“VANITY FAIR” – WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

A cura di Emma Traversone, 4^R

Vanity Fair is an English novel written by William Makepeace Thackeray in 1848. What I found incredibly interesting is that Thackeray shows in detail 19th century people’s life (bourgeois-aristocratic society), their human nature, their thoughts and actions in different situations.

In the author’s opinion, there can be no hero in a society where the cult of money rules the world. The characters are compared to puppets. He attacks the vanity, pretension, prejudices and corruption of the aristocracy (the Crawleys) and greed of the bourgeoisie (the Osbornes and the Sedleys). The novel tackles the destiny of two very different girls:  Rebecca Sharp, a daughter of a poor artist, and Amelia Sedley, a daughter of a rich city merchant. 

Rebecca is pleasant to look at and clever. Never having known financial or social security even as a child, she desires it above all things. She is extremely manipulative and completely amoral. She believes neither in love nor in friendship, and she’s ready to marry any man who can give  her wealth and a title. Finally, she marries Captain Rawdon Crawley, a cavalry officer prone to gambling and dueling. She hopes that someday her husband would inherit a great deal of money from his rich aunt, but her hopes never come true. So she manages to enter the upper ranks of society but with no happiness. 

In contrast to Rebecca, Amelia Sedley is honest, generous and kind. She’s not very beautiful, but well-liked by men who get to know her because of her personality. She marries George Osborne who, after marrying her, is bored and flirts with Rebecca. He is reconciled to Amelia only a short time before he is killed in the battle of Waterloo. After George’s death, Amelia brings up her son alone with the support of an annuity offered  by William Dobbin, George’s best friend, who eventually marries Amelia.

I wish I had read this book before, because I really liked it. I would recommend this novel to everyone because it’s interesting to learn Thackeray’s style. It is distinguished by the fact that the author often interrupts his narrative and talks about the characters to invite the reader to share his opinion.