Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics)

This novel illustrates well the destructive power of vanity and selfishness. I find it more interesting when you consider the background of the author. His father died when Thackeray was six years old. As he was being sent back to England at that time, the ship stopped at the Isle of St. Helena, where Napoleon was pointed out to him wasting away in prison. When Thackeray finally received his father's inheritance at the age of 21 he squandered the money with gambling.

Love, love, love this book!! So many great characters, so little time. Two girls, one rich and one poor. But fate has such a great sense of humor, doesn't it? The lives of these two girls, as they grow up to become married ladies, intertwine throughout this great story. Each character is so well developed, I actually thought I knew them!! A must read, and if you've already read it, well I think it's definitely worth reading again!

I liked the plot very much. However, there were a lot of words given to people, places, and events that have nothing to do with the plot itself. I'm sure they were meant to critique the characters, but as I know nothing about that time period in England it was lost on me. Those lengthy passages made it hard for me to get through the book.

This is a great book, well written and a wonderful story. The first time I attempted to read it I thought it slow and kind of boring. Then I watched the movie with Reese Witherspoon and fell in love with the story! After that I was able to read the book and I understood it so much more. Worth the download!

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!

Loved the story and writing.but did not understand everything. I need to do some research and read it again. Thackeray has a great sense of humour and knowledge of nationalities and accents. I will read it again and learn more. His support of women and their downtrodden lives is also greatly appreciated.

My 5 stars are for Thackeray and his timeless creation. As for the free Kindle version, I'd recommend to grab it, then head over to the Audible site and get the very good John Castle narrated audiobook for the discounted price (because you "bought" the Kindle version), and then stay away from the Kindle version, which is liberally speckled with typos! Just one example, near the end of chapter 41: "Pitt accompanied them with four horses in the carriage to Mudbury". In the Kindle version carriage has become "carnage"!). I noticed these many mistakes while listening to the audiobook version while following along on the Kindle. There's another case where one character's name has been replaced by another. I'd recommend heading over to "Ebooks at Adelaide" to find a much better (and downloadable) free version! To top it off, there are wonderful original illustrations in their version.

sometimes satire doesn't age well, but somehow Thackeray stays fresh: I guess striving and deceit are evergreen subjects. Becky Sharp, talented, funny, musical, brave and remorseless would have been maybe just a little less wicked and no doubt much more successful in today's media world.