Vanity Fair

Overview

"Deserves its spot in the top 10 if only for the wonderful Becky Sharp." —Sarah Waters, in "Sarah Waters's top 10 Victorian novels," The Guardian

"I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year." Becky Sharp is a poor orphan when she first makes friends with the lovely Amelia Sedley at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies. She may not have the natural advantages of her companion but she more than makes up for it with her wit, charm, deviousness, and determination to make a success of herself whatever the cost. The story of Becky’s spectacular rise and fall sees her gamble, manipulate, and seduce her way through high society and the Napoleonic wars.

Reviews

"The best thing he ever wrote—sharp, brilliant, touching, clever, and cruel, with an unforgettable heroine."  —Joanna Trollope, author, Marrying the Mistress

Author Biography

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was a satirist who wrote such works as Catherine, The FitzBoodle Papers, The Luck of Barry Lyndon, and The Snobs of England before he published his masterpiece, Vanity Fair, in 1847.