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Vanity Fair

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 44,833 ratings · 1,536 reviews

Thackeray's upper-class Regency world is a noisy and jostling commercial fairground, predominantly driven by acquisitive greed and soulless materialism, in which the narrator himself plays a brilliantly versatile role as a serio-comic observer.

Although subtitled A Novel without a Hero, Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives: through the...more

Paperback, 694 pages

Published 2001 by Wordsworth Classics (first published 1848)

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Aug 10, 2010 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, brit-lit, victorian, regency, 19th-century, shes-quite-an-original-my-dear

"But as we are to see a great deal of Amelia, there is no harm in saying, at the outset of our acquaintance, 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 cheek...more "But as we are to see a great deal of Amelia, there is no harm in saying, at the outset of our acquaintance, 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. Particularly 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, re-piecing 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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Mar 11, 2011 Sandy Tjan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, british-literature, doorstoppers, 2009, bbc-big-reads, victorian-lit

Spoilers!

Miss Rebecca Sharp's Guide to the Regency Society

1. If a young lady is not born into either rank or fortune, she will be looked down upon by good society and forced to exist in a humiliating dependency on others for life, unless the said young lady is willing, nay, not merely willing, but most strenuously strive to improve her situation.

2. If the said young lady, despite being a poor orphan, happens to have the good fortune of being admitted into an exclusive academy for young ladies a...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Jeannette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: buddy-read-mt-tbr, classics, 2012-read

January 2013 update at 70%:

"Too many more chapters like the one about the Gaunts, and I'll have to give this up again. *mind numbing*"

December 2012 Review

At 60%, I surrender! There are some good things about this book -- a story that is never dull, lots of fascinating insight into the bad side of human nature. But, how did Thackeray manage to write a book with no sympathetic characters? Everyone is simply awful, either in their simple-minded goodness, or their self-serving wickedness. I can't br...more

14 likes · like · see review

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Aimee I haven't been on goodreads for months (not big on social media), but I'm tickled to see I wasn't the only one who's plodded along with book. I have l...more
Mar 28, 2013 11:39pm

Jeannette That's a very nice assessment of this book, and our shared experience of reading it, Aimee. I, too, watched and enjoyed the movie, and it helped me to...more
Mar 29, 2013 05:59am

May 10, 2012 Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Thackeray's opus is a wonder. Long, yes, but so very good in so many ways.

He's part Oscar Wilde, part Jonathan Swift, with a dash of Dickens, but all his own voice.

Since the story is so long and sprawling, I only jotted down a few notes on my impressions.

* He breaks the 4th wall, some times with savage glee, yanking it down making you look at yourself and the characters in a new light. Other times he does it with delicacy, sliding back the wall and making you feel like it's just him and you in t...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, reading-through-history

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...more 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.(view spoiler)

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. (less)

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May 16, 2007 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

I realize that I'm not making friends here by only giving what is considered a masterful piece of literature what amounts to a "meh" review but that's really how I felt about this book.

On a small scale, I thought the writing was too long-winded. This is not a fancy story and it could have been told more concisely. I was mostly bored reading it.

On a bigger scale, I had serious issues with the heroine. Rebecca is the type of woman who has always made my stomach churn in anger and to ask me to sym...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Suna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

This is unprecendented: I'm giving this four stars before I've finished.

Aside from the much lauded razor sharp wit, cutting social observations and poetically despicable characters, gems like this elevate this book above others for its sheer all encompassing timelessness:

He lived comfortably on credit. He had a large capital of debts, which laid out judiciously, will carry a man along for many years, and on which certain men about town contrive to live a hundred times better than even men with r...more

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May 30, 2010 Christopher H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, victorian-literature, read-in-2010

Here I am, 54 years old, and for the very first time reading William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. "Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero." I disagree with Thackeray. The 'Hero' of Vanity Fair is the steadfast and stalwart William Dobbin; of that there is no doubt. This novel is not the coming of age, or bildungsroman, of Becky Sharp. No, Miss Rebecca Sharp sprang from the womb enlivened with her desire to claw her way to the top. She can't help it, and nor should she; is she really any diffe...more Here I am, 54 years old, and for the very first time reading William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. "Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero." I disagree with Thackeray. The 'Hero' of Vanity Fair is the steadfast and stalwart William Dobbin; of that there is no doubt. This novel is not the coming of age, or bildungsroman, of Becky Sharp. No, Miss Rebecca Sharp sprang from the womb enlivened with her desire to claw her way to the top. She can't help it, and nor should she; is she really any different than any of us? No, she's not. It is her methods that vary from what you and I might use; or do they?

