"Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero" is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray about the era of the Napoleonic Wars, which was published in the satirical magazine Punch from January 1847 to July 1848.
"A deep sadness grips the Puppeteer as he sits on the stage and watches the Fair humming around" - William Thackeray, Vanity Fair
The book is set in England at the beginning of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars.
Usually in this place, I tell the string, but the problem is that there is no string as such.
And if we consider that the book is fully called "Vanity Fair - A Novel Without a Hero", then there is a hitch with a brief description.
In general, the novel describes the life and mores of the upper middle class.
In the center of this "vanity fair" are two young girls who have just graduated from a private boarding school.
One of them is the wealthy and compassionate Emilia Sedley.
The second is the selfish and grasping Rebecca Sharp. She is from a dysfunctional family and was taken to the boarding house only for the fact that she would teach French to the boarders.
Immediately after leaving the boarding house, the girls live for some time together and both take up the arrangement of their personal lives.
The author wrote a socially - everyday novel, taking as a basis the mores and customs of his era - but without bringing the hero onto the stage, as was customary before. In this sense, the novel became a breakthrough in its genre.
The author draws the story of the relationship between Rebecca Sharp and Emilia Sedley over 20 years, framing this storyline with the foam of the everyday fuss of other characters.
Light graceful syllable, everyday philosophy, reflections on life - "Vanity Fair" is relevant even now, easy to read, gives food for thought - an amazing work outside of time, a must-read.
This book is one of the classics of English literature. W. Thackeray (1811 - 1863) became a classic during his lifetime, although to some extent he was outstripped in popularity by his contemporary C. Dickens. "Vanity Fair" is Thackeray's best work. The book is subtitled "A Novel Without a Hero", and it really is. Thackeray set himself the goal of creating a picture of contemporary English society, where the activity of people is often manifested in the desire for enrichment, permeated with vanity, where there is no place for naturalness and decency. The main characters of the book are two women - Emilia Sedley and especially Becky Sharp, ready for anything in order to achieve her goal of wealth. The novel shows their life, the life of the society in which they live. Shown with irony, shown in all the complexity of the relationship between the characters in the book. The author does not condemn or praise them, he does not openly moralize, although the main idea is clear from the author's comments and reasoning - the life of the characters is too much like a puppet theater, they do not live, but only play their intended roles. The book is not very easy to read, its style is the style of the middle of the 19th century, detailed, filled with reasoning. But the book is very good, it allows you to better understand and present the English society of that ancient time, whose legacy has not gone away in modern supermodern England.
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