Thackeray packed the novel with allusions, many of which were difficult even for his contemporary readers part of the heavy revisions he later made were making the allusions more accessible to his evolving audience.Īs part of his satirical bent, Thackeray made a point to make each character flawed, so that there are no âheroesâ in the bookâhence the subtitle âA Novel Without a Hero.â Thackerayâs goal was not only to entertain, but to instruct to that end, he wanted the reader to look within themselves after finishing the unhappy conclusion, in which thereâs no hint as to how society might be able to improve on the evils shadowed in the events of the novel. The story itself, like many other Thackeray novels, is a satire of the lives of the Victorian English of a certain class. The story is framed as a puppet play, narrated by an unreliable narrator, that presents the story of Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley and the people in their lives as they struggle through the Napoleonic Wars. First serialized over the course of 19 volumes in Punch Magazine and first printed as a single volume in 1849, the novel cemented Thackerayâs literary fame and kept him busy with frequent revisions and even lecture circuits.

Vanity Fair is perhaps Thackerayâs most famous novel. Will you support our efforts with a donation? We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Â 10 in the BBCâs 100 Greatest British Novels (2015) Â 14 in the Guardianâs Best 100 Novels in English (2015) Standard Ebooksģ08,452 words (18 hours 42 minutes) with a reading ease of 66.47 (average difficulty) Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray - Free ebook download - Standard Ebooks: Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover.

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