To me, the narrator's voice in the novel was most amazing. It seemed that at every opportune moment, the narrator took a step back and informed us, the reader, of some nugget, some little moral, that placed the actions of the participants in the Fair in context. Vanity Fair is with us, all around us; and many times we never fully understand the roles that the players play. This voice of reason grounds us; makes us understand the joy, the pain, the happiness, and the sorrow that accompanies each of us in our journey through life. If we care to, we can learn to become better parents, better husbands, better wives, and better friends.

I also learned through the course of the novel that I can't outright condemn Becky Sharp. Becky is perhaps not a woman easily liked, but she is an admirable woman, a tough woman, and a woman I can respect. Strong-minded and willed, a terrible mother, but a battle-axe to those who take her head-on. Miss Becky Sharp -- Mrs. Rawdon Crawley -- is committed to living life at its fullest, and not one jot less. She is a woman of purpose, and that is a rare quality in many people.

The novel drips with satire from page to page; it is full of wit and sardonic humor. It is through the use of satire that we realize that the characters at the Fair are us -- have been us, and always will be us -- generation after generation, and nothing will change; only the time will change. There will always be Lord Steynes, Jos Sedleys, Old Osbornes, Mother Sedleys, Sir Pitt Crawleys, Miss Crawleys, the George Osbornes, William Dobbins, and Amelias. Our task, according to Thackeray, is to figure out how best to treat them, how best to interact and understand them, how to live with them. The real challenge, however, is how best to love, appreciate, and care for the Miss Becky Sharps in our lives. We do deserve to know her, to care for her, to appreciate her for whom she is, and she deserves to be brought in from the rambunctiousness and vagaries of the Fair.

In the end, it is Miss Sharp that gains at least some measure of redemption. It is she, and she alone, that removes the mote from Amelia's eyes regarding her feelings for William Dobbin. For Becky Sharp does understand honor, virtue, and integrity (or, does she?). Thackeray finishes appropriately -- For truly it can be said, "Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied? -- Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out."

A magnificent novel from start to finish.(less)

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Mar 23, 2011 Mariel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: getaway car

Recommended to Mariel by: six in the morning the walls close in

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A GIRL WHO WAS ALIVE AT THE WRONG TIME.

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Jun 26, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jessica by: these girls at a party

Shelves: groups-of-people, happyendings

First things first: Don't get this edition! I recently attended my college reunion. Whilst ambling idly around the green lawns of that hallowed institution, I had chance to encounter my most distinguished and beloved professor of English. Exalted that I happened to be dandling Thackeray's baby on my knee (instead of the glossy monthly version of Vanity Fair, as is more common with me), with sparkling eyes and an enchanting smile I thrust my copy before his erudite and discerning nose. "My favori...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book quickly became on of my all-time favorites. I was surprised that I was never assigned the book in college, but a few years ago I realized that it was one of those titles that any self-respecting Anglophile should have on their shelf. The story starts out rather slowly, but you suddenly realize that you're 150 pages in and are completely engrossed! I enjoy how different the novel is from everything else you would expect to read from the time period (with the exception of Tristram Shandy...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Lisa Vegan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, novel, reviewed, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids

This is one of the few books I read for high school English classes that I didn't love. I detested it, actually. My lack of enjoyment reading this book is probably, in part, because I had to read it for an advanced English Shakespeare class. The teacher decided to add this book to our reading list, otherwise consisting of many of William Shakespeare's brilliant plays, which I loved. I couldn't feel any empathy with Becky Sharp and didn't like a thing about her. I'd like to think that if I read t...more

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Jan 29, 2008 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction

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 phenomenon in his text, a...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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Apr 27, 2007 Taylor rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: classic lit. dorks

Shelves: classics, fiction

There are more than 800 pages in this book. I attempted it many times, each time losing track somewhere in the middle. I finally read it out of pure spite -- no way was I going to let some snotty 800-page classic get the better of me! It was okay, and I certainly have the literary acumen to understand why it is a remarkable piece of literature. Regardless, I think Thackery could have done the story justice in half the pages.

