From the Bookshelf of Reading the Chunksters…

Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray,

Nicholas Dames (Introduction)

Start date: January 21, 2021

Finish date: August 20, 2011

Discussion: Chunksters Planning

Discussion leader: Kristi

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 22 topics — 1,004 comments total

Chunksters Planning

* 2022 Planning
By Hugh · 33 posts · 111 views

last updated Apr 17, 2022 05:33AM

Nominations for next Classic book (August 2023).
By Hugh · 19 posts · 46 views

last updated Aug 15, 2023 10:37PM

showing 1 of 1 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Aug 02, 2011 Ellen Librarian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would, though there were parts where my interest flagged. There's so much in it, I almost want to read it again to catch the many things I'm sure I missed.

Becky Sharp is an amazing character. You can't really like her but you also can't help but admire her. She's the one who makes this book a classic - along with Thackeray's wonderful narration.

My biggest complaint? Too many characters with names that were too similar, if not actually the same. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2011 Everyman added it · review of another edition

In his day, Thackeray was as widely read as any other Victorian author, but he has lost much of his popularity. He wrote only two books that are much read today, Vanity Fair and The Luck of Barry Lyndon.

Following a somewhat strange opening passage, discussed below, Vanity Fair opens with the departure from Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies of its female protagonist, Becky Sharp, and her friend Amelia. The basic story follows these two women and their friends, families, and lovers for th In his day, Thackeray was as widely read as any other Victorian author, but he has lost much of his popularity. He wrote only two books that are much read today, Vanity Fair and The Luck of Barry Lyndon.

Following a somewhat strange opening passage, discussed below, Vanity Fair opens with the departure from Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies of its female protagonist, Becky Sharp, and her friend Amelia. The basic story follows these two women and their friends, families, and lovers for the next twenty or so years as their lives in England and on the Continent unfold. I won't say more about the plot other than to say that for me it has some times of interest and enjoyment and some others where it drags almost interminably.

Vanity Fair opens with an rather strange introductory passage, "Before the Curtain," in which the Manager of the Performance of a puppet show sits before the curtain reflecting proudly on his puppets: "the famous little Becky Puppet has been pronounced to be uncommonly flexible in the joints and lively on the wire: the Amelia Doll, though it has had a smaller circle of admirers, has yet been carved and dressed with the greatest care by the artist...."

While from this point the novel opens much as any regular novel would, and indeed the book is subtitled "A Novel Without a Hero," Thackeray does occasionally interject reminders that we are watching a puppet show, and closes the book with "Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out."

Although it would be easy to dismiss this seemingly whimsical sort-of-casual frame story, I think that's a mistake. Puppet shows were a staple of recreation in Victorian fairs, so Thackeray’s readers would have been very familiar with them, their form and function. As in puppet shows, Thackeray’s characters are stereotypical caricatures of familiar figures – the scheming woman using her wits (and her wiles) to rise from nothing to enter the highest levels of society; the unassuming “finished” young woman with no talent for anything but being subservient to a man; the loyal lover keeping his private faith for decades; the wealthy fat fool gourmand; the stuck-up faux-superior private schoolmistress; and so on. Thackeray is perfectly accurate in calling Becky “uncommonly flexible”; it is not just in the joints that she is flexible, but in her ability to adapt to any position in which she is placed by the puppet master. And Amelia has indeed been primped and prepared for a role in society with great care, but with little more to recommend her.

Like puppets, the characters in Vanity Fair show almost no character development; no ability to learn from the circumstances they are placed in. (In the third chapter of the book Becky is unsuccessfully making up to Jos; in the last, the 67th chapter, Becky is once again making up to Jos, once again unsuccessfully. At the end here they are back at the beginning.)

