Vanity Fair

Rating:
Summary: Worth the Effort
Review: Amusing, insightful and truly worth the title 'classic'. A lovely critical satire of the times (1800, 1850 and today!)

Rating:
Summary: All's "Fair" in love and vanity
Review: Greed, gold-digging and deception sit at the heart of "Vanity Fair." It's no joke that it's subtitled "a novel without a hero" -- William Makepeace Thackeray mercilessly skewered the pretentions and flaws of the upper class all throughout it. The result is a gloriously witty social satire.

It opens with two young women departing from a ladies' academy: dull, sweet Amelia (rich) and fiery sharp-witted Rebecca (poor). Becky Sharp is a relentless social climber, and her first effort to rise "above her station" is by trying to get Amelia's brother to marry her -- an effort thwarted by Amelia's fiancee. So instead she gets married to another family's second son, Rawdon Crawley.

Unfortunately, both young couples quickly get disinherited and George is killed. But Becky is determined to live the good life she has worked and married for -- she obtains jewels and money from admiring gentlemen, disrupting her marriage. But a little thing like a tarnished reputation isn't enough to keep Becky down...

"Vanity Fair" is actually a lot more complex than that, with dozens of little subplots and complicated character relationships. Reading it a few times is necessary to really absorb all of it, since it is not just a look at the two women in the middle of the book, but at the upper (and sometimes lower) social strata of the nineteenth century.

The main flaw of the book is perhaps that it sprawls too much -- there's always a lot of stuff going on, not to mention a huge cast of characters, and Thackeray sometimes drops the ball when it comes to the supporting characters and their little plots. It takes a lot of patience to absorb all of this. However... it's worth it.

Like most nineteenth-century writers, Thackeray had a very dense, formal writing style -- but once you get used to it, his writing becomes insanely funny. Witticisms and quips litter the pages, even if you don't pick them all up at once. At first Thackeray seems incredibly cynical (Becky's little schemes almost always pay off), but taken as a social satire, it's easier to understand why he was so cynical about the society of the time.

Becky Sharp is the quintessential anti-heroine -- she's very greedy and cold, yet she's also so smart and determined that it's hard not to have a grudging liking for her. Certainly life hasn't been fair for her. Next to Becky, a goody-goody character like Amelia is pretty boring, and even the unsubtle George can't measure up to Becky.

To sum up "Vanity Fair": think a period soap opera with a heavy dose of social commentary. In other words, it doesn't get much better than this, Thackeray's masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating
Review: I very rarely put down a book before finishing it, even if I don't like it. This one was impossible for me to read, though, and even though I tried, I could only get a quarter of the way through it (200 pages) before I decided life is just too short for such aggravation.

I wanted this to be one of those books that you can get lost in and sticks with you once it's over...it's very long, spans many years in the lives of the characters, interesting plot idea, definitely seemed to fit the bill of a pleasurable read. It didn't turn out to be one of those books, however. To begin with, it's slow. On top of that, the story unfolds through a narrator (the author I suppose) who goes off on tangents unrelated to the story, making personal observations on people and life and society in general that last for paragraphs and even pages. Very frustrating! The book would have been half as long if the author had stuck to what we wanted to read about...the story.

I gave this book 2 stars instead of one because I can see how the story itself would be an engaging one. Too bad the author's own voice torpedoed it.

Rating:
Summary: Long but fascinating
Review: This book was long, but I definitely enjoyed it. A couple of sections I skimmed over, but the heart of the story is compelling. I never thought of putting it down, mostly because, one of the main characters, Rebecca, fascinated me.

Much like the author, I could not completely make up my mind about Rebecca. I had to find out what would become of her in the end. Even in the end I could not decide whether she was bad or simply had several bad circumstances occur.

It was a good social commentary, and I am glad I read it. However, it is not a book I will ever pick up to read again partly due to its length, but also because once was all I needed. There were no overly complex ideas that warrant any more than a one time reading.


Rating:
Summary: a difficult book
Review: This classic is very difficult to read. Not only is it boring, but the way it's written is weird and jumpy. I did not enjoy the book. I only got through a few chapters before I gave up. It is also very long.

Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly my favorite book.
Review: Yes, you must take your time reading it.
Yes, you must weave your way through Thackeray's references to the culture of his time.
Yes, it is worth your time to read.

Vanity Fair is, quite frankly, a staggering achievement. It is a witty, engaging, and scathing look at status in society: How people get it, how people lose it, and how people get it back. And in 840 pages, Thackeray manages to encompass virtually every interlocking element of 19th Century England.

For the life of me, I cannot understand the other two reviews, both of which refer to this book as boring. Every page is rewarding, and only becomes more so with repeated readings. Becky Sharp is a relentlessly interesting, amoral character, and we can only watch the arc of her life with fascination and grudging respect.

Thackeray refers to Vanity Fair as "A novel without a hero," and rightfully so. No one is spared his barbs, including the sweet, yet dull, Amelia. Thackeray holds up a mirror to the pretensions of the middle and upper classes, but does so without sanctimony or tendentiousness. All in all, it is a very approachable book.

So, read Vanity Fair. You will want an edition with copious footnotes (I prefer the Oxford edition) so you understand some references to the events of Thackeray's day. However, once you get used to the rhythms of Victorian prose, you will find it a very energetic and entertaining read, and the themes it encompasses remain true to our day.