What one reviewer said about Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero (Penguin Classics) by William Makepeace Thackeray, John Carey, William mak Thackery:
Hilarious, scathing, wistful, beautiful.
Incredibly modern; the language is as fresh as if Thackeray had penned it yesterday.
A pure delight from beginning to end.
If you're one of those booklovers who reads as much as anthing else in order to get to know the author, in order to sit down and share a beer with him (or her) as it were, then this is your book.
You will come to adore Thackeray, to wish he were your best friend.
In short, if you love Henry Fielding's brand of humor and conversation with the reader in Tom Jones, then you will love Vanity Fair.
This Penguin edition features a brilliant introduction by John Carey, in which he draws comparisons between Vanity Fair and another sumpreme work of art: War and Peace.
In fact he argues that without Vanity Fair, there may never have been a War and Peace.
Ahh, Dobbin. A character that will live in my heart forever.
My favourite book of all time. A rich tapestry of life and humankind. Its witty,sharp, hilariously funny,sad,full of every emotion. The humour is so modern it could have been written today. Every character is well defined from the beginning, we love them all, Becky Sharpe a woman whom we all know will succeed no matter what, Rawden Crawley brave,tough but sweetly stupid, George Osobourne a preening booby with a vanity that knows no bounds and woolly headed Emilia so besotted with her dreams of George that she cannot see that which is so obvious to the reader, and that is the hero, there IS a hero in this book and that hero is Major William Dobbin, a man of great generosity, kindness, sensitivity - there are not enough words to describe William, he is perfection, an officer and a gentleman in the real sense of the word, a hero of Waterloo and a hero of my heart. Thank you William Dobbin you have stolen my heart and will stay in there for a lifetime!
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