so expected to love this too so maybe my rating should be 4 rather than 3.5; I'll see how I feel once some time has passed.

Barry Lyndon (nee Redmond Barry) is an Irish scamp (similar to Flashman) but unlike with Becky Sharpe, I didn't feel the charm of the character. I also didn't find the same humor in this novel that had me laughing in Vanity Fair. It was an enjoyable book that I am glad that I read but it seems unlikely to be one I will revisit.

[conniejo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audio version of the book. I loved Vanity Fair, and I heard that this was just as good, if not better.Barry Lyndon is very good, and still very funny. One of the things I enjoy most about Thackeray is that his sense of humor has held up well over the years. Barry Lyndon tells his life story and a lot of things about his adventures, but it's obvious that he's an inveterate liar, and you need to read between the lines and, basically, disbelieve everything good he says about himself. His life is an adventure, as he goes from a teenage Irish dueler to a deserting member of both the English and Prussian army. He eventually becomes a professional gambler that tours Europe and finds himself among high society, and becomes one with them by lying, cheating, stealing, and threatening violence in order to marry one of the richest women in Europe.Easy to root for at first, his crimes against other people get progressively worse the more the book goes on. He duels heavily throughout, though it's unclear most of the time if these duels are real. Tricking his way out of the armies is funny enough, and cheating people out of money gambling falls within moral tolerance. But his courtship and marriage to Lady Lyndon is pretty awful, and the narrative becomes harder to read towards the end when not even his lies are hiding what a terrible person he is.This one is a little harder to read than Vanity Fair, which took place within a small group of people. Barry Lyndon name-drops and moves from setting to setting, and it can be hard to keep track of the complicated title and relationship information. I assume this was satirizing a lot of current events, but without any sort of historical annotation, a lot of this was lost on me.Also making it hard to read was that SO MUCH of the text was about JUST HOW GREAT Barry Lyndon was. It's very funny at first, but doesn't abate throughout the novel. It wouldn't be the same without all that flavor text, but I found it tedious after awhile. I had the same problem with the insane catalogues in American Psycho.Overall a very worthwhile read though, and I'm glad I finally got to it.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In 1844, WMT was tired of the picaresque adventure story, and so he wrote one up, with a satiric twist. IT's a good book, and if one is new to the "Flashman" genre, one might not catch on that this is a satire. So it's enjoyable on both levels, and the subject of an interesting, if not always entertaining film.

[davidgnp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This satire of manners is narrated by the eponymous 'hero', though only he gives himself that epithet. Barry Lyndon is possibly the most unreliable narrator in English literature, and there is a great deal of entertainment to be had in contrasting his version of characters and events with the truth that peeps out through the pages. It is good fun to be shown aspects of eighteenth century high society with all its hypocrisy and foibles in the company of a (largely) lovable scoundrel, though his relentless boasting does occasionally become tedious. I learned a lot about fashionable society and its dirty linen, laughed a lot at Lyndon's cock-eyed self-image (as delusive as Don Quixote's), and even felt a tinge of sadness at his demise, however deserved.

[slickdpdx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Three Reasons to read The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.1. Thackeray is a fine writer and it is a fine tale - a bit better than Vanity Fair, I think. Thackeray's non-fiction writing is even better yet.2. Compare Kubrick's adaptation in the film Barry Lyndon. He departs from the story in several respects but is true to the story in general. A remarkable adaptation.3. Reflect upon the life of Ryan O'Neal and its unfortunate correspondences to the life of Barry, after whom he named his son, Redmond.