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Vanity Fair
(1848)
Vanity Fair is a story of two heroines--one humble, the other scheming and social climbing--who meet in boarding school and embark on markedly different lives. Amid the swirl of London's posh ballrooms and affairs of love and war, their fortunes rise and fall. Through it all, Thackeray lampoons the shallow values of his society, reserving the most pointed barbs for the upper crust. What results is a prescient look at the dogged pursuit of wealth and status--and the need for humility.
This is a delightful novel which lays bare the hypocrisy of the 19th century European civilization in general and British society in particular. The trait that defines almost all characters of the novel (except Dobbin and Amelia) is their vanity or pompousness. Vanity was also the hallmark of the 19th Century European nation states. This vanity drove them to the wrongly assume that just because they had got a head start in industrial revolution they were superior to people living in India, China, Arabia and America and provided them the moral ground for colonizing and exploiting these lands. The Battle of Waterloo is the perfect backdrop for the plot in the novel because it was a clash of national vanities. William Thackeray was a visionary who could see the self-destructiveness inherent in the societal and national values of greed and vanity of the 19th Century Europe. The values which drove Europe to colonize a major part of the world and steam roll old civilizations ultimately led to the destruction of the European Empires and civilization through two world wars. The Atlantic Charter which led to the creation of the UNO was the most emphatic rejection of the phony civilization which Thackeray satirized in the Vanity Fair. --Submitted by Satish K. Sharma
This is not your typical Romantic novel with its great sensibility, but lacking glorious and fulfilling end. Indeed, the novel's unique multitude of well-sketched characters do not do anything about their foibles, at least not to improve their lot. The novel takes the reader through Bunyan's Vanity Fair and shows him all the vices and vanities the people of this world indulge in. The story starts with two girls at each side of the spectrum getting out from Miss Pinkerton's academy: Amelia Sedley, the daughter of wealthy city man John Sedley of Russell Square, Bloomsbury, since long betrothed to fellow city man Mr Osborne's son Captain George Osborne; and Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, the daughter of a French opera dancer and a painter. She is well educated, but poor as a church mouse and therefore despised by the girls' school mistress. This disillusion will determine her life. When Amelia's father sadly goes bankrupt, oblivious Amelia sees her betrothal end and her father insulted by old Osborne himself. However, young George Osborne's friend, the clumsy and somewhat shy Captain William Dobbin, manages to convince George to marry Amelia nonetheless, to his own eternal detriment. Becky Sharp in the meantime turns governess to the two young girls of stingy and poor Sir Pitt Crawley and manages to seduce her master and his younger son Rawdon. Our two girls both come together at Waterloo where the famous battle seems to bring out the worst in everyone. In the end, things will turn out well, but not until Rawdon realises what his wife really is and Amelia that her brother is a worthless protector. Dobbin's ship of life will dock in its rightful harbour, but possibly too late. Vanity Fair has everything: a cosmopolitan feel, great descriptions of Brussels and Germany in the early 19th century, and great characters. A unique read.--Submitted by kiki1982.
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Recent Forum Posts on Vanity Fair
Thoughts on Vanity Fair
A third thread to fill this forum up a little. It's a shame that no-one actually posts on here, because you could have so many nice discussions. First, I enjoyed it, although I was pretty slow in finishing it. Thackeray obviously observed quite a lot, because his portrayal of the Belgians and the Germans is very accurate. They still have the same traits. I loved the episode where they all went to Brussels for Waterloo and where Jos had found a Belgian servant called Isidoor, who 'didn't speak any language' (we should conclude he spoke Flemish, then, shouldn't we), but made himself indispensible because he bustled about doing everything and nothing. :lol: That's Belgians for you! And the great food and beer. Indeed, you cannot go to Belgium and not have good food. It's unheard of. In fact, for a Belgian, a holiday is always valued by the food. The first thing people answer when asked 'How was your holiday?' is 'Well, the food was good.' I liked the description of Pumpernickel too. So true to today's Germany. Germans can be so local and so private (we have found out to our utter frustration). I think the set-up was a quite satirical Les Misérables style of book. It's fragmentary and it jumps form character to character, from life to life, as the author sees fit and all characters somehow have their influence on each other, although they may not realise it. They also all come together in Waterloo which will determine how the whole thing carries on. Thus, the novel has no real clear protagonist as more or less all characters are pretty well sketched, including Miss Briggs and the landlord of Curzon Street. I found the cosmopolitanness of it quite refreshing. As Thackeray says, English people establish a little England wherever they go, and so they do in books too: everything is always very English and focussed on English issues, even if it plays somewhere else, but this one was maybe focussed on English issues like reputation and things, but it was slightly more open. There was a theme of travel, emphasised in Dobbin's docking scene where he finally arrives in the harbour of Ostend to carry Amelia off (frustrating character, Dobbin, but so sweet). He's paced up and down the Boompjes in Rotterdam, a quay lined with lime trees (the trees of lovers) and willows (treacherous trees who can put travellers off their track), then considers marrying Glorvina O'Dowd anyway (her pink satin and singing at him did their work in the end!), but then is summoned back to the right track by Amelia. Indeed, all through the novel there is a lot of travel Notably, Becky can't stay where she is. Whether that's because the people force her out or because she just hasn't found her purpose, is the question. Had Jos asked to marry her at Vauxhal, maybe she would have stayed where she was and he too... On the whole very nice novel. Any thoughts anyone?
class issues
-How does Thackeray make use of social classes in Vanity Fair? -What are the themes connected to the class in this novel? -Can you find any connection between class differences of this novel and Disraeli's Coningsby? Thank you beforhead for your kind replies.:)
Never??!!
how come no one ever posted a single post in this forum? Mr. Thackeray is not that bad a writer. Let's begin with talking about Vanity Fair. I think it is superbly written. what are your views about this 'novel without a hero'??
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