Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (Modern Library Classics) - Softcover

Thackeray, William Makepeace

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375757260 ISBN 13: 9780375757266

Publisher: Modern Library, 2001

Synopsis

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 this title

Book Description:

After first appearing as a serial in brilliant yellow covers, Vanity Fair, 'a novel without a hero', was published in full in 1848. A panoramic and biting satire, it was the first of William Makepeace Thackeray's works to bear his own name. This edition includes his original illustrations and preface.

From the Publisher:

Vanity Fair is a story of two heroines--one humber, the other scheming and social climbing--who meet inboarding school and embark on markedly different lives. Amid the swirl of London's posh ballrooms and affairs of love and war, their fortunes rise and fall. Through it all, Thackeray lampoons the shallow values of his society, reserving the most pointed barbs for the upper crust. What results is a prescient look at the dogged pursuit of wealth and status--and the need for humility.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0375757260
• ISBN 13: 9780375757266
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 768
• Editor: Kent Leonard J., Berberova Nina