Vanity Fair (movie tie-in)
No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the
social ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of English society in the early 1800s, battlesÂmilitary and domesticÂare fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honorable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin, devoted to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to William ThackerayÂ's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure.
Customer Review: insightful and witty
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair is an amusing, engaging, and critical look at status in society. One of the great novels of 19th century. I highly recommend it!
Customer Review: With a 19th century nerd as the hero, how can you not love it?
It's only now that I notice the subtitle "novel without a hero", and that is what struck me most about this novel- the lack of heroes. Indeed, just about all of the characters are flawed in some way, but I beg to differ that there is no hero. Surely the good and honest Major Dobbin qualifies. He may be gawky and awkward, but that makes him so much more endearing than the stereotypical Prince Charming type, or reformed rascal that we might expect to see in a typical contemporary Victorian novel. In some ways, Vanity Fair is a typical Victorian novel. There are lots of characters that can be difficult to keep track of, it is kind of soap-opera-ish, and as it covers a long period of time, it is very long, tending to drag in the middle. However, the action really picks up in the last couple hundred pages, so it is well worth it to keep reading. Another winning quality of Vanity Fair is the narration. It is a hyperbole and parody of the typical Victorian narration. Not only is the narrator an omniscent, third-person who passes judgements, but he is a wisecracking and exaggerated one as well. I think Thackeray also deserves a lot of credit for not making the story predictable. I honestly didn't know quite how the story would wrap up, and as it neared the end I could tell that it wasn't going the way of a Hollywood movie plot (thankfully!). When I read the summary of Vanity Fair, I was led to believe that it was all about Becky Sharp and that it was her story alone. Although you could argue in the end, it really is all about Becky and how she manipulates people, the characters of Amelia and Dobbin are too well-developed and interesting to play second fiddle to the scheming Becky. In summary, Vanity Fair has more depth, wit, and honesty than your typical Victorian novel, so I highly recommend it!
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