Because this book, like a puppet show, isn’t about the characters; it’s about the humor of social commentary and of the absurdity of life in Vanity Fair. That’s what makes it both at times a quite good and at times a quite mediocre book. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 20, 2020 Nina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: chunksters, united-kingdom, crime, favourites, victoriana-and-regency, bookclub

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "I warn my "kyind friends", then, that I am going to tell a story of harrowing villainy and complicated - but, as I trust, intensely interesting - crime. My rascals are no milk-and-water rascals, I promise you. When we come to the proper places we won't spare fine language - No, no! But when we are going over the quiet country we must perforce be calm. A tempest in a slop-basin is absurd. We will reserve that sort of thing for the mighty ocean and the lonely midnight.
The present chapter is very "I warn my "kyind friends", then, that I am going to tell a story of harrowing villainy and complicated - but, as I trust, intensely interesting - crime. My rascals are no milk-and-water rascals, I promise you. When we come to the proper places we won't spare fine language - No, no! But when we are going over the quiet country we must perforce be calm. A tempest in a slop-basin is absurd. We will reserve that sort of thing for the mighty ocean and the lonely midnight.
The present chapter is very mild. Others - But we will not anticipate those."

Welcome to Vanity Fair. Here you'll meet lots of greedy, selfish people who are happy to grind down others in their climb up the social ladder. Who cares if good and honest folk are sent to debtor's prison because of you? The only thing that matters is your own social advancement. If you have to lie and cheat, scheme and deceive, and leave your morals behind so be it. The only thing that matters is Society and material goods that you can flaunt in the face of your rivals.

Becky Sharp is a piece of work. She is cunning, scheming, a fabulous actress and liar and she will let absolutely nothing stop her on her way up the social ladder. And I mean nothing - she'll commit murder to get money. She has made social climbing her profession, and she is damn good at it - possibly because she has nothing like a conscience. She knows what a conscience is and is good at pretending that she has one (just like she pretends to love her child when it is convenient to her, or to pretend that she'll have money for the rent tomorrow), but Becky doesn't do anything that doesn't benefit herself. Kindness, helpfulness, friendliness etc. are only practiced by her when she can gain something by it herself.

"The Rector's wife paid me a score of compliments about the progress my pupils made, and thought, no doubt, to touch my heart - poor, simple, country soul! as if I cared a fig about my pupils!"

On the other hand, you have Amelia. Good, honest, kind and dutiful, Amelia is the embodiment of a good, almost saintly, stay-at-home-and-love-your-children-Recency woman. Amelia is also boring and ridiculously loyal to George (who, by the way, didn't want to marry her, who is tired of her as soon as he has said "I do" and want to elope with Rebecca a month after his marriage.) Amelia is also the object of good, kind and faithful William Dobbin's affections. He holds a torch for her for 18 years, always helping her out, giving her and her son money while they are poor. The man is always there for her, but Amelia can't marry him because George. Dead, stupid, selfish George! Dobbin's speech to Amelia towards the end, his "you are so selfish and ungrateful, you do not deserve my love and I am leaving!" speech, gave me "honestly me dear, I don't give a damn!" vibes, and I was cheering him on. That good, angelic girl was so selfish, uncaring and ungrateful for years and I thought it was brilliantly done by Thackeray, to show that people are not black and white; that saintly Amelia was capable of immense selfishness, taking advantage of Dobbin's affections for her - and good on Dobbin for finally moving on with his life and leaving her to regret her own stupidity.

And then Rebecca comes and, on the surface, is very kind in uniting her and Dobbin, but also she is just getting them out of the way so she can get Jos to herself and get his money...

This is a vicious critique of Victorian society and its love of money and social status (and are we any better today?), told with sarcastic wit and humour by Thackeray who loves to butt in and comment on his characters and their motivations. He is almost a character in himself, and I love it. If this is his usual style, he can tell me stories any day of the week. I'll go put the kettle on. ...more

Like · see review

Mar 05, 2018 Navi marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: 500-pages-plus, romance, classics, historical-fiction

Reading Schedule

March 3-10 ... Ch 1-9
March 11-17 ... Ch 10-18
March 18-24 ... Ch 19-27
March 25-31 ... Ch 28-35
April 1-7 ... Ch 36-43
April 8-14 ... Ch 44-51
April 15-21 ... Ch 52-59
April 22-28 ... Ch 60-67

Like · see review