Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity Fair is Thackeray’s name for the milieu in which the polite society of the early nineteenth century mill around, show off, seek amusement, manoeuvre and score points.

Becky Sharp should not really be part of it, convention decrees that her lack of pedigree and means condemn her to serve the great and the good rather than join in their games.  But she is young, attractive, accomplished, witty and quite without scruples when it comes to social climbing.

Amelia Sedley, equally young, equally attractive if not so vivacious, has better pedigree and more means, at least initially.  But while Becky schemes for her own benefit, Amelia puts others first.  As Becky sees and exploits weakness, Amelia is blind to faults and is indiscriminately loyal.

The story of the two women, and the men they attract for good or ill, meanders over 600 pages.  For the modern reader too many of these pages are choked with Thackeray’s asides gently satirising his time.  In the rest the tale develops at a steady pace, widening to embrace the ups and downs of two moneyed families, the Osbornes and the Crawleys, whose scions (George and Rawden) have a major impact on the heroines.

Country estates, London town, the Battle of Waterloo, and the spas of Europe all feature over the twenty year or so span of the book before a climax of sorts enables the reader to exit the fair with good grace and a sense of both achievement and relief.