Vanity Fair

- By William Makepeace Thackeray
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English novelist and illustrator (1811–1863) "Thackeray" redirects here. For other uses, see Bal Thackeray and Thackeray (disambiguation). William Makepeace Thackeray1855 daguerreotype of William Makepeace Thackeray by Jesse Harrison WhitehurstBorn(1811-07-18)18 July 1811Calcutta, British IndiaDied24 December 1863(1863-12-24) (aged 52)London, EnglandOccupationNovelistpoetNationalityEnglishEducationCharterhouse SchoolAlma materTrinity College, CambridgePeriod1829–1863GenreHistorical fictionNotable worksVanity Fair, The Luck of Barry LyndonSpouseIsabella Gethin ShaweChildren3; including Anne and HarrietSignature William Makepeace Thackeray (/ˈθækəri/ THAK-ər-ee; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of British society, and the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, which was adapted for a 1975 film by Stanley Kubrick. Thackeray was born in Calcutta, British India, and was sent to England after his father's death in 1815. He studied at various schools and briefly attended Trinity College, Cambridge, before leaving to travel Europe. Thackeray squandered much of his inheritance on gambling and unsuccessful newspapers. He turned to journalism to support his family, primarily working for Fraser's Magazine, The Times, and Punch. His wife Isabella suffered from mental illness, leaving Thackeray a de facto widower. Thackeray gained fame with his novel Vanity Fair and produced several other notable works. He unsuccessfully ran for Parliament in 1857 and edited the Cornhill Magazine in 1860. Thackeray's health declined due to excessive eating, drinking, and lack of exercise. He died from a stroke at the age of fifty-two. Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, gaining popularity through works that showcased his fondness for roguish characters. He is best known for Vanity Fair, featuring Becky Sharp, and The Luck of Barry Lyndon. Thackeray's early works were marked by savage attacks on high society, military prowess, marriage, and hypocrisy, often written under various pseudonyms. His writing career began with satirical sketches like The Yellowplush Papers. Thackeray's later novels, such as Pendennis and The Newcomes, reflected a mellowing in his tone, focusing on the coming of age of characters and critical portrayals of society. During the Victorian era, Thackeray was ranked second to Charles Dickens but is now primarily known for Vanity Fair. Biography[edit] Thackeray, an only child, was born in Calcutta,[a] British India, where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 – 13 September 1815), was secretary to the Board of Revenue in the East India Company. His mother, Anne Becher (1792–1864), was the second daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher, who was also a secretary (writer) for the East India Company.[1] His father was a grandson of Thomas Thackeray (1693–1760), headmaster of Harrow School.[2] Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England that same year, while she remained in India. The ship on which he travelled made a short stopover at Saint Helena, where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. Once in England, he was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick, and then at Charterhouse School, where he became a close friend of John Leech. Thackeray disliked Charterhouse,[3] and parodied it in his fiction as "Slaughterhouse". Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with a monument after his death. Illness in his last year there, during which he reportedly grew to his full height of six-foot three, postponed his matriculation at Trinity College, Cambridge, until February 1829.[citation needed] Never very keen on academic studies, Thackeray left Cambridge in 1830, but some of his earliest published writing appeared in two university periodicals, The Snob and The Gownsman.[4] Self Caricature by Thackeray Thackeray then travelled for some time on the continent, visiting Paris and Weimar, where he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He returned to England and began to study law at the Middle Temple, but soon gave that up. On reaching age 21, he came into his inheritance from his father, but he squandered much of it on gambling and on funding two unsuccessful newspapers, The National Standard and The Constitutional, for which he had hoped to write. He also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. Forced to consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue it, except in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings.[citation needed] Thackeray's years of semi-idleness ended on 20 August 1836, when he married Isabella Gethin Shawe (1816–1894), second daughter of Isabella Creagh Shawe and Matthew Shawe, a colonel who had died after distinguished service, primarily in India. The Thackerays had three children, all daughters: Anne Isabella (1837–1919), Jane (who died at eight months old), and Harriet Marian (1840–1875), who married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor, biographer and philosopher.[citation needed] Thackeray now began "writing for his life", as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. He primarily worked for Fraser's Magazine, a sharp-witted and sharp-tongued conservative publication for which he produced art criticism, short fictional sketches, and two longer fictional works, Catherine and The Luck of Barry Lyndon. Between 1837 and 1840, he also reviewed books for The Times.[5] He was also a regular contributor to The Morning Chronicle and The Foreign Quarterly Review. Later, through his connection to the illustrator John Leech, he began writing for the newly created magazine Punch, in which he published The Snob Papers, later collected as The Book of Snobs. This work popularised the modern meaning of the word "snob".[6] Thackeray was a regular contributor to Punch between 1843 and 1854.[7] Thackeray portrayed by Eyre Crowe, 1845 In Thackeray's personal life, his wife Isabella sadly succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child in 1840. Finding that he could get no work done at home, he spent more and more time away, until September 1840, when he realised how grave his wife's condition was. Struck by guilt, he set out with his wife to Ireland. During the crossing, she threw herself from a water-closet into the sea, but she was pulled from the waters. They fled back home after a four-week battle with her mother. From November 1840 to February 1842, Isabella was in and out of professional care, as her condition waxed and waned.