William Makepeace Thackeray

'I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.' Becky Sharp is sharp, calculating, and determined to succeed. Craving wealth and a position in society, she charms, hoodwinks, manipulates everyone she meets, rising in the world as she attaches herself to a succession of rich men. Becky's fortunes are contrasted with those of her best friend Amelia, who has none of Becky's wit and vitality but whose gentle-heartedness attracts the devotion of the loyal Dobbin. Set during the Napoleonic wars, Vanity Fair follows Becky as she cuts a swathe through Regency society. Thackeray paints a panoramic portrait of the age, with war, money and national identity his great subjects. The battle for social success is as fierce as the battle of Waterloo, and its casualties as stricken. The satire is at once biting and profound, sparing none in a clear-eyed exposure of a world on the make. Thackeray's scepticism of human motives borders on cynicism yet Vanity Fair is among the funniest novels of the Victorian age. This new edition includes all Thackeray's original illustrations. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

"När jag hade arbetat ett år i London fick jag en diamantkråsnål i present av faster Hoggarty, det vill säga någon diamantkråsnål var det inte då, utan en stor gammalmodig medaljong, gjord i Dublin år 1795, vilken salig mr Hoggarty brukade ståta med på irländske vicekungens baler och annorstädes." Historien om Samuel Titmarsh och den stora Hoggartydiamanten (1841) är en förstudie till Thackerays stora mästerverk Fåfängans marknad, om en ung mans äventyr i Londonsocieteten. Fördomsfria finanshajar och deras manipulationer ger honom en hel del att tänka på. Och Thackeray tar här närgånget rikedomens och bördens magnater under luppen. Det är en lekfull och roande bok, men bakom den muntra masken skönjer man människokännaren, som genomskådat narrspelet.

Barry Lyndon-far from the best known, but by some critics acclaimed as the finest, of Thackeray's works-appeared originally as a serial a few years before VANITY FAIR was written; yet it was not published in book form, and then not by itself, until after the publication of VANITY FAIR, PENDENNIS, ESMOND and THE NEWCOMES had placed its author in the forefront of the literary men of the day. So many years after the event we cannot help wondering why the story was not earlier put in book form; for in its delineation of the character of an adventurer it is as great as VANITY FAIR, while for the local colour of history, if I may put it so, it is no undistinguished precursor of ESMOND. In the number of FRASER'S MAGAZINE for January 1844 appeared the first instalment of 'THE LUCK OF BARRY LYNDON, ESQ., A ROMANCE OF THE LAST CENTURY, by FitzBoodle, ' and the story continued to appear month by month-with the exception of October-up to the end of the year, when the concluding portion was signed 'G. S. FitzBoodle.' FITZBOODLE'S CONFESSIONS, it should be added, had appeared occasionally in the magazine during the years immediately precedent, so that the pseudonym was familiar to FRASER'S readers. The story was written, according to its author's own words, 'with a great deal of dulness, unwillingness and labour, ' and was evidently done as the instalments were required, for in August he wrote 'read for "B. L." all the morning at the club, ' and four days later of '"B. L." lying like a nightmare on my mind.' The journey to the East-which was to give us in literary results NOTES OF A JOURNEY FROM CORNHILL TO GRAND CAIRO-was begun with BARRY LYNDON yet unfinished, for at Malta the author noted on the first three days of November-'Wrote Barry but slowly and with great difficulty.' 'Wrote Barry with no more success than yesterday.' 'Finished Barry after great throes late at night.' In the number of Fraser's for the following month, as I have said, the conclusion appeared. A dozen years later, in 1856, the story formed the first part of the third volume of Thackeray's MISCELLANIES, when it was called MEMOIRS OF BARRY LYNDON, ESQ., WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. Since then, it has nearly always been issued with other matter, as though it were not strong enough to stand alone, or as though the importance of a work was mainly to be gauged by the number of pages to be crowded into one cover. The scheme of the present edition fortunately allows fitting honour to be done to the memoirs of the great adventurer. .