Vanity Fair (Oxford World's Classics)

published	1999 by Sagebrush Education Resources
first published	1848
binding	Library Binding
isbn	0785772960 (isbn13: 9780785772965)
pages	949
description	Among the vibrant cast of characters who scheme and scramble for life's prizes in this entertaining saga, no one is better equipped than Becky Sharp, ...more [close] Among the vibrant cast of characters who scheme and scramble for life's prizes in this entertaining saga, no one is better equipped than Becky Sharp, Thackeray's supreme creation. Brilliant, alluring, and ruthless, she defies her poverty-stricken background to climb the social ladder, while her sentimental companion Amelia longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of English society during the Napoleonic wars, military and domestic battles are fought and fortunes are made and lost. Amid the fast-paced comic action stands Dobbin, a true gentleman in a corrupt world, whose unrequited love for Amelia brings pathos and depth to Thackeray's epic satire. This edition includes a new introduction, a chronology of Thackeray's life and works, a select reading list, and an appendix containing parodic material Thackeray cut from the 1853 edition.
date added	06-04-07 edit book

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Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

04/16/08

bookshelves: brit-lit, favorites, fiction

Read in March, 2006

"But as we are to see a great deal of Amelia, there is no harm in saying, at the outset of our acquaintaince, that she was a dear little creature. And a great mercy it is, both in life and in novels, which (and the latter especially) abound in villains of the most sombre sort that we are to have for a companion so guileless and good natured a person. As she is not a heroine, there is no need to describe her person; indeed I am afraid that her nose was rather too short than otherwise and her...more "But as we are to see a great deal of Amelia, there is no harm in saying, at the outset of our acquaintaince, that she was a dear little creature. And a great mercy it is, both in life and in novels, which (and the latter especially) abound in villains of the most sombre sort that we are to have for a companion so guileless and good natured a person. As she is not a heroine, there is no need to describe her person; indeed I am afraid that her nose was rather too short than otherwise and her cheeks a good deal too round and red for a heroine..."

I just chose this passage randomly out of the first few pages of the novel to illustrate how much I love Thackeray's voice. He himself is the best character in the novel. To use theatre terminology, he definitely breaks the 4th wall into the story quite frequently. Reading it is rather like watching the play, but with periodic pauses for the playwright to jump up on stage and offer his commentary upon the action, and also upon his perceptions of the feelings of those watching his creation. (Thackeray himself terms the "Vanity Fair"- his comment on society in general- a sort of play.) This might sound annoying to some, but, really, it isn't. If you're already reading the book critically... I suppose it could also be compared to reading a chunk of a book for class and then stopping to discuss your reactions with a professor determined to make you see things beyond the surface and expose whatever prejudices you might have against the book. I loved debating with Thackeray in interpreting scenes and actions. The margins are filled with my disagreements or indulgence of his point of view. And I almost never write in books. It was irresistable in this case.

It is as interesting trying to draw a portrait of Thackeray's character as it is the rest of them. He is sometimes defensive, sometimes judgemental of his audience, at times quietly insightful, at times ironic, at times as gleeful as a child at some trick he believes he's played upon us. You can just see him cackling over his writing, clapping his hands when he thinks of something good and scribbling away furiously into the night. He makes the tale seem brightly, urgently alive just in the sheer immediacy of his feeling and force of personality.

Right. As to the story itself? Very solid, old fashioned tale of love, war, betrayal, money, family. All the standards for an epic. But in the way it is executed, it is anything but standard. Particuarly for its time. It was subtitled, "the novel without a hero," by Thackeray. It is a book filled with, as the best are, very grey characters with motivations and actions sometimes very hard to fathom. The epitome of this is of course Becky Sharp, the main character if not the "heroine," of the piece. Capable of both acts of great kindness and selflessness, and sheer, naked cruelty when it suits her, it is hard to either condemn or praise the woman in the end. I grew to root for her anyway, though. She's awful, she really is, but she does seem to learn by the end of the book. She changes, progresses, and all while getting everything she's ever really seemed to want. She's ambitious and cutthroat, but manages to do well in a world that tries to slap her down at every turn. (Not that she doesn't deserve it sometimes, I will admit.) There is also a more standard, sweeping love story for those of you in it for the more conventional aspects. The above described Amelia is involved in that plotline.

Also? This book has the best, the longest, the most throughly researched and detailed description of the battle of Waterloo that you are likely to find. A huge chunk of the book is devoted to that day and the reaction to that day, and it is as epic a war novel as one could hope to find for that space of time.