[2] She eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality. Thackeray desperately sought cures for her, but nothing worked, and she ended up in two different asylums in or near Paris until 1845, after which Thackeray took her back to England, where he installed her with a Mrs. Bakewell at Camberwell. Isabella outlived her husband by 30 years, in the end being cared for by a family named Thompson in Leigh-on-Sea at Southend, until her death in 1894.[8][9] After his wife's illness, Thackeray became a de facto widower, never establishing another permanent relationship. He did pursue other women, however, in particular Mrs. Jane Brookfield and Sally Baxter. In 1851, Mr. Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits or correspondence with Jane. Baxter, an American twenty years Thackeray's junior whom he met during a lecture tour in New York City in 1852, married another man in 1855.[citation needed] In the early 1840s, Thackeray had some success with two travel books, The Paris Sketch Book and The Irish Sketch Book, the latter marked by its hostility towards Irish Catholics. However, as the book appealed to anti-Irish sentiment in Britain at the time, Thackeray was given the job of being Punch's Irish expert, often under the pseudonym Hibernis Hibernior ("more Irish than the Irish").[7] Thackeray became responsible for creating Punch's notoriously hostile and negative depictions of the Irish during the Great Irish Famine of 1845 to 1851.[7] Thackeray achieved more recognition with his Snob Papers (serialised 1846/7, published in book form in 1848), but the work that really established his fame was the novel Vanity Fair, which first appeared in serialised instalments beginning in January 1847. Even before Vanity Fair completed its serial run, Thackeray had become a celebrity, sought after by the very lords and ladies whom he satirised. They hailed him as the equal of Charles Dickens.[10] Portrait of William Makepeace Thackeray, c. 1863 He remained "at the top of the tree", as he put it, for the rest of his life, during which he produced several large novels, notably Pendennis, The Newcomes, and The History of Henry Esmond, despite various illnesses, including a near-fatal one that struck him in 1849 in the middle of writing Pendennis. He twice visited the United States on lecture tours during this period. Longtime Washington journalist B.P. Poore described Thackeray on one of those tours:The citizens of Washington enjoyed a rare treat when Thackeray came to deliver his lectures on the English essayists, wits, and humorists of the eighteenth century. Accustomed to the spread-eagle style of oratory too prevalent at the Capitol, they were delighted with the pleasing voice and easy manner of the burly, gray-haired, rosy-cheeked Briton, who made no gestures, but stood most of the time with his hands in his pockets, as if he were talking with friends at a cozy fireside.[11] Thackeray also gave lectures in London on the English humorists of the eighteenth century, and on the first four Hanoverian monarchs. The latter series was published in book form in 1861 as The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, Court, and Town Life .[2] In July 1857, Thackeray stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal for the city of Oxford in Parliament.[2] Although not the most fiery agitator, Thackeray was always a decided liberal in his politics, and he promised to vote for the ballot in extension of the suffrage and was ready to accept triennial parliaments.[2] He was narrowly beaten by Cardwell, who received 1,070 votes, as against 1,005 for Thackeray.[2] In 1860, Thackeray became editor of the newly established Cornhill Magazine,[12] but he was never comfortable in the role, preferring to contribute to the magazine as the writer of a column called "Roundabout Papers".[citation needed] Thackeray's health worsened during the 1850s, and he was plagued by a recurring stricture of the urethra that laid him up for days at a time. He also felt that he had lost much of his creative impetus. He worsened matters by excessive eating and drinking and avoiding exercise, though he enjoyed riding (he kept a horse). He has been described as "the greatest literary glutton who ever lived". His main activity apart from writing was "gutting and gorging".[13] He could not break his addiction to spicy peppers, further ruining his digestion. Thackeray's grave at Kensal Green Cemetery, London, photographed in 2014 On 23 December 1863, after returning from dining out and before dressing for bed, he suffered a stroke. He was found dead in his bed the following morning. His death at the age of fifty-two was unexpected and shocked his family, his friends and the reading public. An estimated 7,000 people attended his funeral at Kensington Gardens. He was buried on 29 December at Kensal Green Cemetery, and a memorial bust sculpted by Marochetti can be found in Westminster Abbey.[2] Works[edit] The Yellowplush Papers (1837) Catherine (1839–1840) A Shabby Genteel Story (1840) The Paris Sketchbook (1840) Second Funeral of Napoleon (1841) The Irish Sketchbook (1842) The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846) Mrs. Perkins's Ball (1846), under the name M. A. Titmarsh Stray Papers: Being Stories, Reviews, Verses, and Sketches (1821–1847) The Book of Snobs (1846–1848) Vanity Fair (1847–1848) Pendennis (1848–1850) Rebecca and Rowena (1850) (a parody sequel to "Ivanhoe") Men's Wives (1852) The History of Henry Esmond (1852) The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (1853) The Newcomes (1854–1855) The Rose and the Ring (1854–1855) The Virginians (1857–1859) Lovel the Widower (1860) Four Georges (1860–1861) The Adventures of Philip (1861–1862) Roundabout Papers (1863) Denis Duval (1864) Ballads (1869) Burlesques (1869) The Orphan of Pimlico (1876) Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, writing works that displayed a sneaking fondness for roguish upstarts, such as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair and the title characters of The Luck of Barry Lyndon and Catherine. In his earliest works, written under such pseudonyms as Charles James Yellowplush, Michael Angelo Titmarsh and George Savage Fitz-Boodle, he tended towards savagery in his attacks on high society, military prowess, the institution of marriage and hypocrisy. One of his earliest works, "Timbuctoo" (1829), contains a burlesque upon the subject set for the Cambridge Chancellor's Medal for English Verse. [14] (The contest was won by Tennyson with a poem of the same title, "Timbuctoo"). Thackeray's writing career really began with a series of satirical sketches now usually known as The Yellowplush Papers, which appeared in Fraser's Magazine beginning in 1837. These were adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 2009, with Adam Buxton playing Charles Yellowplush.