Customer Reviews

Vanity Fair (Barnes & Noble Classics)

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Greed, gold-digging and deception sit at the heart of "Vanity Fair." It's no joke that it's subtitled "a novel without a hero" -- William Makepeace Thackeray mercilessly skewered the pretentions and flaws of the upper class all throughout it. The result is a gloriously witty social satire.

It opens with two young women departing from a ladies' academy: dull, sweet Amelia (rich) and fiery sharp-witted Rebecca (poor). Becky Sharp is a relentless social climber, and her first effort to rise "above her station" is by trying to get Amelia's brother to marry her -- an effort thwarted by Amelia's fiancee. So instead she gets married to another family's second son, Rawdon Crawley.

Unfortunately, both young couples quickly get disinherited and George is killed. But Becky is determined to live the good life she has worked and married for -- she obtains jewels and money from admiring gentlemen, disrupting her marriage. But a little thing like a tarnished reputation isn't enough to keep Becky down...

"Vanity Fair" is actually a lot more complex than that, with dozens of little subplots and complicated character relationships. Reading it a few times is necessary to really absorb all of it, since it is not just a look at the two women in the middle of the book, but at the upper (and sometimes lower) social strata of the nineteenth century.

The main flaw of the book is perhaps that it sprawls too much -- there's always a lot of stuff going on, not to mention a huge cast of characters, and Thackeray sometimes drops the ball when it comes to the supporting characters and their little plots. It takes a lot of patience to absorb all of this. However... it's worth it.

Like most nineteenth-century writers, Thackeray had a very dense, formal writing style -- but once you get used to it, his writing becomes insanely funny. Witticisms and quips litter the pages, even if you don't pick them all up at once. At first Thackeray seems incredibly cynical (Becky's little schemes almost always pay off), but taken as a social satire, it's easier to understand why he was so cynical about the society of the time.

Becky Sharp is the quintessential anti-heroine -- she's very greedy and cold, yet she's also so smart and determined that it's hard not to have a grudging liking for her, no matter what she does. Certainly life hasn't been fair for her. Next to Becky, a goody-goody character like Amelia is pretty boring, and even the unsubtle George can't measure up to Becky.

To sum up "Vanity Fair": think a period soap opera with a heavy dose of social commentary. In other words, it doesn't get much better than this, Thackeray's masterpiece.

Amelia and Becky are schoolmates together at a fancy young ladies' finishing school in England in the 1800s. When the two leave together, Amelia is sobbed over, remembered fondly, and given a gift by the headmistress. Amelia comes from a good family and is very wealthy.

Becky, on the other hand, is a poor orphan who had to earn her stay at the school by teaching French to the younger girls, and her graduation is not mourned by anyone. Once free from the stifling environment of the school, Becky is able to look around and the world and find the best way of getting ahead in it.

This book follows the paths of Amelia and Becky as they each make their way through society and, for very different reasons, marry and gain families of their own. Becky and Amelia both struggle to be liked, to be accepted, and to make their way through their socially complex England.

The story of these characters is fascinating, and it is especially compelling to watch Becky, who is always on the lookout for the most advantageous opportunities provided to her. Amelia's story is much less turbulent, as she is not at all the conniver Becky is.

The book was a bit of a slog; it took a long time for me to read and I sometimes felt like I was missing some of the jokes. The characters and the story were still very interesting, though, despite being written in the style of the time.

I ordered this copy to entice my grand-daughter to read Thackery. It worked. She plowed through the entire novel in two weeks. This excellent edition, in fine condition helped. Thank you.