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Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray
A masterpiece of social satire, featuring one of literature’s best-loved characters, Becky Sharp.Ruthless social climber and irrepressible anti-hero Becky Sharp will do anything to raise her position in Society, from impoverished orphan to woman of means. Clever, lively and resourceful, Becky is the total opposite of her naive and sentimental schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a pampered yet good-natured girl from a wealthy family.As both women pursue love and life in London, against the background of the Napoleonic Wars, Thackeray paints a vivid portrait of decadent Regency England and satirises its corruption and flaws to delightful effect.
VANITY FAIR
William Makepeace Thackeray
COPYRIGHT (#uec973d16-cb55-5026-9db4-a4997560fbbb)
Harper Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This Harper Press paperback edition published 2011
William Makepeace Thackeray asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Life & Times section © Gerard Cheshire
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from
Collins English Dictionary
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Ebook Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN 9780007480814
Version: 2018-08-20
CONTENTS
Cover (#u26455860-a624-5f29-b3a5-9e2c2e183d4c)
Title Page (#u4b642591-90c8-5768-a33b-8efa1595a424)
Copyright
Chapter 1 Chiswick Mall
Chapter 2 In which Miss Sharp and Miss Sedley prepare to open the campaign
Chapter 3 Rebecca is in presence of the enemy
Chapter 4 The Green Silk Purse
Chapter 5 Dobbin of Ours
Chapter 6 Vauxhall
Chapter 7 Crawley of Queen’s Crawley
Chapter 8 Private and Confidential
Chapter 9 Family Portraits
Chapter 10 Miss Sharp begins to make friends
Chapter 11 Arcadian simplicity
Chapter 12 Quite a sentimental chapter
Chapter 13 Sentimental and Otherwise
Chapter 14 Miss Crawley at home
Chapter 15 In which Rebecca’s husband appears for a short time
Chapter 16 The letter on the pincushion
Chapter 17 How Captain Dobbin bought a piano
Chapter 18 Who played on the piano Captain Dobbin bought
Chapter 19 Miss Crawley at Nurse
Chapter 20 In which Captain Dobbin acts as The Messenger of Hymen
Chapter 21 A quarrel about an Heiress
Chapter 22 A marriage and part of a honeymoon
Chapter 23 Captain Dobbin proceeds on his canvass
Chapter 24 In which Mr. Osborne takes down the Family Bible
Chapter 25 In which all the principal personages think fit to leave Brighton
Chapter 26 Between London and Chatham
Chapter 27 In which Amelia joins her regiment
Chapter 28 In which Amelia invades the Low Countries
Chapter 29 Brussels
Chapter 30 “The Girl I Left Behind Me”
Chapter 31 In which Jos Sedley takes care of his sister
Chapter 32 In which Jos takes flight, and the War is brought to a close
Chapter 33 In which Miss Crawley’s relations are very anxious about her
Chapter 34 James Crawley’s pipe is put out
Chapter 35 Widow and Mother
Chapter 36 How to live well on nothing a year
Chapter 37 The subject continued
Chapter 38 A family in a very small way
Chapter 39 A cynical chapter
Chapter 40 In which Becky is recognised by the family
Chapter 41 In which Becky revisits the halls of her ancestors
Chapter 42 Which treats of the Osborne Family
Chapter 43 In which the reader has to double the Cape
Chapter 44 A roundabout chapter between London and Hampshire
Chapter 45 Between Hampshire and London
Chapter 46 Struggles and Trials
Chapter 47 Gaunt House
Chapter 48 In which the reader is introduced to the very best of company
Chapter 49 In which we enjoy three courses and a dessert
Chapter 50 Contains a vulgar incident
Chapter 51 In which a charade is acted which may or may not puzzle the reader
Chapter 52 In which Lord Steyne shows himself in a most amiable light
Chapter 53 A rescue and a catastrophe
Chapter 54 Sunday after the battle
Chapter 55 In which the same subject is pursued
Chapter 56 Georgy is made a gentleman
Chapter 57 Eothen
Chapter 58 Our friend the Major
Chapter 59 The old piano
Chapter 60 Returns to the genteel world
Chapter 61 In which two lights are put out
Chapter 62 Am Rhein
Chapter 63 In which we meet an old acquaintance
Chapter 64 A vagabond chapter
Chapter 65 Full of business and pleasure
Chapter 66 Amantium Iroe
Chapter 67 Which contains births, marriages, and deaths
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases Adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
History of Collins
About the Author
About the Publisher
CHAPTER 1 Chiswick Mall (#uec973d16-cb55-5026-9db4-a4997560fbbb)
While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. A black servant, who reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy-legs as soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton’s shining brass plate, and as he pulled the bell, at least a score of young heads were seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house. Nay, the acute observer might have recognised the little red nose of good-natured Miss Jemima Pinkerton herself, rising over some geranium-pots in the window of that lady’s own drawing-room.
“It is Mrs. Sedley’s coach, sister,” said Miss Jemima. “Sambo, the black servant, has just rung the bell; and the coachman has a new red waistcoat.”
“Have you completed all the necessary preparations incident to Miss Sedley’s departure, Miss Jemima?” asked Miss Pinkerton herself, that majestic lady; the Semiramis of Hammersmith, the friend of Doctor Johnson, the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone herself.
“The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister,” replied Miss Jemima; “we have made her a bow-pot.”
“Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, ’tis more genteel.”