[15] Between May 1839 and February 1840 Fraser's published the work sometimes considered Thackeray's first novel, Catherine. Originally intended as a satire of the Newgate school of crime fiction, it ended up being more of a picaresque tale. He also began work, never finished, on the novel later published as A Shabby Genteel Story. Title-page to Vanity Fair, drawn by Thackeray, who furnished the illustrations for many of his own books Along with The Luck of Barry Lyndon, Thackeray is probably best known now for Vanity Fair. Literary theorist Kornelije Kvas wrote that "the meteoric rise of the heroine of Vanity Fair Rebecca Sharp is a satirical presentation of the striving for profit, power, and social recognition of the new middle class. Old and new members of the middle class strive to emulate the lifestyle of the higher class (noblemen and landowners), and thereby to increase their material possessions and to own luxury objects. In Vanity Fair, one can observe a greater degree of violation of moral values among members of the new middle class, for the decline of morality is proportionate to the degree of closeness of the individual to the market and its laws."[16] In contrast, his large novels from the period after Vanity Fair, which were once described by Henry James as examples of "loose baggy monsters", have largely faded from view, perhaps because they reflect a mellowing in Thackeray, who had become so successful with his satires on society that he seemed to lose his zest for attacking it. These later works include Pendennis, a Bildungsroman depicting the coming of age of Arthur Pendennis, an alter ego of Thackeray, who also features as the narrator of two later novels, The Newcomes and The Adventures of Philip. The Newcomes is noteworthy for its critical portrayal of the "marriage market", while Philip is known for its semi-autobiographical depiction of Thackeray's early life, in which he partially regains some of his early satirical power. Also notable among the later novels is The History of Henry Esmond, in which Thackeray tried to write a novel in the style of the eighteenth century, a period that held great appeal for him. About this novel, there have been found evident analogies—in the fundamental structure of the plot; in the psychological outlines of the main characters; in frequent episodes; and in the use of metaphors—to Ippolito Nievo's Confessions of an Italian. Nievo wrote his novel during his stay in Milan where, in the "Ambrosiana" library, The History of Henry Esmond was available, just published.[17] Not only Esmond but also Barry Lyndon and Catherine are set in that period, as is the sequel to Esmond, The Virginians, which is set partially in North America and includes George Washington as a character who nearly kills one of the protagonists in a duel. Family[edit] Parents[edit] Thackeray's father, Richmond Thackeray, was born at South Mimms and went to India in 1798 at age sixteen as a writer (civil servant) with the East India Company. Richmond's father's name was also William Makepeace Thackeray.[18] Richmond fathered a daughter, Sarah Redfield, in 1804 with Charlotte Sophia Rudd, his possibly Eurasian mistress, and both mother and daughter were named in his will. Such liaisons were common among gentlemen of the East India Company, and it formed no bar to his later courting and marrying William's mother.[19] Anne Becher and William Makepeace Thackeray by George Chinnery, c. 1813 Thackeray's mother, Anne Becher (born 1792), was "one of the reigning beauties of the day" and a daughter of John Harmon Becher, Collector of the South 24 Parganas district (d. Calcutta, 1800), of an old Bengal civilian family "noted for the tenderness of its women". Anne Becher, her sister Harriet and their widowed mother, also Harriet, had been sent back to India by her authoritarian guardian grandmother, Ann Becher, in 1809 on the Earl Howe. Anne's grandmother had told her that the man she loved, Henry Carmichael-Smyth, an ensign in the Bengal Engineers whom she met at an Assembly Ball in 1807 in Bath, had died, while he was told that Anne was no longer interested in him. Neither of these assertions was true. Though Carmichael-Smyth was from a distinguished Scottish military family, Anne's grandmother went to extreme lengths to prevent their marriage. Surviving family letters state that she wanted a better match for her granddaughter.[20] Anne Becher and Richmond Thackeray were married in Calcutta on 13 October 1810. Their only child, William, was born on 18 July 1811.[21] There is a fine miniature portrait of Anne Becher Thackeray and William Makepeace Thackeray, aged about two, done in Madras by George Chinnery c. 1813.[22] Anne's family's deception was unexpectedly revealed in 1812, when Richmond Thackeray unwittingly invited the supposedly dead Carmichael-Smyth to dinner. Five years later, after Richmond had died of a fever on 13 September 1815, Anne married Henry Carmichael-Smyth, on 13 March 1817. The couple moved to England in 1820, after having sent William off to school there more than three years earlier. The separation from his mother had a traumatic effect on the young Thackeray, which he discussed in his essay "On Letts's Diary" in The Roundabout Papers. Descendants[edit] Thackeray is an ancestor of the British financier Ryan Williams, and is the great-great-great-grandfather of the British comedian Al Murray[23] and author Joanna Nadin. Reputation and legacy[edit] This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Etching of Thackeray, c. 1867 During the Victorian era Thackeray was ranked second only to Charles Dickens, but he is now much less widely read and is known almost exclusively for Vanity Fair, which has become a fixture in university courses, and has been repeatedly adapted for the cinema and television. In Thackeray's own day some commentators, such as Anthony Trollope, ranked his History of Henry