Key themes
- Social ambition and its costs — and whether it is ever satisfied
- Becky Sharp as the ultimate self-made woman in a world that punishes her for it
- The narrator's complicity in the world he satirises
About this book
No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimen
Published serially 1847-48, Vanity Fair appeared alongside Dombey and Son. Thackeray and Dickens were rivals of approximately equal fame; Vanity Fair is now generally considered his masterpiece.
Discussion questions
- Becky Sharp is brilliant, unscrupulous and entirely a product of the world the novel satirises. How does Thackeray make her sympathetic — and at what point, if any, does she lose our sympathy?
- The title comes from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. How does Thackeray use this allusion — and what is 'Vanity Fair' as he conceives it?
- The narrator is intrusive, ironic and unreliable. What does Thackeray achieve through this unusual narrative voice — and does it work?
- Amelia Sedley is presented as the 'good' woman in contrast to Becky. How does Thackeray complicate this opposition — and does the novel ultimately prefer one to the other?
- Vanity Fair was subtitled 'A Novel Without a Hero.' What does this mean in the context of Victorian fiction — and does the novel live up to the claim?
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