Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.

The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.

The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.

A novel written before its time., 26 Apr 2006
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.

A marvellous reading, 07 Apr 2006
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.

Worthy classic but a huge book, 07 Jul 2005
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.

Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.

The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.

A novel written before its time., 26 Apr 2006
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.

A marvellous reading, 07 Apr 2006
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.

Worthy classic but a huge book, 07 Jul 2005
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.

Sharpe and Fair, 15 May 2007
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.

Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.

The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.

A novel written before its time., 26 Apr 2006
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.

A marvellous reading, 07 Apr 2006
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.

Worthy classic but a huge book, 07 Jul 2005
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.

Sharpe and Fair, 15 May 2007
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.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.

A novel written before its time., 26 Apr 2006
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.

A marvellous reading, 07 Apr 2006
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.

Worthy classic but a huge book, 07 Jul 2005
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.

Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.

The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.

A novel written before its time., 26 Apr 2006
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.

A marvellous reading, 07 Apr 2006
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.

Worthy classic but a huge book, 07 Jul 2005
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.

Sharpe and Fair, 15 May 2007
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.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.

A novel written before its time., 26 Apr 2006
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.

A marvellous reading, 07 Apr 2006
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.

Worthy classic but a huge book, 07 Jul 2005
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.

A novel without a hero., 29 Mar 2002
Like De Foe, Thackeray recorded the "autobiography" of his hero, Barry Lyndon, Irish adventurer, originally Barry Redmond, who became a chance soldier in the British and Prussian armies during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). After his adventures as a soldier and a spy, he becomes a professional gambler and faithful companion of the Chevalier de Balibari. Together they cheat the most famous courts of Europe with their "skill" at cards and build up a substantial fortune to add to their fame. The gambler gives up his days of adventure-seeking after conveniently "falling in love" with the Countess of Lyndon just after her extremely wealthy husband dies. His downfall comes soon after.
Highly recommended for the historical novel lover.

Read more Thackeray!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 08 Jan 2008
I was disappointed to read the negative 1 star review that previously had been written about Vanity Fair. Personally I really enjoyed this book, yes it is long, but DO NOT be put off by the length. This is a worthwhile read that is charming and funny. Sadly, Thackeray is not as well read these days as the likes of his contemporaries such as Dickens, but that certainly does not make him an inferior writer. This is a great pageturner that I would definitley recommend reading. Set against the backdrop of the napoleonic wars, the story concentrates on the domestic rather than social ramifications of the war. I think Thackeray writes female charaters very well and the way he occasionally writes as if talking and guiding you through the book is charming.
A must-read!!!!

Absorbing, timeless classic, 05 Jan 2008
Although published in 1847, Vanity Fair has the hallmark of all timeless classics - its depiction of human relationships still rings true today. Although Becky Sharp is most often remembered, there are actually two main female characters. Becky's friend Amelia is in love with George Osborne; but he is prepared to betray her devotion with the flirtatious Becky. In his turn Captain Dobbin is devoted to Amelia - but she scorns him even after George Osborne, then her husband, is killed in battle.

Becky wheedles her way into marriage with the ne'er do well Rawdon Crawley, and together they sponge and fawn on society to scrape a precarious living. Finally even Crawley leaves Becky. Ironically it is she who finally opens Amelia's eyes to the failings of her dead, long-idolised husband, leaving her free to marry the patient Dobbin.

William Makepeace Thackeray has an unfailing insight into the minds of lovers, both male and female, which is why this novel is still enjoyable to read

"There are two parties to a love transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated".

"Oh, these women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children"

"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb...hero whom she had worshipped? It requires many, many years - and a man must be very bad indeed - before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession.

"remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses - the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all"

"before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls hither"


Too long and too boring, 14 Apr 2007
I was expecting this book to be as interesting as Pride and Prejudice was. P&P was one of the best books I ever read, but Vanity Fair was a huge let down. The book was so slow, long and boring that I couldn't complete it. Incidentally, a BBC adaptation of this book, which was aired after the famous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, did very badly in the ratings and has never been heard from since. That does not surprise me because the adaptation was pretty close to the book.

Sharpe and Fair, 08 Mar 2007
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. 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.

fantastic, wonderfull and worth the hours...., 15 May 2006
anyone who saw the film and thought that was good will be so shocked to find the book absolutely awesome!!! fantastic characters and what wonderfull description. i was really there right in the middle! my favourite was the time spent at waterloo. but my what awesome writing. long book yes but if like me a book lasts only a few short hours you will love spending a few hours longer lost in the costumes and splendidly differing characters.(imagination does not need to be great as all the pictures are painted for you.)
i even cried as osbourne lay dead in the ditch after battle and i could hear the trumpets sorrowfull tune.
must read! it should be a law!

A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.

The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

A Novel Without a Hero, 07 Nov 2008
I must admit that I owned Vanity Fair for quite a while before I actually got around to reading it...I kept making attempts but drifted off after a few chapters. However, once I shook myself and forced myself to proceed my interest was quickly hooked. I did already know the story and how everything turned out for the characters beforehand but despite this the novel still gripped. However, be warned! If you like your Victorian literature with a hero, Vanity Fair doesn't really have a suitable candidate to offer. Instead, the sheer joy of the book comes largely from the enterprising social climber Becky and her gleefully unrepentant struggle for the top.
Because of the large number of relatively small chapters involved, its perfect long-term bedside reading to savour.
A true classic.

Pure class, 18 Oct 2006
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.

Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.