Esmond as his greatest work, perhaps because it expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, as did some of his other later novels. It is perhaps for this reason that they have not survived as well as Vanity Fair, which satirises those values. Thackeray saw himself as writing in the realistic tradition, and distinguished his work from the exaggerations and sentimentality of Dickens. Some later commentators have accepted this self-evaluation and seen him as a realist, but others note his inclination to use eighteenth-century narrative techniques, such as digressions and direct addresses to the reader, and argue that through them he frequently disrupts the illusion of reality. The school of Henry James, with its emphasis on maintaining that illusion, marked a break with Thackeray's techniques. Indian popular Marathi politician Bal Thackeray's father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was an admirer of William; Keshav later changed his surname from Panvelkar to "Thackeray".[24][25] Charlotte Brontë dedicated the second edition of Jane Eyre to Thackeray.[26] In 1887 the Royal Society of Arts unveiled a blue plaque to commemorate Thackeray at the house at 2 Palace Green, London, that had been built for him in the 1860s.[27] It is now the location of the Israeli Embassy.[28] Thackeray's former home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, is now a restaurant named after the author.[29] Thackeray was also a member of the Albion Lodge of the Ancient Order of Druids at Oxford.[30] In popular culture[edit] Thackeray is portrayed by Michael Palin in the 2018 ITV television series Vanity Fair. Miles Jupp plays Thackeray in the 2017 film The Man Who Invented Christmas. Jonathan Keeble plays Thackery in the 2016 BBC audio drama Charlotte Brontë in Babylon. A quote from Thackeray appears in episode 7 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Thackeray's quote "Mother is the name for God" appears in the 1994 movie The Crow. Thackeray's "The Colonel" was mentioned by Anne Frank in The Diary of a Young Girl. List of works[edit] Series[edit] Arthur Pendennis The History of Henry Esmond (1852) – ISBN 0-14-143916-5 The Virginians (1857–1859) – ISBN 1-4142-3952-1 Pendennis (1848–1850) – ISBN 1-4043-8659-9 The Newcomes (1854–1855) – ISBN 0-460-87495-0 A Shabby Genteel Story (Unfinished) (1840) – ISBN 1-4101-0509-1 The Adventures of Philip (1861–1862) – ISBN 1-4101-0510-5 The Christmas Books of Mr M. A. Titmarsh Thackeray wrote and illustrated five Christmas books as "by Mr M. A. Titmarsh". They were collected under the pseudonymous title and his real name no later than 1868 by Smith, Elder & Co.[31] The Rose and the Ring was dated 1855 in its first edition, published for Christmas 1854. Mrs. Perkins's Ball (1846), as by M. A. Titmarsh Our Street Doctor Birch and His Young Friends The Kickleburys on the Rhine (Christmas 1850) – "a new picture book, drawn and written by Mr M. A. Titmarsh"[32] The Rose and the Ring (Christmas 1854) – ISBN 1-4043-2741-X Novels[edit] Catherine (1839–1840) – ISBN 1-4065-0055-0 (originally credited to "Ikey Solomons, Esq. Junior"[33]) The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) – ISBN 0-19-283628-5 Vanity Fair (1847–1848) – ISBN 0-14-062085-0 Men's Wives (1852) – ISBN 978-1-77545-023-8 Lovel the Widower Denis Duval (unfinished) (1864) – ISBN 1-4191-1561-8 Novellas[edit] Elizabeth Brownbridge Sultan Stork Little Spitz The Yellowplush Papers (1837) – ISBN 0-8095-9676-8 The Professor, loosely based on the life of Edward Dando Miss Löwe The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan The Fatal Boots Cox’s Diary The Bedford-Row Conspiracy The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond The Fitz-Boodle Papers The Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche, Esq. with his letters A Legend of the Rhine A Little Dinner at Timmins's Rebecca and Rowena (1850), a parodic sequel to Ivanhoe – ISBN 1-84391-018-7 Bluebeard's Ghost Sketches and satires[edit] The Irish Sketchbook (2 Volumes) (1843) – ISBN 0-86299-754-2 The Book of Snobs (1846–1848), which popularised that term – ISBN 0-8095-9672-5 Flore et Zephyr Roundabout Papers Some Roundabout Papers Charles Dickens in France Character Sketches Sketches and Travels in London Mr. Brown's Letters The Proser Miscellanies Play[edit] The Wolves and the Lamb Travel writing[edit] Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846), under the name Mr M. A. Titmarsh. The Paris Sketchbook (1840), featuring Roger Bontemps The Little Travels and Roadside Sketches (1840) Other non-fiction[edit] The English Humorists of the 18th Century (1853) Four Georges (1860–1861) – ISBN 978-1410203007 Roundabout Papers (1863) The Orphan of Pimlico (1876) Sketches and Travels in London Stray Papers: Being Stories, Reviews, Verses, and Sketches (1821–1847) Literary Essays The English Humorists of the 18th century: a series of lectures (1867) Ballads Miscellanies Stories Burlesques Character Sketches Critical Reviews Second Funeral of Napoleon Poems[edit] The Pigtail The Mahogany Tree (1847) See also[edit] Barry Lyndon, the 1975 film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick The Rose and the Ring, the 1986 film adaptation by Jerzy Gruza Footnotes[edit] ^ Calcutta was the capital of the British Empire in India at the time. Thackeray was born on the grounds of what is now the Armenian College & Philanthropic Academy, on the old Freeschool Street, now called Mirza Ghalib Street. References[edit] ^ Aplin, John (2010). The Inheritance of Genius : A Thackeray family biography, 1798-1875. Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth Press. ISBN 978-0718842109. OCLC 855607313. ^ a b c d e f g "Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811–1863)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). 2018. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.27155. ^ Dunton, Larkin (1896). The World and Its People. Silver, Burdett. p. 25. ^ "Thackeray, William Makepeace (THKY826WM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. ^ Simons, Gary (2007). "Thackeray's contributions to The Times". Victorian Periodicals Review. 40 (4): 332–354. doi:10.1353/vpr.2008.0002. S2CID 163798912. ^ Dabney, Ross H. (March 1980). "Review: The Book of Snob by William Makepeace Thackeray, John Sutherland". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 34 (4): 456–462, 455. doi:10.2307/2933542. JSTOR 2933542. ^ a b c Gray, Peter (23 January 2013). "Punch and the Great Famine". 