About this title: VANITY 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 ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. 3 v. : ill., 1 port.; 19 cm. Vol. 1 includes a mainly biographical general introduction to the series of prose works. LC vols. are no. 1-3 in a uniformly bound set with collective spine title: Thackeray's works. Source: Bequest of Edith G. Rosenwald, J read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Signet Classics
Date Published: 1962
ISBN-13:9780451509635ISBN:0451509633
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Nice soft cover, read once, some shelf wear to cover, light creases on spine, light aging. 831 p.; Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Washington Square Press Book Pocket Books
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780460012980ISBN:0460012983
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Cover slightly worn; interior bright and clean. Trade Paperback. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: The Modern Library
Date Published: 1950
Description: Good. No Jacket. Corners/Edges Shelf Worn, Spine Creased/Slanted, Sticker Back Cover, Markings On First Page, Text Is Unmarked, Good Reading Copy. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: New York: New American Library,
Date Published: 1962
Description: Fair. 830 pp. Cover shelf worn, creased, torn where meets the spine, and edges frayed. Spine creased. Inside cover previouse owner inscription. Interi or pages words and phrases underlined in pen, ywllowed with age, and stained. read more
Edition: Reprint. Modern Library edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, New York
Description: Fair. No dust jacket. 784 p. Blue cloth over boards with red and gold design and lettering. Solid and square. Clean/unmarked inside. Only "fair" because top edge of front cover stripped bare. Corners lightly bumped. Moderate rub wear to upper/lower edges and tips of corners. read more
"Read it slowly because you'll want to savor it. This is sharp, witty and evocative. The book centers as much on Amelia as on Becky. The main theme here is selfishness in all its destructive glory. For what is vanity but selfishness? Both Becky and Amelia are self-absorbed but only one comes out of it. Amelia is just as vain and selfish in her romantic martyrdom as Becky is in her open whoring. Becky is the adventuress, cunning and brilliant. It's amazing how Thackery creates a character you can enjoy so much without ever actually liking her. The whole book is kind of like an anti-Bunyon. Pilgrim's Regress if you will. WMT writes a morality play without the fairytale ending. Amelia gets a happy ending but not Becky. Dobbins could have been such a loathsome prig but he came out pretty well. Even the dreadful George is human. The only real caricature was Josiah but he was funny so who cares? This is a wicked good time."
"By reading "Vanity Fair", I've finally finished the assigned reading list from my 1985 college class, "History of the English Novel". I read everything else that semester, including "Wuthering Heights", "Frankenstein", "Tom Jones", "Robinson Crusoe", "Adam Bede", and probably a few others, but poor "Vanity Fair" languished unread as the school year rapidly speed by, it's sheer heft too daunting for me to even attempt.
I've had a copy of the book on my bookshelves for the last 20+ years with the plan of eventually reading it, but I forgot about it until late last year. I was enjoying a similarly weighty book (literally) about Florence Nightingale when William Thackeray appeared as a minor character who was traveling on the same ship as Florence and some relatives. I figured if I could tackle a thousand page bio of Nurse Flo then I was certainly prepared for "Vanity Fair". I even read "Middlemarch" in an attempt to warm up my brain, but VF wasn't nearly as challenging as I'd expected. My biggest obstacle was getting through the slow, lengthy "filler" or "ambiance" chapters -- they served as a reminder that novels were often published one chapter at a time, so it made financial sense for the author to drag out the story for as long as possible. I honestly think that if the book was edited today, quite a few chapters would be completely removed (to the benefit of the overall plot).
Do I think Becky Sharp was as evil as Thackeray probably wanted me to think? No. In modern times, she'd fit in perfectly with the cast of shows like "The Hills" and "Gossip Girls". I found Amelia Sedley to be pretty pathetic, though, and that might be the reaction the author was shooting for. Becky was much more entertaining than Amelia, and the chapters which revolved around Becky's machinations (with and without the knowledge of her husband), were the ones I enjoyed the most. It was interesting to read a book with no obvious hero/heroine... even Dobbin was kind of annoying.
Overall, I'm glad I read this and feel a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. Now if I could just go back and rewrite my final exam from 1985, my experience with "The History of the English Novel" will be complete."
"This was a long book! It took me forever to finish it, but it was well worth the time. My only complaints were that the author spent too much time developing characters of litte importance and that he went off on several side trips talking of things I didn't believe important to the plot. The story takes place in England in the early 1800s. The whole book is comparing English society to the popular "vanity fairs" of that era. I loved how he showed throughout the book how foolish we humans can be as we live our lives, and think our thoughts, and make our judgements. The story follows the lives of two women from their school years into middle age. We get to know both very well along with all those who share their lives - family, friends, enemies, etc. One of my favorite things in this book was how the author let us easily see how one woman was thought of as good and the other as not. However, he made us look at all sides of both and realize that we never see all of a person and many times they are not what we think - at least not all the time."
"It took me a long time to get through this book but it was so worth it. There's a reason why it's still around after 150+ years. What a great sense of humor Thackeray has! His story if full of over-the-top, self-centered characters. You don't like them but their behavior is so ridiculous you can't really despise them. And they usually get their comeuppance in the end. I love the way the narrator talks to you as if he's letting you in on the secret. And of course Becky Sharp is the woman you love to hate and hate to love. She is so awful--selfish, manipulative, lying, cheating. And yet you can't help but understand why she is the way she is. She's a victim of English society. She'll never be accepted into the upper class so she does what she has to to survive. Other than Amelia and her husband, no one is ever nice to her. I love the "happily-ever-after" ending...for a change!"
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