Vanity Fair is a satirical novel by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray, which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was first published as a 19-volume monthly serial (the last containing Parts 19 and 20) from 1847 to 1848, carrying the subtitle Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, which reflects both its satirisation of early 19th-century British society and the many illustrations drawn by Thackeray to accompany the text. It was published as a single volume in 1848 with the subtitle A Novel without a Hero. It is sometimes considered the "principal founder" of the Victorian domestic novel.
The story is framed as a puppet play, and the narrator, despite being an authorial voice, is somewhat unreliable. The serial was a popular and critical success; the novel is now considered a classic and has inspired several audio, film, and television adaptations. It also inspired the title of the British lifestyle magazine first published in 1868, which became known for its caricatures of famous people of Victorian and Edwardian society. In 2003, Vanity Fair was listed at No. 122 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's best-loved books.
Title
thumb|right|A reprint of [[John Bunyan's Plan of the Road from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, including Vanity Fair as the major city along the path]]
The book's title comes from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a Dissenter allegory first published in 1678. In that work, "Vanity Fair" refers to a stop along the pilgrim's route: a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which represents man's sinful attachment to worldly things. Thackeray does not mention Bunyan in the novel or in his surviving letters about it, where he describes himself dealing with "living without God in the world",—complained that the novel could have used "more light and air" to make it "more agreeable and healthy". Thackeray rebutted this with Evangelist's words as the pilgrims entered Bunyan's Vanity Fair: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
From its appearance in Bunyan, "Vanity Fair" or a "vanity-fair" was also in general use for "the world" in a range of connotations from the blandly descriptive to the wearily dismissive to the condemning. By the 18th century, it was generally taken as a playground and, in the first half of the 19th century, more specifically the playground of the idle and undeserving rich. All of these senses appear in Thackeray's work. The name "Vanity Fair" has also been used for at least 5 periodicals.
Plot summary
The story is framed by its preface and coda as a puppet show taking place at a fair; the cover illustration of the serial installments was not of the characters but of a troupe of comic actors at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. The narrator, variously a show manager appears at times within the work itself and is somewhat unreliable, repeating a tale of gossip at second or third hand.
In London in 1814, Rebecca Sharp ("Becky"), daughter of an art teacher and a French dancer, is a strong-willed, cunning, moneyless young woman determined to make her way in society. After leaving school, Becky stays with her friend Amelia Sedley ("Emmy"), who is a good-natured, simple-minded young girl, of a wealthy London family. There, Becky meets the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne (Amelia's betrothed) and Amelia's brother Joseph ("Jos") Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious but rich civil servant home from the East India Company. Hoping to marry Sedley, the richest young man she has met, Becky entices him, but she fails. George Osborne's friend Captain William Dobbin loves Amelia, but only wishes her happiness, which is centred on George.
Becky Sharp says farewell to the Sedley family and enters the service of the crude and profligate baronet Sir Pitt Crawley, who has engaged her as a governess to his daughters. Her behaviour at Sir Pitt's house gains his favour, and after the premature death of his second wife, he proposes marriage to her. However, he finds that Becky has secretly married his second son, Captain Rawdon Crawley, a plot orchestrated by Bute Crawley to ensure that Sir Pitt's elder half sister, the spinster Miss Crawley, who is very rich (having inherited her mother's fortune) disinherits Rawdon; and the whole Crawley family compete for her favour so she will bequeath them her wealth. Initially her favourite is Rawdon Crawley, but his marriage with Becky enrages her. First she favours the family of Sir Pitt's brother, but when she dies, she leaves her money to Sir Pitt's eldest son, also called Pitt.
right|thumb|Chapter 32 ends with [[battle of Waterloo|Waterloo: "No more firing was heard at Brussels—the pursuit rolled miles away. The darkness came down on the field and city, and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart.]]
News arrives that Napoleon has escaped from Elba, and as a result the stockmarket becomes jittery, causing Amelia's stockbroker father, John Sedley, to become bankrupt. George's rich father forbids George to marry Amelia, who is now poor. Dobbin persuades George to marry Amelia, and George is consequently disinherited. George Osborne, William Dobbin and Rawdon Crawley are deployed to Brussels, accompanied by Amelia and Becky, and Amelia's brother, Jos.