18th–19th century history. History Ireland (historyireland.com). Retrieved 17 July 2019. ^ Monsarrat, Ann (1980). An Uneasy Victorian: Thackeray the man, 1811–1863. London, UK: Cassell. pp. 121, 128, 134, 161. ^ Aplin, John (2011). Memory and Legacy: A Thackeray family biography, 1876–1919. Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth. pp. 5, 136. ^ Brander, Laurence. "Thackeray, William Makepeace". Ebscohost. Britannica Biographies. Retrieved 3 June 2019. ^ Poore, Ben. Perley (1886). Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis. Vol. 1. pp. 430–431 – via Internet Archive (archive.org). ^ Pearson, Richard (1 November 2017). W.M. Thackery and the Mediated Text: Writing for periodicals in the mid-nineteenth century. Routledge. p. 289. ISBN 9781351774093 – via Google Books. ^ Wilson, Bee (27 November 1998). "Vanity Fare". New Statesman. Retrieved 4 January 2014. ^ "The Adventures of Thackeray". online exhibits. libraryharvard.edu. Harvard University. Retrieved 9 January 2022. ^ "The Yellowplush Papers". British Comedy Guide (comedy.org.uk/guide). Retrieved 9 February 2009. ^ Kvas, Kornelije (2019). The Boundaries of Realism in World Literature. Lanham, MD / Boulder, CO / New York, NY / London, UK: Lexington Books. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-7936-0910-6. ^ "Lea Slerca". leaslerca.retelinux.com. Retrieved 17 July 2019. ^ "William Makepeace Thackeray traded elephants in Sylhet". Cold Noon. 28 May 2016. ^ Menon, Anil (29 March 2006). "William Makepeace Thackeray: The Indian in the closet". Round Dice. Archived from the original on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2014 – via yet.typepad.com. ^ Alexander, Eric (2007). "Ancestry of William Thackeray". Henry Cort Father of the Iron Trade (henrycort.net). Archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2009. ^ Gilder, Jeannette Leonard; Gilder, Joseph Benson (15 May 1897). "[no title cited]". The Critic: An illustrated Monthly Review of Literature, Art, and Life. Good Literature Pub. Co. p. 335. Original from Princeton University, Digitized 18 April 2008 ^ "Rabbiting on: Ooty well preserved & flourishing". gibberandsqueak.blogspot.com (blog). 8 February 2009. ^ Cavendish, Dominic (3 March 2007). "Prime time, gentlemen, please". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Archived from the original on 28 December 2009. ^ Soutik Biswas (19 November 2012). "The legacy of Bal Thackeray". BBC. ^ Sreekumar (18 November 2012). "Why Bal Thackeray had an English surname". One India. ^ "Charlotte Brontë's dress gaffe ruled out 165 years after Thackeray dinner". The Guardian. 15 June 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2020. ^ "William Makepeace Thackeray | Novelist | Blue Plaques". English Heritage. Retrieved 21 February 2024. ^ "The Crown estate in Kensington Palace Gardens: Individual buildings | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. ^ Thackeray's, 85 London Rd, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1EA Bookatable. Downloaded 20 February 2016. ^ "Oxfordshire County Council". 11 November 2005. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2019. ^ Library records of the 1868 Smith, Elder edition differ in details. Compare WorldCat records OCLC 4413727 and OCLC 559717915 (retrieved 13 February 2020). Much the same is true of WorldCat records with earlier and later dates in the Publisher field. From one record, select "View all editions and formats" for a point of entry. ^ "Smith, Elder & Co.'s new publications". The Examiner. No. 2235. 30 November 1850. p. 778. [This transcript represents all five elements of the listing faithfully, except in the use of capital letters. In that full-column advertisement by the publisher. this book is the first of two listed under the first subheading, "New Christmas Books." The entire listing:] Mr Thackeray's New Christmas Book. The Kicklebury's on the Rhine. A new Picture Book, drawn and written by Mr M. A. Titmarsh. Price 5s. plain; 7s. 6d. coloured.  [flushright] [On the 16th. [Thus the book is listed as "forthcoming" 16 December 1850.] ^ Harden, Edgar (2003). A William Makepeace Thackeray Chronology. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-230-59857-7. Retrieved 29 June 2016 – via Google Books. Bibliography[edit] Aplin, John (ed), The Correspondence and Journals of the Thackeray Family, 5 vols., Pickering & Chatto, 2011. Aplin, John, The Inheritance of Genius – A Thackeray Family Biography, 1798–1875, Lutterworth Press, 2010. Aplin, John, Memory and Legacy – A Thackeray Family Biography, 1876–1919, Lutterworth Press, 2011. Catalan, Zelma. The Politics of Irony in Thackeray’s Mature Fiction: Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond, The Newcomes. Sofia (Bulgaria), 2010, 250 pp. Sheldon Goldfarb Catherine: A Story (The Thackeray Edition). University of Michigan Press, 1999. Ferris, Ina. William Makepeace Thackeray. Boston: Twayne, 1983. Jack, Adolphus Alfred. Thackeray: A Study. London: Macmillan, 1895. Monsarrat, Ann. An Uneasy Victorian: Thackeray the Man, 1811–1863. London: Cassell, 1980. Peters, Catherine. Thackeray’s Universe: Shifting Worlds of Imagination and Reality. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Prawer, Siegbert S.: Breeches and Metaphysics: Thackeray's German Discourse. Oxford: Legenda, 1997. Prawer, Siegbert S.: Israel at Vanity Fair: Jews and Judaism in the Writings of W. M. Thackeray. Leiden: Brill, 1992. Prawer, Siegbert S.: W. M. Thackeray's European sketch books: a study of literary and graphic portraiture. P. Lang, 2000. Ray, Gordon N. Thackeray: The Uses of Adversity, 1811–1846. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955. Ray, Gordon N. Thackeray: The Age of Wisdom, 1847–1863. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. Ritchie, H.T. Thackeray and His Daughter. Harper and Brothers, 1924. Rodríguez Espinosa, Marcos (1998) Traducción y recepción como procesos de mediación cultural: 'Vanity Fair' en España. Málaga: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Málaga. Shillingsburg, Peter. William Makepeace Thackeray: A Literary Life. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. Bloom, Abigail Burnham; Maynard, John, eds. (1994). Anne Thackeray Ritchie: Journals and letters. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press. ISBN 9780814206386. Williams, Ioan M. Thackeray. London: Evans, 1968. