Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair,a novel by Thackeray , published in numbers 1847 – 8 , illustrated by the author.
The story is set at the time of the Napoleonic wars, and gives a satirical picture of a worldly society, which Thackeray intended to be applied also to his own times. It follows the fortunes of two sharply contrasted characters, Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, the penniless orphaned daughter of an artist and a French opera dancer, and Amelia Sedley, the sheltered child of a rich City merchant. The two girls, as unlike in character as they are in fortune, have been educated at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for young ladies. Becky, having failed to force a proposal of marriage from Amelia's elephantine brother Jos, ‘the Collector of Boggley Wallah’, becomes governess to the children of Sir Pitt Crawley, a coarse, brutal old man who bullies his fading second wife. Becky manages to charm the Crawley family, and becomes a favourite of Miss Crawley,...
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