But really, I did enjoy parts of it. If you are out for great, thick cl...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Ron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interestingly satirical (interesting because a similarity to Candide by Voltaire came to mind while reading it, and while not as brazen and provocative as Voltaire, it does have a healthy dose of self-mocking/loathing of the status quo, in this case early 19th century English upper crust) though long-winded (at times leisurely, at other times tedious, owing to antiquated syntax and vocabulary) and with an interesting narrative voice, which pokes in and out of the story, much like the emcee in...more An interestingly satirical (interesting because a similarity to Candide by Voltaire came to mind while reading it, and while not as brazen and provocative as Voltaire, it does have a healthy dose of self-mocking/loathing of the status quo, in this case early 19th century English upper crust) though long-winded (at times leisurely, at other times tedious, owing to antiquated syntax and vocabulary) and with an interesting narrative voice, which pokes in and out of the story, much like the emcee in Cabaret.

Rebecca Sharp is the anti-heroine, born low to show business mother and artist father; much of the story revolves around her social climbing, her ability to wow men and alienate women with her formidable charms, and her complete heartlessness going through life, be it social climbing, marrying, surviving war, resisting romance, or ignoring her son. A reprehensible person, but somehow she comes off in the end as not so unlikeable, since she at least has been true to herself, her final statement being to reject a life of boring, bourgeois comfort to one of gambling, indebtedness and heavily rouged cheeks, the life that she has always lived/prefered.

Her complement in the book is Amelia Osborne, a little too good, too kind, too "pink", she spends much of the book suffering, either from unrequited love, or poverty, or other ills. As bookends, Rebecca and Amelia give a nice range of womanhood, with the one putting the other in high relief: scheming/guileless, confident/insecure, meekly pretty/blazingly beautiful, sharp/mellow. And men are not absent in this portrayal, and are frequently depicted as being at least as vain as women, proud peacocks who strut their red-coated stuff, including elaborate "moustachios" and whiskers, for all to see and admire.

And interesting that in the end, each of the (anti) heroines seems to get her just dessert, though we don't feel particularly vindicated or satisfied. And this is partially where Thackeray is successful, in this lengthy tale of two women, their foibles, ambitions, loves, successes and failures, offering a kind of existentialist "que sera sera" viewpoint finally, that is simultaneously mocking and moral. Vanitas Vanitatum. All is emptiness, and isn't it so, in the end.

One of the pleasures of reading this was the length of the book, over 800 pages, allowing one to "invest" in it and read it in many different contexts (perfect subway commuting matter), much like experiencing a friend under different circumstances.

Another pleasure/interesting aspect was the immersion in the 19th century, especially the setting of the action during the time of Napoleonic warfare, including his defeat at Waterloo. Seemingly incidental references to the "Corsican monster" call to mind similar 20th century references to Hitler, and remind one that Hitler may not be the epitome of evil that our culture makes him out to be. There have always been such monsters, be it Hitler, Napoleon (who is also admired/extolled by many as a great warrier/emperor), Attila, Genghis Khan, and others.

Perhaps the most blatantly philosophical passage in the book, at the end: "Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or having it, is satisfied? come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out."

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Aug 12, 2007 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: guardians100greatest

This is a masterpiece and I wish I had been able to write on it when I first read it. I also enjoyed the BBC mini-series which was truer to the novel than the Mira Nair adaptation with Reese Witherspoon in 2004 (although the MN version was obviously visually more stunning). Reese took the role of Becky Sharpe in a different direction and I think we were meant to be more sympathetic to her plight. I liked Becky better in the book where she was fabulously selfish & nasty.

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Jan 24, 2013 Kai rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english-literature, novel

It took quite a while until the fire was kindled. During the first half of the book I felt that this novel is part of the luggage that we could through overboard without feeling sorry about it. The characters of this book are not up to modern psychological knowledge, I thought. Well, all of this stays kind of true. However, with the time being I got myself accustomed to the shortcomings - and that opened my eyes to the joys of it. There's some kind of deliberate randomness in a lot of the procee...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Pirata rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is really good and there are a lot of funny bits that I am sure would be hilarious if one was well read in pop culture of 1847 London. But, there are footnotes to help one along. I love/hate that is really is "a book without a hero" as Thackeray declares. every single character has some sort of defect that Thackeray does not attempt to hide from us. In a way I feel like he is a graphic father, showing me the world - warning me of all the egotistic and selfish people it contains, and wh...more This book is really good and there are a lot of funny bits that I am sure would be hilarious if one was well read in pop culture of 1847 London. But, there are footnotes to help one along. I love/hate that is really is "a book without a hero" as Thackeray declares. every single character has some sort of defect that Thackeray does not attempt to hide from us. In a way I feel like he is a graphic father, showing me the world - warning me of all the egotistic and selfish people it contains, and what indeed VANITY really means and just how far people will go to one up someone else. His sarcasm is familiar to my reading tastes, but this book is so massive that I find myself weary of it at times. Sometimes you just want a happy ending or a hero and this book tells you from the first page you won't be finding that within its pages.

