Vanity Fair (Bantam Classic)

published	July 1st 1997 by Bantam Classics
first published	1848
binding	Mass Market Paperback
isbn	0553214624 (isbn13: 9780553214628)
ebook
pages	848
description	A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely...more [close] A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely witty one. Called in its subtitle “A Novel Without a Hero,” Vanity Fair has instead two heroines: the faithful, loyal Amelia Sedley and the beautiful and scheming social climber Becky Sharp. It also engages a huge cast of wonderful supporting characters as the novel spins from Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies to affairs of love and war on the Continent to liaisons in the dazzling ballrooms of London. Thackeray’s forte is the bon mot and it is amply exercised in a novel filled with memorably wicked lines. Lengthy and leisurely in pace, the novel follows the adventures of Becky and Amelia as their fortunes rise and fall, creating a tale of both picaresque and risqué. Thackery mercilessly skewers his society, especially the upper class, poking fun at their shallow values and pointedly jabbing at their hypocritical “morals.” His weapons, however, are not fire and brimstone but an unerring eye for the absurd and a genius for observation of the foibles of his age. An enduring classic, this great novel is a brilliant study in duplicity and hypocrisy…and a mirror with which to view our own times. [close]
date added	05-19-07 edit book

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Shannon rated it:

(review of isbn 0140275576)

04/27/08

bookshelves: 2008, bookclub, classics

Read in April, 2008

Set in the early decades of the 19th century, mostly in Regency London, Thackeray tells the "history" of a cast of characters whose lives, interests, ambitions and pleasures intertwine, along with a staggering supporting cast of real and imagined people of all description and class. Through the friendship of the stockbroker's daughter Amelia Sedley and the drawing master's (and opera dancer's) daughter Rebecca Sharp, who went to school together, we meet Amelia's family of parents and p...more

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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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Bonnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0785772960)

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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Masanobu rated it:

(review of isbn 0140620850)

04/03/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in January, 2008

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

I finally finished reading Vanity Fair.

I had been wanting to read it for a long time and, as it was chosen by one of the book clubs, I started reading it in December. And I finished it this month, around the 14th or so. It was b o r i n g.

Thackeray uses some stereotyped characters to set up a very brilliant satire against "refined" society, that is still applicable nowadays for several people or groups of people. I have to concede that. We are introduced to the incompetence ...more

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Russell rated it:

(review of isbn 0785772960)

10/22/07

Read in February, 2007

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 Dickinson, 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 h...more

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Vince rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

06/04/08

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, J...more 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, Miss Crawley, Bute Crawley, Mrs. Rawdon Crawley) that it all gets confusing down the line.

The vain side of me loves the descriptions of the high-life and the arch snobbery of the creme-de-la-creme, or Ton of British society. Thackery catalogues the rules of the game and Becky breaks them. I also felt a thrill as she reaches each higher rung of the ladder, happy to be there with her, up in the nether spheres.

Sometimes Thackeray the narrator (consonant with the literary style of his times) steps to center stage and gives a rather long-winded speech, that I most often could have done without: I was breathless to return to the action!

So yes, you must decide whether you like the sly parvenue Becky or hate her. I had some sympathy in early chapters since she simply wanted a better life (a very much better life) for herself, and what other way could she attain one but by buttering up to, but by being amusing to the impossible Miss Crawley and her favorite roué, Rawdon? However, I was as shocked as Miss Crawley to learn that Becky had already married Rawdon. I felt cheated by the novelist. That was a scene that was missing - what a manipulator. If she had waited, she and Rawdon would have inherited and she wouldn't have ended up as she did. I began to hate her at the end when I learned how she got everything on credit and how she ignored her son.

It's a great high-brow soap opera criticizing British society. A must-read for any snob worth her/his salt....less

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Kate rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

05/15/08

bookshelves: brit-lit

Read in May, 2008

Somebody give me a cookie! I finished Vanity Fair! This book was not just a novel, it was a project. In order to understand it and appreciate it fully, I had to bone up on the Napoleonic Wars, early 19th century british history (a little bit pre-Victoria) and the British peerage system so I knew the difference between a marquis, a baron and a baronet. The guy who wrote the notes for the penguin edition said it could claim title to "Best Novel of the English Language." That's only bec...more

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Tracey rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

12/21/07

bookshelves: libraryread

Read in November, 2003

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.

