Vanity Fair (Masterwork Studies Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805783903 ISBN 13: 9780805783902

Publisher: Twayne Publishers, 1995

Synopsis

Series Editor: Robert Lecker, McGill University.Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, MASTERWORK STUDIES are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books help students to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers and exams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature. Each volume: illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text; uses clear, conversational language; is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages; includes a chronology of the authors life and era; provides an overview of the historical context; offers a summary of its critical reception; and lists primary and secondary sources and index.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero, Edgar F. Harden presents the first substantial critical study devoted to Thackeray's masterpiece. Designed to orient the reader to the multiplicities of Thackeray's perspective on human experience, the study commences with a broad contextual overview of the historical, literary, and critical environment shaping Thackeray's life and times. Subsequent chapters deliver a close reading of the novel, paying particular attention to issues of substance and style, the complex role of the narrator, and the elaborate characterizations of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley; detailed coverage is also given to the significance of the serialized form in which the novel was first published. Maintaining that Vanity Fair "calls into fundamental question the value of worldly pursuits", Harden expertly leads readers to a solid understanding of the "Thackerayan perspective" and to a true appreciation for why George Eliot, in 1857, proclaimed Thackeray "the most powerful of living novelists".

About the Author:

Edgar F. Harden is Professor of English at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

About this edition

• Publisher: Twayne Publishers
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0805783903
• ISBN 13: 9780805783902
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 127
• Editor: Harden Edgar