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Makepeace Thackeray. Wikiquote has quotations related to William Makepeace Thackeray. Wikisource has original works by or about:William Makepeace Thackeray Library resources about William Makepeace Thackeray Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Works by William Makepeace Thackeray in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by William Makepeace Thackeray at Project Gutenberg Works by or about William Makepeace Thackeray at Internet Archive Works by William Makepeace Thackeray at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Thackeray at eBooks @ Adelaide Works by William Thackeray at Poeticous PSU's Electronic Classics Series William Makepeace Thackeray site Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine On Charity and Humor, discourse on behalf of a charitable organisation Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray by Peter L. Shillingsburg "Bluebeard's Ghost" by W. M. Thackeray (1843) Archived 2 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine "The Adventures of Thackeray on his way through the World: An online exhibition at the Houghton Library Archival material at Leeds University Library William Makepeace Thackeray at Library of Congress, with 484 library catalogue records William Makepeace Thackeray Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Poems by William Makepeace Thackeray at English Poetry vteWilliam Makepeace ThackerayWorks Catherine (1839–1840) A Shabby Genteel Story (1840) The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) Mrs. Perkins's Ball (1846) Vanity Fair (1847–1848) The Book of Snobs (1846–1848) Pendennis (1848–1850) Men's Wives (1852) The History of Henry Esmond (1852) The Newcomes (1854–1855) The Rose and the Ring (1854–1855) The Virginians (1857–1859) The Adventures of Philip (1861–1862) Film andtelevision adaptations Vanity Fair (1911) Vanity Fair (1915) Colonel Newcombe, the Perfect Gentleman (1920) Vanity Fair (1922) Vanity Fair (1923) Vanity Fair (1932) Becky Sharp (1935) Vanity Fair (1967) Barry Lyndon (1975) Pierścień i róża (1986) Vanity Fair (1987) Vanity Fair (1998) Vanity Fair (2004) Vanity Fair (2018) Related Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie (daughter) vteWilliam Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity FairCharacters Becky Sharp Film 1911 1915 1922 1923 1932 Becky Sharp (1935) 2004 Television 1956–57 1967 1987 1998 2018 Stage 1946 play vte19th-century English photographers William de Wiveleslie Abney William Makepeace Thackeray Sarah Angelina Acland Anna Atkins William Bambridge Alexander Bassano Richard Beard Robert Jefferson Bingham Graystone Bird Samuel Bourne Sarah Anne Bright Samuel Buckle Julia Margaret Cameron Lewis Carroll Philip Henry Delamotte Elliott & Fry William England Roger Fenton Francis Frith Peter Wickens Fry William Hayes Norman Heathcote John Herschel Alfred Horsley Hinton Frederick Hollyer Alice Hughes Richard Keene William Edward Kilburn Martin Laroche Richard Cockle Lucas Farnham Maxwell-Lyte William Eastman Palmer & Sons William Pumphrey James Robertson Henry Peach Robinson Alfred Seaman Alice Seeley Harris Charles Shepherd Jane Martha St. John Francis Meadow Sutcliffe Constance Fox Talbot Henry Fox Talbot Eveleen Myers Henry Van der Weyde Carl Vandyk Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Chile Spain France BnF data Argentina Catalonia Germany Italy Israel Finland Belgium United States Sweden Latvia Japan Czech Republic Australia Greece Korea Croatia Netherlands 2 Poland Portugal Vatican Academics CiNii Artists MusicBrainz Photographers' Identities RKD Artists Te Papa (New Zealand) ULAN People Deutsche Biographie Trove Other NARA SNAC IdRef
CHAPTER I Chiswick Mall
While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. A black servant, who reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs as soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass plate, and as he pulled the bell at least a score of young heads were seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house. Nay, the acute observer might have recognized the little red nose of good-natured Miss Jemima Pinkerton herself, rising over some geranium pots in the window of that lady's own drawing-room.
"It is Mrs. Sedley's coach, sister," said Miss Jemima. "Sambo, the black servant, has just rung the bell; and the coachman has a new red waistcoat." "Have you completed all the necessary preparations incident to Miss Sedley's departure, Miss Jemima?" asked Miss Pinkerton herself, that majestic lady; the Semiramis of Hammersmith, the friend of Doctor Johnson, the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone herself.
"The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister," replied Miss Jemima; "we have made her a bow-pot." "Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, 'tis more genteel."
"Well, a booky as big almost as a haystack; I have put up two bottles of the gillyflower water for Mrs. Sedley, and the receipt for making it, in Amelia's box." "And I trust, Miss Jemima, you have made a copy of Miss Sedley's account. This is it, is it? Very good-ninety-three pounds, four shillings. Be kind enough to address it to John Sedley, Esquire, and to seal this billet which I have written to his lady."
In Miss Jemima's eyes an autograph letter of her sister, Miss Pinkerton, was an object of as deep veneration as would have been a letter from a sovereign. Only when her pupils quitted the establishment, or when they were about to be married, and once, when poor Miss Birch died of the scarlet fever, was Miss Pinkerton known to write personally to the parents of her pupils; and it was Jemima's opinion that if anything could console Mrs. Birch for her daughter's loss, it would be that pious and eloquent composition in which Miss Pinkerton announced the event.
In the present instance Miss Pinkerton's "billet" was to the following effect:- The Mall, Chiswick, June 15, 18 MADAM,-After her six years' residence at the Mall, I have the honour and happiness of presenting Miss Amelia Sedley to her parents, as a young lady not unworthy to occupy a fitting position in their polished and refined circle. Those virtues which characterize the young English gentlewoman, those accomplishments which become her birth and station, will not be found wanting in the amiable Miss Sedley, whose INDUSTRY and OBEDIENCE have endeared her to her instructors, and whose delightful sweetness of temper has charmed her AGED and her YOUTHFUL companions.
