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Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray

Start date: April 1, 2018

Finish date: June 30, 2018

Why we're reading this: 2nd Quarter 2018 Long Read

Previous Group Reads
Book of the Month Group Read, Sept/Oct 2011
[close] 2nd Quarter 2018 Long Read

Previous Group Reads
Book of the Month Group Read, Sept/Oct 2011

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What Members Thought

Aug 02, 2011 Ellen Librarian rated it really liked it

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

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May 28, 2011 Everyman added it

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

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Jun 29, 2008 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Forget the movie, except for the 6-hour one done in 1996 or so. This heroine is complicated and charming, and so is the story. The writing has that frivolous 18th century thing going, but I came to love it in this book since the perception is so sharp. And no judgment is made upon these characters, some of whom are not so savory. Well worth the time invested.

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Jul 06, 2009 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010, 3ms, victorians, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, hf-19th-century-europe

To be read and discussed by the Victorian's group in June 1st.

A novel without an hero. The story of Becky, Amelia, Captain Dobbin among others. ...more

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