William Makepeace Thackeray: A Literary Life (Literary Lives) [Hardcover]

Peter Shillingsburg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0333650921 | ISBN-13: 978-0333650929 | Publication Date: May 4, 2001

This is an introductory portrait of Thackeray the writer, focusing on his philosophy and religion, relations with women, his illustrations, his narrative strategies, and the demands his texts make on modern readers. Suggests themes and ways to read sample books rather than offering a comprehensive life or critical survey.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a persuasive set of arguments that make those of us who think we know Thackeray think again."--Richard Pearson, Victorian Studies
... refreshingly accessible and jargon free. Choice

About the Author

Peter Shillingsburg is Visiting Professor of English, University of North Texas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 177 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (May 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333650921
• ISBN-13: 978-0333650929
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,740,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Study, August 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: William Makepeace Thackeray: A Literary Life (Literary Lives) (Hardcover)

This is an unexpectedly weak effort by Professor Shillingsburg. There is very little biography in this "Life," and insofar as the term chosen by Professor Shillingsburg is "Literary Life," there is surprisingly little literary appreciation here as well. What we find instead are two or three observations on Thackeray's methods repeated over and over. That the narrators in Thackeray's novels were not always omniscient, nor always reflective of Thackeray's own personal views, is simple to grasp, and does not merit the repetitive treatment given in this book. The use of pseudonyms to layer meaning was done far more sophisticatedly in Thackeray's day by Kierkegaard, and has been a literary commonplace ever since. Similarly, the notion that it helps to know something about a period of history in order "to get" the inside references in fiction set in that period is another commonplace that hardly merits being treated, as here, like a discovery. Certainly it does not help to hang a footnote to a reference to the Keating Five (to demonstrate the fleeting memory of even current events), which footnote says they were accused of insider trading in the 1980s. They were, of course, five members of Congress accused of taking bribes in an S&L scandal. This is a disappointing effort by a man of whom better should be expected.