Questions
1. Why would someone want to be accepted by the social set to which Becky Sharp aspires? What is the attraction?
2. Does the novel leave one essentially sympathetic or antipathetic to Becky Sharp?
3. Does Thackeray leave the reader with an inclusive theory of what shapes, motivates, or drives a whole society to become what it is? Is it the example of great men and women? Providence? Vanity?
4. Find what you feel is a characteristic passage of Thackeray‘s prose. Analyze it for tone and attitude. Can you explain how he achieves that tone and that attitude? Think about word choice, rhythm, allusions, sentence structure, and other elements.
FOR FURTHER READING
Biographies
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.
Ray, Gordon. Thackeray: The Uses of Adversity, 1811-1846. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955.
——. Thackeray: The Age of Wisdom, 1847-1863. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958. These two volumes by Gordon Ray are still the definitive biography of Thackeray, relying heavily on his letters and journals.
Taylor, D. J. Thackeray. London: Chatto and Windus,1999. The most recent Thackeray biography, a full and in many places interestingly interpre tive version of the life.
Criticism
Carey, John. Thackeray: Prodigal Genius. London: Faber, 1977.
Carlisle, Janice. The Sense of an Audience: Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot at Mid-Century. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981. Crucial study of Thackerayan rhetoric and its attempt to engage the varied reading public of the author‘s time.
Colby, Robert. Thackeray‘s Canvass of Humanity: An Author and His Public. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1979.
Harden, Edgar. The Emergence of Thackeray‘s Serial Fiction. Athens: University of Georgia Press,1979.
Hardy, Barbara. The Exposure of Luxury: Radical Themes in Thackeray. London: Peter Owen, 1972. The most convincing critical account of Thackeray as radical, revisionary novelist.
Litvak, Joseph. Strange Gourmets: Sophistication, Theory, and the Novel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997. Contains a key chapter on Vanity Fair, perhaps the most important recent critical work on the novel and social anxieties.
Loofbourow, John. Thackeray and the Form of Fiction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,1964.
Lund, Michael. Reading Thackeray. Detroit. MI: Wayne State University Press, 1988.
McMaster, Juliet. Thackeray: The Major Novels. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971. The most comprehensive and critically balanced account of Thackeray‘s major productions, including a lengthy reading of Vanity Fair.
Shillingsburg, Peter. Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W M. Thackeray. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press,1992. Interesting, detailed study of Thackeray‘s full and complex engagement with the conditions of the Victorian book and magazine market.
Sutherland, John A. Thackeray at Work. London: Athlone Press, 1974. Careful, helpful analysis of Thackeray‘s manuscripts and what they tell us about his working methods.
——, and Oscar Mandel. Annotations to Vanity Fair. Lanham, MD: University Press of America,1988. Second edition. Invaluable resource for understanding the novel‘s wide allusiveness.
Tillotson, Geoffrey, and Donald Hawes, eds. Thackeray: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968. A compendium of Thackeray criticism from the beginning of his career to after his death; an invaluable resource for a consideration of the history of Thackeray‘s reception.
a Mythical Babylonian queen renowned for both wisdom and loveliness.
b Pupil who performed work in return for her education.
c Handwriting style taught to beginning students.
d I have come to say good-bye to you (French).
e Prow of a small boat.
f Primary bohemian district of nineteenth-century London.
g Term for a ballet dancer’s leap.
h Bill collector.
i Young innocent woman.
j Both former presidents of the Royal Academy of Art.
k Colloquial term for Englishmen whose wealth derives from India.
l Slang term for a fashionable young man.
m Rickshaw or litter carried by several men.
n Also known as pilaf, a spiced Eastern dish of rice and meat.
o Lover of archery.
p One who loves life (French); a gourmand.
q Self-love (French); vanity.
r Subhuman creature from Shakespeare‘s The Tempest.
s Derisive, slang English term for Napoleon Bonaparte.
t Lined (French). ‡Popular euphemism for a wife‘s browbeating of her husband at bedtime.
u Face to face (French); in private.
v Slang term for being given money by an elder.
w Footware (French).
x Reference to William Howell‘s eighteenth-century Medulla Historiae Angli canae.
y Wet screens or mats fanned to cool the air.
z Elephant-driver.
aa Assistants to a general (French).
ab Longing for love (German).
