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Overview

William Makepeace Thackeray's classic tale of class, society, and corruption, soon to be an Amazon mini-series starring Olivia Cooke

No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles—military and domestic—are fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin with his devotion to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to Thackeray's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure.

Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design In William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, no one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles - military and domestic - are fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin with his devotion to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to Thackeray's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780141199542
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 08/27/2013
Series: Penguin Clothbound Classics
Pages: 912
Sales rank: 88,032
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 2.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

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 trained as a lawyer before turning to journalism. He was a regular contributor to periodicals and magazines and Vanity Fair was serialised in Punch in 1847-8. John Carey is Professor of English at Oxford University. He has written on Dickens and Thackeray.

Read an Excerpt

Chiswick Mall
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Vanity Fair"
by .
Copyright © 2013 William Makepeace Thackeray.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Before the Curtainix
IChiswick Mall11
IIIn Which Miss Sharp and Miss Sedley Prepare to Open the Campaign18
IIIRebecca Is in Presence of the Enemy29
IVThe Green Silk Purse38
VDobbin of Ours52
VIVauxhall64
VIICrawley of Queen's Crawley78
VIIIPrivate and Confidential87
IXFamily Portraits97
XMiss Sharp Begins to Make Friends105
XIArcadian Simplicity112
XIIQuite a Sentimental Chapter128
XIIISentimental and Otherwise137
XIVMiss Crawley at Home150
XVIn Which Rebecca's Husband Appears for a Short Time171
XVIThe Letter on the Pincushion181
XVIIHow Captain Dobbin Bought a Piano190
XVIIIWho Played on the Piano Captain Dobbin Bought200
XIXMiss Crawley at Nurse213
XXIn Which Captain Dobbin Acts as the Messenger of Hymen225
XXIA Quarrel About an Heiress236
XXIIA Marriage and Part of a Honeymoon246
XXIIICaptain Dobbin Proceeds on His Canvass256
XXIVIn Which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible263
XXVIn Which All the Principal Personages Think Fit to Leave Brighton278
XXVIBetween London and Chatham300
XXVIIIn Which Amelia Joins Her Regiment309
XXVIIIIn Which Amelia Invades the Low Countries316
XXIXBrussels326
XXX"The Girl I Left Behind Me"341
XXXIIn Which Jos Sedley Takes Care of His Sister351
XXXIIIn Which Jos Takes Flight, and the War is Brought To a Close364
XXXIIIIn Which Miss Crawley's Relations Are very Anxious About Her383
XXXIVJames Crawley's Pipe is Put Out395
XXXVWidow and Mother414
XXXVIHow to Live Well on Nothing a Year426
XXXVIIThe Subject Continued436
XXXVIIIA Family in a Very Small Way452
XXXIXA Cynical Chapter468
XLIn Which Becky is Recognized by the Family479
XLIIn Which Becky Revisits the Halls of Her Ancestors489
XLIIWhich Treats of the Osborne Family502
XLIIIIn Which the Reader has to Double the Cape510
XLIVA Roundabout Chapter between London and Hampshire521
XLVBetween Hampshire and London532
XLVIStruggles and Trials542
XLVIIGaunt House551
XLVIIIIn Which the Reader is Introduced to the Very Best of Company561
XLIXIn Which We Enjoy Three Courses and a Dessert574
LContains a Vulgar Incident582
LIIn Which a Charade is Acted Which May or May Not Puzzle the Reader593
LIIIn Which Lord Steyne Shows Himself in a Most Amiable Light613
LIIIA Rescue and a Catastrophe625
LIVSunday After the Battle635
LVIn Which the Same Subject is Pursued645
LVIGeorgy is Made a Gentleman663
LVIIEothen677
LVIIIOur Friend the Major686
LIXThe Old Piano699
LXReturns to the Genteel World711
LXIIn Which Two Lights are Put Out718
LXIIAm Rhein733
LXIIIIn Which We Meet an Old Acquaintance745
LXIVA Vagabond Chapter759
LXVFull of Business and Pleasure777
LXVIAmantium Irae786
LXVIIWhich Contains Births, Marriages, and Deaths803
Afterword823
Selected Bibligraphy831
A Note on the Text832

Reading Group Guide

1. In her Introduction, Joanna Trollope asserts that "one of the huge charms of [Vanity Fair] is that nothing is conventional." Do you think Thackeray's choice of a protagonist speaks to this claim, given the novel's picaresque structure? How does this choice inform the novel? In what other ways does the novel confirm Trollope's claim?

2. What is your opinion of Thackeray's preface, "Before the Curtain"? How does it illuminate for you what he is attempting to do in the novel? In what ways is Thackeray "manager of the performance"? Discuss the role of the narrator in the novel. Is he reliable?

3. Why does Thackeray insist that this is a "novel without a hero"? Do you agree? What are the implications, if any, of such a claim?

4. Compare Becky and Amelia. What, if anything, does Thackeray intend by their contrasting destinies? Does one represent or confirm Thackeray's moral viewpoint better than the other, or do neither? What do you think of the preponderance of unlikable characters? Do you find Thackeray's outlook in any way misanthropic?

5. Anthony Trollope points out that many of Thackeray's contemporaries concluded upon reading Vanity Fair that he "was no novelist, but only a cynic." Do you agree? Do you think this judgment was simply a consequence of the period?

6. Robert Louis Stevenson, in a comment about the novel, remarked on Rawdon's striking of Lord Steyne in chapter 53, saying, "If Rawdon Crawley's blow were not delivered, Vanity Fair would cease to be a work of art." Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?

7. Discuss the significance of the Battle of Waterloo. Whatrole does this crucial event play in the novel? Does it in any way serve as a metaphor for other episodes in the text?

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