or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
82 used & new from £0.16
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by William Thackeray (Author), John Carey (Introduction) "While the present century was in its teens, and on one sun-shiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £5.73 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.26 (36%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 24? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
48 new from £3.74 34 used from £0.16
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (New edition) 7 used & new from £0.50

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics) + Middlemarch (Wordsworth Classics) + The Mill on the Floss (Wordsworth Classics)
Price For All Three: £9.71

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Mill on the Floss (Wordsworth Classics)

The Mill on the Floss (Wordsworth Classics)

by George Eliot
4.4 out of 5 stars (10)  £1.99
The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character (Penguin Classics)

The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character (Penguin Classics)

by Thomas Hardy
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £5.24
David Copperfield: Personal History of David Copperfield: The Personal History of David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)

David Copperfield: Personal History of David Copperfield: The Personal History of David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)

by Charles Dickens
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £5.96
Barry Lyndon (Oxford World's Classics)

Barry Lyndon (Oxford World's Classics)

by William Makepeace Thackeray
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £5.99
Middlemarch (Wordsworth Classics)

Middlemarch (Wordsworth Classics)

by George Eliot
4.5 out of 5 stars (23)  £1.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 912 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Rev Ed edition (30 Jan 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141439831
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141439839
  • Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 13 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 36,381 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > The Classics > Thackeray, William Makepeace
    #2 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Key Critics > Carey, John

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

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 class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles - military and domestic - are fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin with his devotion to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to Thackeray's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure.


About the Author

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was born and educated to be a gentleman but gambled away much of his fortune while at Cambridge. He trained as a lawyer before turning to journalism. He was a regular contributor to periodicals and magazines and Vanity Fair was serialised in Punch in 1847-8. John Carey is Professor of English at Oxford University. He has written on Dickens and Thackeray.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
While the present century was in its teens, and on one sun-shiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall,1 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. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(2)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics)
70% buy the item featured on this page:
Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics) 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£5.73
Vanity Fair (Wordsworth Classics)
16% buy
Vanity Fair (Wordsworth Classics) 4.6 out of 5 stars (11)
£1.99
Vanity Fair (Penguin Popular Classics)
8% buy
Vanity Fair (Penguin Popular Classics) 3.7 out of 5 stars (12)
£2.00
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without A Hero (Oxford World's Classics)
4% buy
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without A Hero (Oxford World's Classics)
£4.79
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, and rightly so!, 10 Jun 2008
By Didier (Ghent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Although I have 'known of' this book for over 20 years it wasn't until the age of 43 (i.e. now) that I finally got around to reading it. On the one hand, now that I have read it, I am sorry I didn't do so earlier. On the other hand, perhaps at a younger age I wouldn't have derived the same amount of pleasure? Whatever the case, I cannot say other than that this is a stunningly good book.

The most striking point to me was how little (if anything) has changed beyond the way we dress, eat, communicate etc. (in a word: outer appearances) since the 1840s when 'Vanity Fair' was written. Most of us (and I readily include myself) are still as anxious as then to be upwardly mobile in society, to be 'noticed', to belong to that select group of people enjoying high status (by the way, 'Status anxiety' by Alain De Botton is a sort of 'perfect companion' to Vanity Fair).

In itself, though there are dozens of secondary characters, the plot is simple, using two contrasting pairs: George Osborne, the archetypical cad, marries Amelia Sedley while, unbeknownst to him and her, his good friend William Dobbin is infatuated with Amelia. Meanwhile, the 'upstart' Becky Sharp marries Rawdon Crawley (dissolute son of a stingy Baronet) and starts clawing her way up to the best circles of London society. Whereas Amelia's fortune is definitely on the decline, Becky at first seems to succeed in her objective.

To me, the real 'hero' however of the book society at large such as Thackeray describes it ('dissects' would perhaps be a more apt term). At times with subtle irony, at times with scathing sarcasm he describes how crooked the accepted moral codes of the day were, how ruthless and ultimately futile this frantic struggle to get ever more money, fame, respect, ...

All in all a very illuminating book, as relevant today if not more than in the 1840s.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The forgotten classic, 18 May 2003
Vanity Fair is a novel which suffered greatly for the period in which it was released, though it is probably the only the novel that can challenge War and Peace. Thackery is by far one of the most under-rated authors not only of the time but also of all time: A Post-modernist before Modernism. It is a novel which takes a radical and lengthy habit which never seems to arrive at it's end point but leaves you exhausted from the journey.

There is an essence of Greek tragedy in the work and like all great tragedies leaves you wishing for a different ending. It has often been described as a "novel with an anonyms" protagonist but one whom you fall in love with: A book that defined an era of literature, which had not yet been conceived.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject























i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.