Some of the quotes I have dog eared:

"Praise everybody, I say… Never be squeamish, but speak out your compliment both point-blank in a man’s face, and behind his back, when you know there is a reasonable chance of his hearing it again. Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate but he took an acorn out of his pocket and popped it in; so deal with your complements through life. An acorn costs nothing; but it may sprout into a prodigious bit of timber.”

“If all the drops in it were dried up, what would become of the sea?”
- (in regards to his characters’ lives not going towards a happy or easy future, because what’s the fun/point in that?!)

“Some cynical French man has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated. Perhaps the love is occasionally on the man’s side: perhaps on the lady’s. Perhaps some infatuated swain has ere this mistaken insensibility for modesty, dullness for maiden-reserve, mere vacuity for sweet bashfulness, and a goose, in a word, for a swan. Perhaps some beloved female subscriber has arrayed an ass in the splendor and glory of her imagination; admired his dullness as manly simplicity; worshipped his selfishness as manly superiority; treated his stupidity as majestic gravity, and used him as the brilliant fairy Titania did a certain weaver at Athens. I think I have seen such comedies of errors going on in the world.”

“The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.”
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Jan 22, 2009 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, lplib-classics

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...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 04, 2008 Vince rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this because I wanted to know what "I felt like Becky Sharp at the end of Vanity Fair" meant. What I learned: good English and vanished forms of politeness. It was astoundingly well-written and totally absorbing. A genteel soap opera / tragi-comedy of manners. What a scamp! What a player she was.

This is a complex text, which I'll probably re-read because going into it I hadn't realized that since so many characters have the same name (Rawdon Crawley, Rawdon Crawley, Jr., Mrs. Crawley, Mi...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: libraryread, owned-etext, due-for-re-read

Trying to add a little culture to my reading list, I've been working on this novel for the better part of a month.

A 19th-century society story, the novel follows the lives of Rebecca Sharp and Amelia Sedley, two girls who become friends at school. Amelia is a pretty, mild-mannered wealthy young lady, and Rebecca/Becky is a smart, scheming scholarship girl only too willing to use her friendship with Amelia to make her way in society, which is described in (at times excruciating) detail.

The stor...more

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Mar 11, 2008 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Seriously one of my most favorite books. Thackeray portrays his characters as people really are - flawed. That doesn't mean that they don't have their virtues, however.
The characters portray types of people that still exist in the world today. Amelia is dependent on another for her own happiness. George is vain and selfish, and is insensitive to the feelings of others. Miss Crawley is prejiduce, but won't admit it. Jos Sedley is selfish, and a slave to his appetites. Georgy is spoiled. Mr. Osbo...more

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Apr 24, 2008 Valine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has a love hate relationship with me. I cheered when Amelia finally brings her head above water. I wanted to shake some sense in her throughout the book. I wished that Rebecca had ended up in a debtors prison. The indomitable spirit of both these women was interesting to see unfold from their perspective situations. What a cutthroat world Vanity Fair is. Most of the men had little senses/brains, but one Major Dobbins who I loved from the beginning. I do have to confess that I glanced o...more

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Nov 24, 2009 Eleni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

excellent satire of early 19th century upper middle class and upper class British society.... good plot; well rounded (despite their being foils or essences/types) characters; attention to detail and complex structure - but very long.... perhaps it's being serialized rather than written in book form impacted length...

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Feb 08, 2009 Elizabeth L. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oooh, Becky Sharp, you scheming minx. I started this in junior high but got disgusted with the heroines (one too evil, the other too namby-pamby). Now I'm loving it...

