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Vanity Fair

Introduction by Catherine Peters

By William Makepeace Thackeray
Introduction by Catherine Peters

By William Makepeace Thackeray
Introduction by Catherine Peters

By William Makepeace Thackeray

By William Makepeace Thackeray

By William Makepeace Thackeray

By William Makepeace Thackeray

By William Makepeace Thackeray
Read by Jill Masters

By William Makepeace Thackeray
Read by Jill Masters

Best Seller

Part of Everyman's Library Classics Series

Hardcover $28.00

Oct 15, 1991 | ISBN 9780679405665

Ebook $5.99

Dec 27, 2005 | ISBN 9780553902204

Ebook $2.99

Nov 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780679642015

Audiobook Download $35.00

Jan 01, 1989 | 2070 Minutes

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    Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
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    Oct 15, 1991 | ISBN 9780679405665

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      Oct 15, 1991 | ISBN 9780679405665

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    About Vanity Fair

    A panoramic satire of English society during the Napoleonic Wars, Vanity Fair is William Makepeace Thackeray’s masterpiece. At its center is one of the most unforgettable characters in nineteenth-century literature: the enthralling Becky Sharp, a charmingly ruthless social climber who is determined to leave behind her humble origins, no matter the cost. Her more gentle friend Amelia, by contrast, only cares for Captain George Osborne, despite his selfishness and her family’s disapproval. As both women move within the flamboyant milieu of Regency England, the political turmoil of the era is matched by the scheming Becky’s sensational rise—and its unforeseen aftermath.

     

    Based in part upon Thackeray’s own love for the wife of a friend, Vanity Fair portrays the hypocrisy and corruption of high society and the dangers of unrestrained ambition with epic brilliance and scathing wit. With an introduction by Catherine Peters.

    About Vanity Fair

    "I do not say there is no character as well drawn in Shakespeare [as D’Artagnan]. I do say there is none that I love so wholly."
    –Robert Louis Stevenson

    "The lasting and universal popularity of The Three Musketeers shows that Dumas, by artlessly expressing his own nature in the persons of his heroes, was responding to that craving for action, strength and generosity which is a fact in all periods and all places."
    –Andreé Maurois

    About Vanity Fair

    A marvelous, incisive social satire that gleefully exposes the greed and corruption raging in England during the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars through its tracing of the changing fortunes of two unforgettable women. It is a comic masterpiece that still resonates today.

    "Re-reading Vanity Fair, one realises what a brilliant innovation this was in the English novel," remarked V. S. Pritchett. "Thackeray is like the modern novelists who derive from James and Proust, in his power of dissecting (and of desiccating!) character."

    Generally considered to be his masterpiece, Vanity Fair is Thackeray’s resplendent social satire that exposes the greed and corruption raging in England during the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars. Subtitled "A Novel Without a Hero," it traces the changing fortunes of two unforgettable women: the scheming opportunist Becky Sharp—one of literature’s most resourceful, engaging, and amoral heroines—and her foil, the faithful, naive Amelia Sedley. Thackeray’s subversive, comic attack on the hypocrisy and "dismal roguery" of an avaricious world resonates 150 years later with implications for our own times.

    "Thackeray is an urbane nineteenth-century guide and commentator in a portrait gallery that is for all time," observed Louis Auchincloss. "He is the restless inhabitant of a prudish age, nostalgic, discursive, anecdotal, sentimental, worldly-wise, now warning us, now making fun of us, now reproving us …. Thackeray’s harshest criticism of humanity is simply the point where ours commences. His perception of self-interest in every act is the ABC of modem psychology."

    About Vanity Fair

    "I do not say there is no character as well drawn in Shakespeare [as D’Artagnan]. I do say there is none that I love so wholly."
    –Robert Louis Stevenson

    "The lasting and universal popularity of The Three Musketeers shows that Dumas, by artlessly expressing his own nature in the persons of his heroes, was responding to that craving for action, strength and generosity which is a fact in all periods and all places."
    –Andreé Maurois

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    About William Makepeace Thackeray

    William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1811, but was sent to England at the age of six. After his education at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, having gambled away much of his fortune at university, he… More about William Makepeace Thackeray

    About William Makepeace Thackeray

    William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1811, but was sent to England at the age of six. After his education at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, having gambled away much of his fortune at university, he… More about William Makepeace Thackeray

    About William Makepeace Thackeray

    William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1811, but was sent to England at the age of six. After his education at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, having gambled away much of his fortune at university, he… More about William Makepeace Thackeray

    About William Makepeace Thackeray

    William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1811, but was sent to England at the age of six. After his education at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, having gambled away much of his fortune at university, he… More about William Makepeace Thackeray

    Product Details

    Category: Fiction Classics | Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction

    Hardcover | $28.00
    Published by Everyman’s Library
    Oct 15, 1991 | 800 Pages | 4-7/8 x 8 | ISBN 9780679405665

    Category: Fiction Classics | Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Bantam Classics
    Dec 27, 2005 | 848 Pages | ISBN 9780553902204

    Category: Fiction Classics | Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction

    Ebook | $2.99
    Published by Modern Library
    Nov 01, 2000 | 752 Pages | ISBN 9780679642015

    Category: Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $35.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 01, 1989 | 2070 Minutes | ISBN 9781415909775
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    Praise

    “Vanity Fair was Thackeray’s masterpiece. Subversive, funny, complex and serious, it is the work of an intellectual athlete at the height of his powers.”
    —from the Introduction by Catherine Peters

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