Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray
1811 – 1863
ENPublic Domain
Summary
"Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray is a novel published serially from 1847 to 1848. Set during and after the Napoleonic Wars, it follows two contrasting women: the cunning, ambitious Becky Sharp, who schemes her way through society despite having no money, and the gentle, wealthy Amelia Sedley. Subtitled "A Novel without a Hero," this satirical work deconstructs traditional ideas of heroism while exposing the vanities and pretensions of early 19th-century British society through an unreliable narrator who frames the story as a puppet show. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Subjects
- British — Europe — Fiction
- England — Fiction
- Female friendship — Fiction
- Married women — Fiction
- Satire
- Social classes — Fiction
- Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815 — Fiction