Anyway, this gossipy novel follows the beautiful schemer Becky Sharp as she climbs from her lowly beginnings as a poor opera dancer's daughter to the height of English aristocratic wealth and influence. A gorgeous portrait of English and continental life during the Napoleanic war, which sounds utterly blissful (although of course filled with ridiculous intrigue).
Thackeray is a master of the language, and this lighthearted but keen examination of vanity is a delight to read.
Recommended if you liked The Scarlet Pimpernel, reviewed here: http://blogenburyisreading.blogspot.com/2012/01/scarlet-pimpernel-by-baroness-emmuska.html?m=0
Dad's VF review: http://blogenburyisreading.blogspot.com/2009/06/vanity-fair.html
This book is delicious fun! It must have been a NY Times Best Beach Read of 1847. Sure from a different world than Dostoevsky's 1847!
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ReplyDeleteI loved your description of VF! By the way, I just read somewhere that the title of Vanity Fair is taken from one of the locations in The Pilgrim's Progress - which I had not known. I think I should read The Luck of Barry Lyndon. Maybe when I emigrate from Russian literature!
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