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Ellen rated it:

(review of isbn 0393965953)

03/15/08

bookshelves: to-re-read

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in June, 2005

recommended to Ellen by: Beverly Wilkin (my mom)
recommends it for: classics enthusiasts, those who wish books would not end too soon.

I learned a lot about human nature through reading this book. Thackeray gouges out his characters with such care and detail that you know them by heart. Becky is wicked and out for her own gain, yet I still felt sorry for her when things didn't go her way. She she used the talents she had -- brains and beauty. And very much like Jane Austen's typical female protagonist, she had no riches of her own. But, unlike Austen's characters, she has a heart of stone. While Austen's main character becomes ...more

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rinabeana rated it:

(review of isbn 0375757260)

01/04/08

bookshelves: book-club

Read in December, 2007

I enjoyed this book for a while, but eventually I got bored and didn't really care what happened to the characters. This made reading the book become a chore rather than a pleasure. I detested Becky because of her constant deception and treachery. I don't even understand what conceivably would have made her happy. She kept trying to better her situation, but it must have been difficult to constantly repress her true personality to the end of manipulating other people. As for Amelia, she was ...more

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mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

07/30/08

Read in July, 2008

I really enjoyed Vanity Fair. Thackeray satirizes early 19th century english society, in which all the characters wallow in their own narcissism. His characters are bang-on, even today, and I can see many of them around me now. The best is, of course, Becky Sharp, the underhanded schemer who rises through the world by manipulating men with her charm. Joseph is entertaining and Dobbin seems to be the hero, although he is walked over in the story. Other characters are less convincing, particul...more

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Joanne rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

04/26/07

bookshelves: classic

Read in March, 2007

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...more

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Yvette rated it:

(review of isbn 0375757260)

07/18/07

Read in May, 2007

The only reason I didn't give this a 5-star review is because it is too long and a bit repetitive. Whereas other Victorian novels keep you turning pages, there were whole chapters I could probably have done without in Vanity Fair.

That said, it's a brilliant story, turning the world of social status on its ear, and creating a most endearing wench of a main character in Becky Sharp. I can see how Becky was the prototype on which Margaret Mitchell based her Scarlett O'Hara--Becky is the origi...more

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Charles rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

01/24/08

Read in January, 2008

I remember starting this book about 50 years ago. I was in love with Dickens and all things Victorian, so I tried VF. All I remember is that it seemed dry and boring.

Just recently I picked it up and gave it a try. Wow! Was I wrong. This is one of the funniest and most enjoyable books I have ever read. What a great sense of parody and humor in this guy Thackeray. Also, his writing is a constant pleasure, he has a way of using words in slightly different ways than you have ever heard b...more

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Myridian rated it:

(review of isbn 0785772960)

03/22/08

Read in October, 2005

I made the mistake of watching the 2005 movie adaptation before reading the book. I fell in love with the Becky Sharp of the movie, and wanted more of her and so read the novel. Unfortunately, the heroine of the novel lacks some of the essential characteristics of the movie heroine. For one thing, Becky Sharp in the movie was essentially an amoral character. She would behave kindly to people when it suited her and was convenient, and she did grow and change over the course of the film. In t...more

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Alison rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

03/11/08

bookshelves: 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. O...more

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Dana rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

07/10/07

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: patient readers who enjoy satires of 19th C. England

A feeling of accomplishment swept over me as I finished my very first book ... :)

Becky Sharp is certainly an infamous literary character and the main reason why the novel remains appealing to readers today. She is a bewitching person, and the reader cannot help but cheer for her as she deftly handles the idiots around her (Funny that I love fictional characters for qualities that I criticize in real people!) Like deliciously naughty gossip, the reader invades the lives of the characters an...more

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439831)

04/12/08

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 Shan...more