In music, in dancing, in orthography, in every variety of embroidery and needlework, she will be found to have realized her friends' fondest wishes. In geography there is still much to be desired; and a careful and undeviating use of the backboard, for four hours daily during the next three years, is recommended as necessary to the acquirement of that dignified DEPORTMENT AND CARRIAGE, so requisite for every young lady of FASHION.
In the principles of religion and morality, Miss Sedley will be found worthy of an establishment which has been honoured by the presence of THE GREAT LEXICOGRAPHER, and the patronage of the admirable Mrs. Chapone. In leaving the Mall, Miss Amelia carries with her the hearts of her companions, and the affectionate regards of her mistress, who has the honour to subscribe herself, Madam, Your most obliged humble servant, BARBARA PINKERTON
P.S.-Miss Sharp accompanies Miss Sedley. It is particularly requested that Miss Sharp's stay in Russell Square may not exceed ten days. The family of distinction with whom she is engaged, desire to avail themselves of her services as soon as possible.
This letter completed, Miss Pinkerton proceeded to write her own name, and Miss Sedley's, in the fly-leaf of a Johnson's Dictionary-the interesting work which she invariably presented to her scholars, on their departure from the Mall. On the cover was inserted a copy of "Lines addressed to a young lady on quitting Miss Pinkerton's school, at the Mall; by the late revered Doctor Samuel Johnson." In fact, the Lexicographer's name was always on the lips of this majestic woman, and a visit he had paid to her was the cause of her reputation and her fortune.
Being commanded by her elder sister to get "the Dictionary" from the cupboard, Miss Jemima had extracted two copies of the book from the receptacle in question. When Miss Pinkerton had finished the inscription in the first, Jemima, with rather a dubious and timid air, handed her the second. "For whom is this, Miss Jemima?" said Miss Pinkerton, with awful coldness. "For Becky Sharp," answered Jemima, trembling very much, and blushing over her withered face and neck, as she turned her back on her sister. "For Becky Sharp: she's going too."
"MISS JEMIMA!" exclaimed Miss Pinkerton, in the largest capitals. "Are you in your senses? Replace the Dixonary in the closet, and never venture to take such a liberty in future." "Well, sister, it's only two-and-ninepence, and poor Becky will be miserable if she don't get one." "Send Miss Sedley instantly to me," said Miss Pinkerton. And so venturing not to say another word, poor Jemima trotted off, exceedingly flurried and nervous.
Miss Sedley's papa was a merchant in London, and a man of some wealth; whereas Miss Sharp was an articled pupil, for whom Miss Pinkerton had done, as she thought, quite enough, without conferring upon her at parting the high honour of the Dixonary. Although schoolmistresses' letters are to be trusted no more nor less than churchyard epitaphs; yet, as it sometimes happens that a person departs this life who is really deserving of all the praises the stone cutter carves over his bones; who IS a good Christian, a good parent, child, wife, or husband; who actually DOES leave a disconsolate family to mourn his loss; so in academies of the male and female sex it occurs every now and then that the pupil is fully worthy of the praises bestowed by the disinterested instructor. Now, Miss Amelia Sedley was a young lady of this singular species; and deserved not only all that Miss Pinkerton said in her praise, but had many charming qualities which that pompous old Minerva of a woman could not see, from the differences of rank and age between her pupil and herself.
For she could not only sing like a lark, or a Mrs. Billington, and dance like Hillisberg or Parisot; and embroider beautifully; and spell as well as a Dixonary itself; but she had such a kindly, smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own, as won the love of everybody who came near her, from Minerva herself down to the poor girl in the scullery, and the one-eyed tart-woman's daughter, who was permitted to vend her wares once a week to the young ladies in the Mall. She had twelve intimate and bosom friends out of the twenty-four young ladies. Even envious Miss Briggs never spoke ill of her; high and mighty Miss Saltire (Lord Dexter's granddaughter) allowed that her figure was genteel; and as for Miss Swartz, the rich woolly-haired mulatto from St. Kitt's, on the day Amelia went away, she was in such a passion of tears that they were obliged to send for Dr. Floss, and half tipsify her with salvolatile. Miss Pinkerton's attachment was, as may be supposed from the high position and eminent virtues of that lady, calm and dignified; but Miss Jemima had already whimpered several times at the idea of Amelia's departure; and, but for fear of her sister, would have gone off in downright hysterics, like the heiress (who paid double) of St. Kitt's. Such luxury of grief, however, is only allowed to parlour-boarders. Honest Jemima had all the bills, and the washing, and the mending, and the puddings, and the plate and crockery, and the servants to superintend. But why speak about her? It is probable that we shall not hear of her again from this moment to the end of time, and that when the great filigree iron gates are once closed on her, she and her awful sister will never issue therefrom into this little world of history.
But as we are to see a great deal of Amelia, there is no harm in saying, at the outset of our acquaintance, that she was a dear little creature; and a great mercy it is, both in life and in novels, which (and the latter especially) abound in villains of the most sombre sort, that we are to have for a constant companion so guileless and good-natured a person. As she is not a heroine, there is no need to describe her person; indeed I am afraid that her nose was rather short than otherwise, and her cheeks a great deal too round and red for a heroine; but her face blushed with rosy health, and her lips with the freshest of smiles, and she had a pair of eyes which sparkled with the brightest and honestest good-humour, except indeed when they filled with tears, and that was a great deal too often; for the silly thing would cry over a dead canary-bird; or over a mouse, that the cat haply had seized upon; or over the end of a novel, were it ever so stupid; and as for saying an unkind word to her, were any persons hard-hearted enough to do so-why, so much the worse for them. Even Miss Pinkerton, that austere and godlike woman, ceased scolding her after the first time, and though she no more comprehended sensibility than she did Algebra, gave all masters and teachers particular orders to treat Miss Sedley with the utmost gentleness, as harsh treatment was injurious to her.