ac Italian terms for “tears,” “sighs,” and “happiness,” common in the operas of Donizetti.
ad Term for work-hours in India.
ae Love letter (French).
af Indian term for a small lunch.
ag Slang expression meaning “of our regiment.”
ah Hardbake : almond toffee; polonies: pork sausages.
ai Assistant to the schoolmaster.
aj The beginner‘s class.
ak Edmund Kean and Charles Kemble were leading actors on the British stage in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.
al Reference to an early section in the Eton Latin grammar textbook.
am Allusions to famous stories in The Arabian Nights‘ Entertainments (see end-note 3).
an Rum-based citrus drink.
ao Prestigious private boarding school.
ap A kind of whip.
aq Gathering for combat (French).
ar Sir William Napier (1785-1860), general and historian of the British Peninsular War against the French.
as popular weekly sporting newspaper.
at References to the Battle of Waterloo, the final defeat of Napoleon, in June 1815.
au Popular French romance about the son of Odysseus.
av Latin for William.
aw The native servant in Daniel Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe.
ax Songbook for children.
ay Conquering (French); the look of a conqueror or seducer.
az Ah, handsome sir! (French).
ba Upper-class residential district in London‘s West End.
bb Chambermaid (French).
bc Master of ceremonies at Vauxhall Gardens in 1813.
bd Well-known singer in the early nineteenth century.
be One too many (French); unnecessary.
bf Alcoholic drink composed of various ingredients.
bg Mistress of Henry II, popularly believed to have been poisoned by Queen Eleanor.
bh Eighteenth-century authority on classical history.
bi Popular late-eighteenth-century figure well known for his obesity.
bj Black American boxer who fought losing bouts against the English champion Cribb in 1810 and 1811.
bk Reference to the old story of Bluebeard, in which Anne, the sister of Bluebeard‘s wife, awaits in a watch-tower the arrival of their brothers, who will save her sister‘s life.
bl Reticules: small knit bags;fichus: shawls; fallals: general term for feminine finery.
bm Abbreviation for Hampshire.
bn Term for an underpopulated district with guaranteed Parliamentary representation prior to the Reform Bill of 1832.
bo Tablet displaying the heraldic c
rest of the deceased.
bp Wages for a servant‘s food and drink during the absence of a master.
bq Reference to the Bible, 2 Kings 9:30-37, in which Jehu throws Ahab‘s queen, Jezebel, from a window, killing her.
br Coachman‘s seat, atop the carriage.
bs Large overcoat.
bt Homes for retired or disabled soldiers and sailors, respectively.
bu The coachman father of Dickens‘s Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837).
bv Ancient Mesopotamian city.
bw Richard the Lion-Hearted, twelfth-century British king.
bx Eighteenth-century criminal, whose fame was spread by W. H. Ainsworth‘s Jack Sheppard (1839).
by Alexander the Great‘s horse.
bz Dick Turpin‘s horse in Ainsworth‘s Rookwood (1834).
ca As an M.P., Sir Pitt can “frank” mail—that is, send it for free.
cb The hero of Evelina (1778), by Frances (Fanny) Burney, who also wrote the aforementioned Cecilia (1782).
cc Student at Cambridge University.
cd Distraining: forcing a debtor to sell possessions; selling up: auctioning a debtor‘s possessions.
ce Deep plowing.
cf Methuselah, the oldest biblical personage; see Genesis 5:27.
cg Exile them to a penal colony.
ch That is, he has sold the manorial privilege to select a candidate for a vacant church position.
ci Incarcerate.
cj Queen Elizabeth I.
ck Reference to Ann Radcliffe‘s Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794).
cl Traditional name for a patient, suffering wife.
cm French terms: mutton and turnips, Scottish mutton soup, boiled potatoes, and boiled cauliflower.
cn Full glass.
co A clown suit and a clergyman‘s traditional hat, respectively.
cp Copper coins.
cq Oh, rascal! Oh, monster! (French).
cr Despicable Englishmen (French).
cs Greek mythological figure, a leering old drunk.
ct Unfortunate marriage (French).
cu To cede precedence to out of courtesy (French).
cv Goose-liver paté-that is, frivolousness.
cw William Wilberforce was a leading evangelical abolitionist in Britain in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.
cx A binnacle is a housing for a ship‘s compass.
cy desirous of another‘s possessions, but wasteful of his own (Latin).