George is embarrassed by the vulgarity of Mrs. Major O'Dowd, the wife of the head of the regiment. The newly wedded Osborne is already growing tired of Amelia, and he becomes increasingly attracted to Becky, which makes Amelia jealous and unhappy. He is also losing money to Rawdon at cards and billiards. At a ball in Brussels, George gives Becky a note inviting her to run away with him (although this fact is not revealed until the end of the book). But then the army have marching orders to the Battle of Waterloo, and George spends a tender night with Amelia and leaves.
The noise of battle horrifies Amelia, and she is comforted by the brisk but kind Mrs. O'Dowd. Becky is indifferent and makes plans for whatever the outcome (for example, if Napoleon wins, she would aim to become the mistress of one of his Marshals). She also makes a profit selling her carriage and horses at inflated prices to Jos, who is seeking to flee Brussels.
George Osborne is killed at the Battle of Waterloo, while Dobbin and Rawdon survive the battle. Amelia bears him a posthumous son, who carries on the name George. She returns to live in genteel poverty with her parents, spending her life in memory of her husband and care of her son. Dobbin pays for a small annuity for Amelia and expresses his love for her by small kindnesses toward her and her son. She is too much in love with her husband's memory to return Dobbin's love. Saddened, he goes with his regiment to India for many years.
Becky also gives birth to a son, named Rawdon after his father. Becky is a cold, distant mother, although Rawdon loves his son. Becky continues her ascent first in post-war Paris and then in London where she is patronised by the rich and powerful Marquis of Steyne. She is eventually presented at court to the Prince Regent and charms him further at a game of "acting charades" where she plays the roles of Clytemnestra and Philomela. The elderly Sir Pitt Crawley dies and is succeeded by his son Pitt, who had married Lady Jane Sheepshanks, Lord Southdown's third daughter. Becky is on good terms with Pitt and Jane originally, but Jane is disgusted by Becky's attitude to her son and jealous of Becky's relationship with Pitt.
At the summit of their social success, Rawdon is arrested for debt, possibly at Becky's connivance. where they encounter the destitute Becky. She lives among card sharps and con artists, drinking heavily and gambling. Becky enchants Jos Sedley all over again, and Amelia is persuaded to let Becky join them. Dobbin is opposed, and reminds Amelia of her jealousy of Becky with her husband. Amelia feels that this dishonours her lost husband's memory, and the disagreement leads to a complete breach between Dobbin and her.. He leaves and rejoins his regiment, while Becky remains with the group.
However, Becky has decided that Amelia should marry Dobbin rather than being preyed upon by two reprobate students gambling for her. Becky shows Amelia George's note, kept all this time from the eve of the Battle of Waterloo; Amelia realises that George was not the perfect man she idolized, and that she has rejected a better man, Dobbin. Amelia and Dobbin are reconciled and return to England. Becky and Jos stay in Europe. Jos dies suspiciously after signing a portion of his life insurance money to Becky. She returns to England, and manages to lead a respectable life, although all her previous friends refuse to acknowledge her.
Characters
right|thumb|Becky and Emmy as girls, from one of Thackeray's illustrations at the beginning of the book.
right|thumb|Virtue rewarded; A booth in Vanity Fair. Emmy and her family encounter Becky by chance at a charity event on the last page of the novel.
thumb|right|Mr. Joseph Entangled by Becky
Emmy Sedley (Amelia)
Amelia, called Emmy, is good-natured but passive and naïve. Pretty rather than beautiful, she has a snub nose and round, rosy cheeks. She is well-liked by men, and women when few men are around, as was the case when she was at school. She begins the work as its heroine ("selected for the very reason that she was the best-natured of all") and marries the dashing George Osborne against his father's wishes, but the narrator is soon forced to admit "she wasn't a heroine" after all as she remains soppily devoted to him despite his neglect of her and his flirtation with Becky.
