Reviews

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

patsmith139's review against another edition

5.0

A very readable tale that had me up late in the night to arrive at the very satisfactory ending. The novel is tightly structured, with some fabulous 'set pieces' and sparking dialogue. Thackeray himself is very present; he introduces himself at the very beginning of the book as 'the Manager of the Performance' and certainly doesn't leave the reader in any doubt as to his thoughts on his characters. They are by no means simply as good or bad as they first seem and his star creation, Becky Sharpe, is quite clearly intelligent, vital, entertaining and is cheerful in any and every circumstance in which she finds herself. Some of the worst slurs on her character actually don't ring true and she clearly comes to despise High Society just as she achieves her greatest triumphs in it. He finds her as fascinating as does almost every other character in the novel and though he never refers to it directly (no doubt due to the sensibilities of the time) we imagine she gets nearly as low as a lady possibly can. His asides on Becky's seemingly angelic friend Amelia, also show he loses patience with her martyrdom on many occasions.
We can see Vanity Fair as an allegory or moral fable that reveals certain universal truths about the human condition. Many of the minor characters actually have names that denote their personal circumstances or moral attributes. For instance, Tom Eaves, a gossip, is a combination of 'peeping Tom' and 'eavesdropper'. The Crawleys are prepared to do just that to gain admittance to the rank of society above the small gentry where they find themselves. Meanwhile, some of the names of the families over in the European phase of the novel are just plain hilarious in their pomposity.
But it is Becky Sharpe that is the star of the show. She is one of the great female characters in English literature. She may be wicked but it is difficult not to forgive her, to see that sparkle in her eyes and be dazzled by her vitality. 'She runs away with the author's intention (and) steals the show'. (Gilbert Phelps, from the introduction of my very ancient Pan edition of Vanity Fair)

ladyreading365's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.0

evgeorge's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

lolal_b's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

katiebhastings's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jessicakate14's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Absolutely loved the ending. I was worried for a second that it all wasn’t worth it but it was 

cheries35plus's review against another edition

3.0

A soap opera from the early 1800s. Tons of unhappy marriages and unlucky at love. Full of gossip and manipulative, self-righteous people seeking social status. High social status cannot be obtained unless you have tons of money. If you are poor, you are a social leper, despite whether you are moral and have a good heart. Wealth enables parents to bend their children to their ways or face being disowned or cut out of the will. This started out well and quite funny, telling us the contrasting personalities of Amelia and Rebecca. One saintly, the other selfish and manipulative. The middle of the story really lagged and got long winded. I started this as an audio book, but several chapters in, I started getting confused, so I swapped over to an ebook. Honestly, there were parts that went over my head, even while using my Kindle dictionary and Kindle translator for the French. The writer swapped titles of characters and swapped pronouns from one paragraph to the next, so it got confusing on who the author was meaning. Plus, there were times one sentence may be eight to twelve lines long. There were a lot of Crawley family members that I got confused on who they were. I can not remember struggling to understand a classic the way I struggled with this one. Thankfully, the end of the story picked back up to regain my interest. I bet this was a better read when at the time it was published as a weekly installments. I bet this was a big hit in it's day and some readers were probably shocked by it's soap opera storyline.

cami19's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

truffe's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

madeleinesbookshelf's review against another edition

funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0