cz Periodically updated guide to the genealogies of the British nobility.
da Money under the control of a wife; here, bequeathed to her husband and son.
db Shares in the national debt, a popular form of investment.
dc Heraldic coat of arms.
dd Term for a portion of a card game.
de Spanish or Portuguese wines.
df Aristocratic French exiles.
dg Guide to the French aristocracy
dh Trictrac: backgammon; cornet: a dice-box (French).
di Idiot (Slang).
dj Wit (French).
dk Louis-Antoine-Léon de Saint-Just was a leading radical French revolutionist, guillotined in 1794.
dl charies James Fox was a prominent late-eighteenth-century aristocratic Whig (liberal) politician, famous for his gambling.
dm Form of handball.
dn A stone is a British unit of weight roughly equal to fourteen pounds.
do Hybrid potato.
dp Tool for digging.
dq New outfits (French).
dr Local courts held four times a year.
ds Acronym for the Hampshire hounds.
dt Find (French).
du Riddled with debts (French).
dv Dreary (French).
dw Richmal Mangnall‘s 1800 Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the Use of Young People.
dx Reference to Henri Herz, nineteenth-century author of instructional manuals for the piano.
dy Pretty, irregular looks (French).
dz Jacket.
ea Cape.
eb Vittoria, Spain, and Leipzig, Saxony: scenes of two major French defeats in 1813.
ec Minor French victories in early 1814.
ed In Shakespeare‘s Cymbeline, character who slanders the reputation of Imogen.
ee Genial spy in Shakespeare‘s A Midsummer Night‘s Dream.
ef To turn a sheet 90 degrees around and continue writing in order to save paper.
eg Aristocratic seducer from Mozart‘s 1787 opera of the same name.
eh Sixteenth-century Scottish polymath, immortalized in W. H. Ainsworth‘s 1837 The Admirable Crichton.
ei From Shakespeare‘s A Midsummer Night‘s Dream, in which the fairy queen, Titania, loves a weaver who wears an ass‘s head.
ej Napoleon‘s exile to the island of Elba lasted from April 1814 to March 1815.
ek Money under the sole control of a wife, usually provided as part of a dowry.
el Reference to Greek myth: Agamemnon‘s sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia to gain favorable sailing winds at the start of the Trojan War.
em Slang term for foul language, after the London fish market where such language was reputedly common.
en Slang term for a clever, shrewd man.
eo A reminder that from 1812 to 1814 Britain and the United States were at war.
ep Seat at the back of a carriage.
eq Anti-inflammatory.
er Paid female companion (French).
es Method of bleeding, which was believed to reduce fever and cure a variety of illnesses.
et Though not used per se in the Bible, “Dives” (Latin for “rich man”) is used to refer to the rich man in the story of Lazarus (Luke 16).
eu King of sixth-century B.C. Lydia; his name is associated with great wealth.
ev Fashionable card game.
ew Men only (French).
ex Slang term for wealth.
ey Toyed with (French).
ez Just between us (French).
fa I shall rise (Latin).
fb Infatuation (French).
fc Late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century French author of indecent novels.
fd Sentimental attachment (French).
fe Consumptive.
ff Give a dowry to (French).
fg Explanation (French).
fh My aunt (French).
fi Lord Eldon, lord chancellor from 1801 to 1827, famous for having eloped.
fj Heroes of Homer‘s Iliad, both of whom had noble Trojan slave mistresses.
fk Open carriage with two wheels.
fl Hercules was the slave of Omphale, queen of Lydia, for a year.
fm Colloquial for “looking to be noticed.”
fn That is, by the mail coach, which took passengers.
fo That is, Gretna Green, a Scottish border town that eased the marriages of runaway English couples.
fp Diogenes was a Greek philosopher whose name became identified with extreme asceticism.
fq Greek philosopher whose name was taken as synonymous with hedonistic excess.
fr Household (French).
fs Many men and women (Greek); name suggestive of botanical nomenclature.
ft Grain dealers.
fu Cornelia: faithful Roman wife of legend; Potiphar: Egyptian whose wife tries to seduce, then arrest, Joseph (see the Bible, Genesis 39).
fv The imperial insignia of Napoleon consisted of eagles.
fw Veils used in Islamic countries to cover women‘s faces.
Vanity Fair (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Page 96