Vanity FairVanity Fair, Thackeray's panoramic, satirical saga of corruption at all levels of English society, was published in 1847 but set during the Napoleonic Wars. It chronicles the lives of two women who could not be more different: Becky Sharp, an orphan whose only resources are her vast ambitions, her native wit, and her loose morals; and her schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a typically naive Victorian heroine, the pampered daughter of a wealthy family. Becky's fluctuating fortunes eventually bring her to an affair with Amelia's dissolute husband; when he is killed at Waterloo, Amelia and her child are left penniless, while Becky and her husband Rawdon Crawley rise in the world, managing to lead a high life in London solely on the basis of their shrewdness. (The chapter entitled "How to Live on Nothing" is a classic.) Thackeray's subtitle, "A Novel Without a Hero," is understating the case; his view of humanity in this novel is distinctly bleak and deliberately antiheroic. Critics of the time misunderstood the book, decrying it as (among other things) vicious, vile, and odious. But VANITY FAIR has endured as one of the great comic novels of all time, and a landmark in the history of realism in fiction. |
Contents
Leaving school | 1 |
Joseph Sedley | 4 |
George Osborne and Dobbin | 6 |
Copyright | |
17 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
army arrived asked baronet battle battle of Waterloo Becky Sharp Becky's billiards Boggley Wollah Brighton Brussels Captain Dobbin carriage Chapter child clever Coventry Island Crawley's cried Curzon Street dear debt dinner Dragoon Emmy England eyes father gentleman George and Amelia George Osborne George's goodbye happened horses hundred pounds husband India innocent Jos's Joseph Sedley kissed knew Lady Jane laughed letter live London look Lord Steyne Major Dobbin married Miss Briggs Miss Crawley Miss Osborne Miss Sharp mother Napoleon Bonaparte old lady old Mr Osborne old Sedley Osborne's Paris party piano Quatre Bras Queen's Crawley Raggles Rawdon and Becky Rawdon Crawley Rebec Rebecca Sharp regiment rich Russell Square Sedley's shawl Sir Pitt Crawley sitting-room soon story talk tell Thackeray things thousand pounds told took Tufto Vanity Fair Vauxhall VIRGINIA BEACH Waterloo wife young ladies