Vanity Fair
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4.3 • 195 Ratings
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Publisher Description
Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel Thackeray that satirizes society in early 19th-century England. As the manager of the Performance sits before the curtain on the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place. There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look out, quacks (Other quacks, plague take them!) bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Vanity Fair shimmers with larger-than-life characters, devious plots and crossed wires. British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray paints his two leading ladies with exquisite sensitivity. We found ourselves cheering on the scheming, narcissistic Becky Sharp as she clambers up the rungs of London society, even as we commiserated with sweet, simple-minded Amelia Sedley, who descends just as quickly. From the bloody battlefields of Waterloo to bawdy London billiard halls, Thackeray conjures up a mind-blowing array of settings. With its entertaining glimpse into the theatrics of 19th-century society, it’s easy to see why Vanity Fair has inspired countless film and TV adaptations.
Customer Reviews
A Novel Without a Hero…
Vanity Fair is a wonderful book- it views humans and life in a most realistic way- Thackeray, unlike Dickens, and sometimes even Dostoyevsky, shows the real nature of human’s- even good Amelia is not completely rid of the awful, base things and jealously every human is made up of. He views life in a way that shows it as it really is- not all wonderful things, with much judge-mentality, any many back-stabbers and double crossers- which makes the book exceedingly interesting and enjoyable to read, as everything written is true, philosophical a bit, and one can really learn something about life from it. The characters are enjoyable: it is humorous to see the bad qualities within them that we never fail to see in others, but always fail to see in ourselves, and, as I said before, really shows that in life there are no heroes, no truly pure and good persons- and that we have always been the same cruel creatures, and will always be.
A very clever and intelligent book, definitely worth the read and to dedicate one’s entire time to.
I do swear that Rebecca has uncanny similarities to Scarlett O’Hara. Perhaps Margaret Mitchell based Scarlett upon Becky?
Vanity Fair by Thackeray
A long read, but very worthwhile. Brilliant insight into the nature of fashionable life, including its hollowness and human side. Both good and bad characters are well developed. The story is told with much dry delightful British humor. Imaginary names and titles are used to convey subtle insights into the characters, such as "Lord Bareacres; His Transparency the Duke of Pumpernickel; and Lieutenant Spoony." Delightfullly written with rich characters and situations.
Recommended.
Long and painful
People making bad choices
A bit funny, but mostly a long drudgery