Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140437533 ISBN 13: 9780140437539

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2002

Among the vibrant cast of characters who scheme and scramble for life's prizes in this entertaining saga, no one is better equipped than Becky Sharp, Thackeray's supreme creation. Brilliant, alluring, and ruthless, she defies her poverty-stricken background to climb the social ladder, while her sentimental companion Amelia longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of English society during the Napoleonic wars, military and domestic battles are fought and fortunes are made and lost. Amid the fast-paced comic action stands Dobbin, a true gentleman in a corrupt world, whose unrequited love for Amelia brings pathos and depth to Thackeray's epic satire.

This edition includes a new introduction, a chronology of Thackeray's life and works, a select reading list, and an appendix containing parodic material Thackeray cut from the 1853 edition.

About the Author:

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was born and educated to be a gentleman but gambled away much of his fortune while at Cambridge. He then trained as a lawyer before turning to journalism. He was a regular contributor to periodicals and magazines. Vanity Fair was serialized in Punch in 1847-1848.