In some ways, I feel like Thackeray was trying to encompass his century as a whole, not just the very specific time of the Napoleonic wars. He deals with class, money, ambition, war, roles and rights of women, questions of morality, and times that inevitably change and change again, pushing the old world and the old ways into ever faster irrelevance. Just as the 19th century did. I think Becky Sharp might well be a fitting symbol of the whole century: she wants to rise high in society, she wants as much money as she can get her hands on, she wants the appearance of morality (but doesn't much care for the actuality), she is from the lower class and spends the book working her way up the ladder tooth and nail through representatives of the "old guard," at any cost to herself or others. And yet, she still holds sentimental feelings for Amelia, for her husband, she does what she thinks is best for her son (however controversial that might be and at whatever cost in pride), and she cannot /quite/ bear to be completely alone.... I don't know. I'm really just remembering things I wrote down when I read this over two years ago, repiecing together theories, so I hope you'll forgive me if they're a wee incoherent.

There is more to it than that, but I do not think that any review of reasonable length can encompass everything in this book, particularly when I've already rambled about my favorite things for so long, and things are already this disorganized. Fitting, I suppose, in such a merrily chaotic book. So I'll just leave you with the quote that I think explains and drives much of the action and is one of the major points of the novel:

"Vanitas Vanitatium! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? Or having it, is satisfied?"...less

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2 comments

Bonnie rated it:

01/29/08

bookshelves: classics, fiction

Read in January, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I'm reading this book for the second time and it is still one of my favorites. I'm not generally into "classics" and have a short attention span, but Thackeray keeps me entertained, though he does get boring once in a while.

I've actually got the "Barnes & Noble Classics" edition with notes by Nicholas Dames, not the version pictured here. Either one is probably fine, but the notes are highly useful because Thackeray will often refer to a current scandal or cultural p...more I'm reading this book for the second time and it is still one of my favorites. I'm not generally into "classics" and have a short attention span, but Thackeray keeps me entertained, though he does get boring once in a while.

I've actually got the "Barnes & Noble Classics" edition with notes by Nicholas Dames, not the version pictured here. Either one is probably fine, but the notes are highly useful because Thackeray will often refer to a current scandal or cultural phenomenon in his text, and you will be lost unless you've got a Ph.D in nineteenth-century British tabloid news. Also note that Thackeray uses a lot of French (at least one French word per page, and often more), and so if you don't speak French, you will definitely need a version with notes.

One reading of this book is that it is highly misogynistic. Even when Thackeray appears to be cutting Becky some slack, he is still being bitingly sarcastic (such as when he bemoans her lack of a mother to arrange a proper marriage for her, and then portrays her as a vulture for wishing to arrange an advantageous marriage, herself). Amelia's passivity (and she is everything a woman supposedly should be) is not necessarily rewarded, however, either, not even when she marries Dobbin at the end of the book.

Speaking of Dobbin, another moral of the book is that nice guys finish last, and that they are at the mercy of women (well, that's a bit misogynistic, too, really). William Dobbin (the nerd of the book) spends the entire book pining for Amelia. She finally marries him only because Becky takes pity on her and gives her proof that George (her first husband) was a rat at the end of the story. Thus, Dobbin owes his happiness to someone (Becky) he has loathed heartily throughout the entire book, and still remains, forever and always, Amelia's second choice, even after they're married. William plays the games of Vanity Fair only poorly, and is ignored and mistreated by all the characters, including Amelia, despite being the one "good" (read, passive in advancing his own interests) character besides Amelia. It is true, though, Amelia and William do end up happy together -- and it is probably significant that William Dobbin shares his given name with the author.

Another reading is that social approbation is empty and will not bring happiness or stability -- and may result in personal ruin. George Osbourne and Becky Sharp are both skilled social climbers who ultimately get their just desserts -- George is killed at Waterloo after being disinherited by his father, and Becky is financially and socially ruined at the end of the story, despite all her machinations.

There is some very racist material in the book; Thackeray saw nothing wrong with villifying people of color. Thackeray was not parodying racism in the least in his characterization of, for example, Rhoda Swartz, a rich black heiress. Thackeray illustrated the book himself, and all of his sketches of her (both in pen and in words) are highly unflattering. George compares her to the Hottentot Venus and Thackeray applauds him. This is perhaps the most blatant moment of racism in the book, but there are others. For example, a servant in the Sedley household is unironically named Sambo.

Despite the racist and sexist portrayals of some characters, many of Thackeray's insights about people are still true, such as his observations on how to live well on nothing a year, and that history writ large (such as the events at Waterloo) is also history writ small (as in the lives of Vanity Fair's characters).

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Vanity Fair (Oxford World's Classics)

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