So that when the day of departure came, between her two customs of laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act. She was glad to go home, and yet most woefully sad at leaving school. For three days before, little Laura Martin, the orphan, followed her about like a little dog. She had to make and receive at least fourteen presents-to make fourteen solemn promises of writing every week: "Send my letters under cover to my grandpapa, the Earl of Dexter," said Miss Saltire (who, by the way, was rather shabby). "Never mind the postage, but write every day, you dear darling," said the impetuous and woolly-headed, but generous and affectionate Miss Swartz; and the orphan little Laura Martin (who was just in round-hand), took her friend's hand and said, looking up in her face wistfully, "Amelia, when I write to you I shall call you Mamma." All which details, I have no doubt, JONES, who reads this book at his Club, will pronounce to be excessively foolish, trivial, twaddling, and ultra-sentimental. Yes; I can see Jones at this minute (rather flushed with his joint of mutton and half pint of wine), taking out his pencil and scoring under the words "foolish, twaddling," &c., and adding to them his own remark of "QUITE TRUE." Well, he is a lofty man of genius, and admires the great and heroic in life and novels; and so had better take warning and go elsewhere.
Well, then. The flowers, and the presents, and the trunks, and bonnet-boxes of Miss Sedley having been arranged by Mr. Sambo in the carriage, together with a very small and weather-beaten old cow's-skin trunk with Miss Sharp's card neatly nailed upon it, which was delivered by Sambo with a grin, and packed by the coachman with a corresponding sneer-the hour for parting came; and the grief of that moment was considerably lessened by the admirable discourse which Miss Pinkerton addressed to her pupil. Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous, and tedious; and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief. A seed-cake and a bottle of wine were produced in the drawing-room, as on the solemn occasions of the visits of parents, and these refreshments being partaken of, Miss Sedley was at liberty to depart.
"You'll go in and say good-by to Miss Pinkerton, Becky!" said Miss Jemima to a young lady of whom nobody took any notice, and who was coming downstairs with her own bandbox. "I suppose I must," said Miss Sharp calmly, and much to the wonder of Miss Jemima; and the latter having knocked at the door, and receiving permission to come in, Miss Sharp advanced in a very unconcerned manner, and said in French, and with a perfect accent, "Mademoiselle, je viens vous faire mes adieux."
Miss Pinkerton did not understand French; she only directed those who did: but biting her lips and throwing up her venerable and Roman-nosed head (on the top of which figured a large and solemn turban), she said, "Miss Sharp, I wish you a good morning." As the Hammersmith Semiramis spoke, she waved one hand, both by way of adieu, and to give Miss Sharp an opportunity of shaking one of the fingers of the hand which was left out for that purpose.
Miss Sharp only folded her own hands with a very frigid smile and bow, and quite declined to accept the proffered honour; on which Semiramis tossed up her turban more indignantly than ever. In fact, it was a little battle between the young lady and the old one, and the latter was worsted. "Heaven bless you, my child," said she, embracing Amelia, and scowling the while over the girl's shoulder at Miss Sharp. "Come away, Becky," said Miss Jemima, pulling the young woman away in great alarm, and the drawing-room door closed upon them for ever.
Then came the struggle and parting below. Words refuse to tell it. All the servants were there in the hall-all the dear friends-all the young ladies-the dancing-master who had just arrived; and there was such a scuffling, and hugging, and kissing, and crying, with the hysterical YOOPS of Miss Swartz, the parlour-boarder, from her room, as no pen can depict, and as the tender heart would fain pass over. The embracing was over; they parted-that is, Miss Sedley parted from her friends. Miss Sharp had demurely entered the carriage some minutes before. Nobody cried for leaving HER.
Sambo of the bandy legs slammed the carriage door on his young weeping mistress. He sprang up behind the carriage. "Stop!" cried Miss Jemima, rushing to the gate with a parcel. "It's some sandwiches, my dear," said she to Amelia. "You may be hungry, you know; and Becky, Becky Sharp, here's a book for you that my sister-that is, I-Johnson's Dixonary, you know; you mustn't leave us without that. Good-by. Drive on, coachman. God bless you!"
And the kind creature retreated into the garden, overcome with emotion. But, lo! and just as the coach drove off, Miss Sharp put her pale face out of the window and actually flung the book back into the garden.
This almost caused Jemima to faint with terror. "Well, I never"-said she-"what an audacious"-Emotion prevented her from completing either sentence. The carriage rolled away; the great gates were closed; the bell rang for the dancing lesson. The world is before the two young ladies; and so, farewell to Chiswick Mall.

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Word Lists:

Bandy : (of a person's legs) curved so as to be wide apart at the knees

Filigree : ornamental work of fine (typically gold or silver) wire formed into delicate tracery

Scullery : a small kitchen or room at the back of a house used for washing dishes and other dirty household work.

Orthography : the conventional spelling system of a language

Turban : a man's headdress, consisting of a long length of cotton or silk wound around a cap or the head, worn especially by Muslims and Sikhs.

Genteel : polite, refined, or respectable, often in an affected or ostentatious way

Guileless : devoid of guile; innocent and without deception

Crockery : plates, dishes, cups, and other similar items, especially ones made of earthenware or china.

Pompous : affectedly and irritatingly grand, solemn, or self-important

Pupil : a student in school

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Additional Information:

Rating: C Words in the Passage: 2719 Unique Words: 962 Sentences: 110
Noun: 785 Conjunction: 283 Adverb: 144 Interjection: 5
Adjective: 215 Pronoun: 212 Verb: 414 Preposition: 327
Letter Count: 12,166 Sentiment: Positive / Positive / Positive Tone: Neutral Difficult Words: 596
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