After George dies in the Battle of Waterloo, she brings up little George alone while living with her parents. She is completely dominated by her increasingly peevish mother and her spendthrift father, who, to finance one of his failing investment schemes, sells the annuity Jos had provided. Amelia becomes obsessed with her son and the memory of her husband. She ignores William Dobbin, who courts her for years and treats him shabbily until he leaves. Only when Becky shows her George's letter to her, indicating his unfaithfulness, can Amelia move on. She then marries Dobbin.
In a letter to his close friend Jane Octavia Brookfield while the book was being written, Thackeray confided that "You know you are only a piece of Amelia, my mother is another half, my poor little wife y est pour beaucoup". She does not seem to have the ability to get attached to other people, and lies easily and intelligently to get her way. She is extremely manipulative and after the first few chapters and her failure to attract Jos Sedley, she becomes more skilled in her machinations.
Never having known financial or social security even as a child, Becky desires it above all things. Nearly everything she does is with the intention of securing a stable position for herself, and her husband after she marries and Rawdon. She advances Rawdon's interests tirelessly, flirting with men such as General Tufto and the Marquis of Steyne to get him promoted. She also uses her feminine wiles to distract men at card parties while Rawdon cheats them blind.
Marrying Rawdon Crawley in secret was a mistake, as was running off instead of begging Miss Crawley's forgiveness. She also fails to manipulate Miss Crawley through Rawdon so as to obtain an inheritance. Although Becky manipulates men very easily, she is far less successful with women. She is utterly hostile to Lady Bareacres, dismissive of Mrs. O'Dowd, and to Lady Jane, although initially friendly, eventually distrusts and dislikes her.
The exceptions to this trend are (at least initially) Miss Crawley, her companion Miss Briggs, and her school friend Amelia; the latter is the recipient of the only kindnesses Becky expresses in the work, such as persuading her to marry Dobbin in light of what Becky comes to appreciate to be his good qualities and protecting Amelia from two ruffians vying for her attentions. This comparative loyalty to Amelia stems from Becky having had no other friends at school, and Amelia having "by a thousand kind words and offices, overcome... (Becky's) hostility"; 'The gentle tender-hearted Amelia Sedley was the only person to whom she could attach herself in the least; and who could help attaching herself to Amelia?'
Beginning with her determination to be her "own Mamma", Becky begins to assume the role of Clytemnestra. Becky and her necklace from Steyne also allude to the fallen Eriphyle in Racine's retelling of Iphigenia at Aulis, where she doubles and rescues Iphigenia. In lesser contexts, Becky also appears as Arachne to Miss Pinkerton's Minerva and as a variety of classical figures in the works' illustrations.
George Osborne
thumb|200px|right|George Osborne
George Osborne, his father, a merchant of considerably superior social status to Dobbin's grocer father, albeit self made, and ironically a mere corporal in the City Light Horse regiment of which Dobbin senior, by this time an alderman and a knight, is colonel, and his two sisters are close to the Sedley family until Mr. Sedley (the father of Jos and Amelia, and George Osborne's godfather, from whom the latter takes his middle name of 'Sedley') goes bankrupt following some ill-advised speculation. Since George and Amelia were raised in close company and were childhood sweethearts, George defies his father by marrying Amelia, aides by Dovbin. Before father and son can be reconciled, George is killed at the battle of Waterloo, leaving the pregnant Amelia to carry on as well as she can.
Raised to be a selfish, vain, profligate spender, handsome and self-obsessed, George squanders the last of the money he receives from his father and sets nothing aside to help support Amelia. After marrying Amelia, after a couple of weeks he quickly that he is bored. He flirts with Becky quite seriously and is reconciled to Amelia only a short time before he is killed in battle.
William Dobbin
The best friend of George Osborne, Captain William Dobbin is tall, ungainly, and not particularly handsome. He is a six years older than George but has been friends with him since his schooldays, even though Dobbin's father is a fig-merchant (Dobbin & Rudge, grocers and oilmen, Thames Street, London - he is later an alderman and colonel of the City Light Horse regiment, and is knighted) and the Osbornes act as though they belong to the genteel class; they have become wealthy. Dobbin defends George and is blind to his faults in many ways, although he tries to persuade George to do the right thing. He pushes George to keep his promise to marry Amelia even though Dobbin is in love with Amelia himself. After George is killed, Dobbin puts together an annuity to help support Amelia, ostensibly with the help of George's fellow officers.
