Vanity Fair , by William Makepeace Thackeray , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
Biographies of the authors
Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
Footnotes and endnotes
Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
Comments by other famous authors
Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
Bibliographies for further reading
Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works. “I think I could be a good woman, if I had five thousand a year,” observes beautiful and clever Becky Sharp, one of the wickedest—and most appealing—women in all of literature. Becky is just one of the many fascinating figures that populate William Makepeace Thackeray ’s novel Vanity Fair , a wonderfully satirical panorama of upper-middle-class life and manners in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Scorned for her lack of money and breeding, Becky must use all her wit, charm and considerable sex appeal to escape her drab destiny as a governess. From London’s ballrooms to the battlefields of Waterloo, the bewitching Becky works her wiles on a gallery of memorable characters, including her lecherous employer, Sir Pitt, his rich sister, Miss Crawley, and Pitt’s dashing son, Rawdon, the first of Becky’s misguided sexual entanglements.
Filled with hilarious dialogue and superb characterizations, Vanity Fair is a richly entertaining comedy that asks the reader, “Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?”
Features more than 100 illustrations drawn by Thackeray himself for the initial publication.
Nicholas Dames is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and is the author of Amnesiac Selves: Nostalgia, Forgetting, and British Fiction, 1810–1870 , and other commentary on nineteenth-century British and French fiction.
For fans of Bridgerton, this classical gossip novel follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley as they deal with relationships with both friends and family. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, 'Vanity Fair' satires British society and how the upper classes worship money and social standing. Thackeray also explores illusion versus reality - are the affluent lives these people live really a normal reality for everyone? Known worldwide and sure to captivate you with its representation of 19th century high society in England, this classic will leave you questioning your own opinions of yourself and how you rank others' opinions of you. William Makepeace Thackeray was a British novelist, author and illustrator, best known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel Vanity Fair which gave a panoramic portrait of British society. Born in British India in 1811, Thackeray was sent to England in 1815. He went to Cambridge University before leaving early to go travelling in Europe. When he turned 21, he got his inheritance from his father who died when he was only four but lost most of it due to gambling and the collapse of two Indian banks. In order to support himself, he turned to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue fully; only using it in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings. He died of a stroke in 1863.
Description:
Vanity Fair , by William Makepeace Thackeray , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works. “I think I could be a good woman, if I had five thousand a year,” observes beautiful and clever Becky Sharp, one of the wickedest—and most appealing—women in all of literature. Becky is just one of the many fascinating figures that populate William Makepeace Thackeray ’s novel Vanity Fair , a wonderfully satirical panorama of upper-middle-class life and manners in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Scorned for her lack of money and breeding, Becky must use all her wit, charm and considerable sex appeal to escape her drab destiny as a governess. From London’s ballrooms to the battlefields of Waterloo, the bewitching Becky works her wiles on a gallery of memorable characters, including her lecherous employer, Sir Pitt, his rich sister, Miss Crawley, and Pitt’s dashing son, Rawdon, the first of Becky’s misguided sexual entanglements.
Filled with hilarious dialogue and superb characterizations, Vanity Fair is a richly entertaining comedy that asks the reader, “Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?”
Features more than 100 illustrations drawn by Thackeray himself for the initial publication.
Nicholas Dames is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and is the author of Amnesiac Selves: Nostalgia, Forgetting, and British Fiction, 1810–1870 , and other commentary on nineteenth-century British and French fiction.
For fans of Bridgerton, this classical gossip novel follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley as they deal with relationships with both friends and family. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, 'Vanity Fair' satires British society and how the upper classes worship money and social standing. Thackeray also explores illusion versus reality - are the affluent lives these people live really a normal reality for everyone? Known worldwide and sure to captivate you with its representation of 19th century high society in England, this classic will leave you questioning your own opinions of yourself and how you rank others' opinions of you. William Makepeace Thackeray was a British novelist, author and illustrator, best known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel Vanity Fair which gave a panoramic portrait of British society. Born in British India in 1811, Thackeray was sent to England in 1815. He went to Cambridge University before leaving early to go travelling in Europe. When he turned 21, he got his inheritance from his father who died when he was only four but lost most of it due to gambling and the collapse of two Indian banks. In order to support himself, he turned to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue fully; only using it in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings. He died of a stroke in 1863.