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 16, 2008 Gavin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It couldn't have been this exact edition I read, this having been published in 2003 and myself having read it around 1984 or 1985. My brother was the literature student, but he couldn't take this weighty tome. I borrowed it off him during the course of a family holiday and barely spoke to the family again until I'd finished it.

It is considered to be perhaps the definitive account of late Georgian life, although I reckon it depicts the Victorians more, after all it was written by an eminent Victo...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Susan Chamberlain rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Amazing novel, I am sorry it took me so long to get around to reading it. I expected a Regency novel of manners and society, and instead I am getting a toungue in cheek mimicry of the same. To my reading friends, if you have avoided this because of some high school English trauma, try it again now.

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Jun 20, 2007 Magid rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

This novel was even better the second time round. The pages fly by with Thackeray's vivid depiction of a London which seems to have changed so little in 200 years - still populated by the same motley crew of characters from all walks of life, trying to get on in the city. Becky Sharp is one of the most fascinating, attractive, ingenious, well-drawn and three-dimensional characters in all of literature, and reading this novel ten years after the first time I read it just made me fall in love with...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Karen Powell added it · review of another edition

This lengthy novel at times tries the reader's patience, but the firey Becky Sharp commands attention to the end.[return][return]School chums Amanda Sedley and Becky Sharp come from two different backgrounds: the former from privelege, the latter from poverty thanks to a starving artist father. Amanda is meek while Becky is cunning, and the novel depicts how these two different personalities make their way through life. Amanda falls in love with Osbourne, a handsome scoundrel whose father ruined...more This lengthy novel at times tries the reader's patience, but the firey Becky Sharp commands attention to the end.[return][return]School chums Amanda Sedley and Becky Sharp come from two different backgrounds: the former from privelege, the latter from poverty thanks to a starving artist father. Amanda is meek while Becky is cunning, and the novel depicts how these two different personalities make their way through life. Amanda falls in love with Osbourne, a handsome scoundrel whose father ruined the Sedleys financially. Becky takes her place befitting her station as a servant in the Crawley household, but is determined to make it to the top any way she can. Her main weapon is flirtation and deceit, and many men are ruined in her wake. Even Osbourne, who sees through Becky, eventually makes himself a fool over her. Amanda remains blindly devoted to her husband while she, meanwhile, is blindly devoted to by Osbourne's fellow soldier Dobbin, a man who is strong when it comes to the military, but an absolute pushover when it comes to Amanda. [return][return]Becky Sharp remains one of the most dynamic characters in English literature. Even if her fellow characters were not so weak-willed and wishy-washy, she still would be a force to be reckoned with. Little shames her except the sting of poverty. She's unfaithful, deceitful, and cruel to those who love her, even her own son. She's played the survivor's game for so long that, to the end, Becky Sharp remains her first priority. She's been thrown off the top of the world so many times that you know she always has a trick up her sleeve, a new plan to regain wealth and position. She does not need love because she will always love herself. This makes her a terrifying force among the other, weaker characters. [return][return]Sounds awful, right? How can readers like her? Perhaps because Thackeray gives us no other hero, we cling to Becky for her never-say-die attitude. She's the catalyst that finally pushes milquetoast Dobbin and Amanda together, albeit in her usual cruel way. But it's a relief after reading hundreds of pages of Amanda pining for undeserving Osbourne while Dobbin shoots her the puppy-dog eyes. In the end, no character is left with respect for Becky, but she comes out just fine. She was never out for people's respect; she just wanted their money. [return][return]On the whole, it's a biting satire of society life, and the things one does to "make it" among its confines.(less)

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Dec 31, 2009 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, victorian-fiction, authors-tu

I had a lovely Everyman's edition of Vanity Fair for several years, just sitting on my bookshelf unread, looking reproachfully at me. Finally, I decided to take it down and read it, thus filling an enormous gap in my Victorian-era reading. I fear that I can now only be disappointed in Thackeray's other books (though I intend to read them anyway), because I can't imagine anything better than Vanity Fair.

The plot does sprawl a little, but the characters are so wonderfully realized that it doesn't...more

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About William Makepeace Thackeray

Thackeray, an only child, was born in Calcutta, India, where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 – 13 September 1815), held the high rank of secretary to the board of revenue in the British East India Company. His mother, Anne Becher (1792–1864) was the second daughter of Harriet and John Harman Becher and was also a secretary (writer) for the East India Company.

William had been sent...more

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“Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?” — 105 people liked it

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