Later, Major and Lieutenant Colonel Dobbin discreetly does what he can to help support Amelia and her son George. Amelia continues to be obsessed with George; he does not correct her erroneous beliefs. He hangs about for years, either pining away over her while serving in India or waiting on her in person, allowing her to take advantage of his good nature. After Amelia chooses Becky's friendship over his during their stay in Germany, Dobbin leaves in disgust. He returns when Amelia writes to him and admits her feelings for him, marries her, and the have a daughter whom he loves more than Amelia.
Rawdon Crawley
Rawdon, the younger of the two Crawley sons, is an empty-headed cavalry officer who is his wealthy aunt's favourite until he marries Becky Sharp, daughter of an opera dancer and painter; permanently alienating his aunt. She leaves her estate to Rawdon's elder brother Sir Pitt instead. Sir Pitt has also inherited their father's estate, leaving Rawdon destitute.
The well-meaning Rawdon does have a few talents in life, most of them having to do with gambling and duelling. He is very good at cards and billiards, and although he does not always win he is able to earn cash by betting against less talented gamblers. He is heavily indebted throughout most of the book, not so much for his own expenses as for Becky's. Not particularly talented as a military officer, he is content to let Becky manage his career. He is sincere and dotes on his son, whom Becky hates.
Although Rawdon knows Becky is attractive to men, he believes she's just flirtatious, even though she is widely suspected of romantic intrigues. Nobody dares to suggest otherwise to Rawdon because of his temper and his reputation for duelling. Yet other people, particularly the Marquis of Steyne, find it impossible to believe that Crawley is unaware of Becky's tricks. Steyne in particular believes Rawdon is fully aware that Becky is prostituting herself, and believes Rawdon is going along with the charade in the hope of financial gain.
After Rawdon finds out the truth, beats up the Marquise of Steyne and issues him a challenge, Steyne avoids the duel and solves the problem by getting him an assignment on a fever-ridden island. His son is brought up by his brother Sir Pitt and his wife Lady Jane. Rawdon dies of yellow fever.
Pitt Crawley
Rawdon Crawley's elder brother inherits the Crawley estate from his father, the boorish and vulgar Sir Pitt, and also inherits the estate of his wealthy aunt, Miss Crawley, after she disinherits Rawdon. Pitt is hypocritically religious and has political aspirations.
Pedantic and conservative, Pitt does nothing to help Rawdon or Becky even when they fall on hard times. This is chiefly due to the influence of his wife, Lady Jane, who dislikes Becky because of her callous treatment of her son, and also because Becky repaid Lady Jane's earlier kindness by patronising her and flirting with Sir Pitt.
Miss Matilda Crawley
The elderly Miss Crawley is everyone's favourite wealthy aunt. Sir Pitt and Rawdon both dote on her for her money. Rawdon is her favourite nephew and expects to inherit her money until he marries Becky. While Miss Crawley likes Becky and keeps her around to entertain her with sarcasm and wit, and while she loves scandal and stories of unwise marriages, this does not apply to her family.
Thackeray spent time in Paris with his maternal grandmother, Harriet Becher, and Miss Crawley's character is said to be based on her.
Joseph Sedley
Amelia's older brother, Joseph "Jos" Sedley, is a "nabob", who made a respectable fortune as a collector in India. Obese and self-important but very shy, he is attracted to Becky Sharp he doesn't get around to proposing. He never marries, but when he meets Becky again he is easily manipulated into falling in love with her. Jos is not a courageous or intelligent man, displaying his cowardice at the Battle of Waterloo by trying to flee and purchasing both of Becky's overpriced horses. Becky ensnares him again near the end of the book and, it is hinted, murders him for his life insurance.
Publication history
right|thumb|The 1847 [[prospectus (book)|prospectus for the Vanity Fair: Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society serial, advertising it under William Makepeace Thackeray's pen name Michael Angelo Titmarsh and under his own name.]]
thumb|right|200px|The title page of the 1848 first edition of Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero.
thumb|right|Becky's second appearance in the character of [[Clytemnestra, an illustration and caption by Thackeray that makes it fairly clear that she killed Jos for his insurance money.