Vanity Fair: A Novel Without Heroes is a satire of william makepeace thackeray's novel on British society in the early 9th century. Like many novels at that time, Vanity Fair was published in series before it was sold as a book. It is printed in 20 months between 1 month 1847 and July 1848. (According to the standard convention, the last part is a "even number" containing 19 and 20. ) part is like a booklet, containing several chapters of text between steel plate carving and advertising. Woodblock prints can appear in the text with normal movable type settings. The same carved illustrations appear on the pale yellow cover of each monthly magazine; This color has become the symbol of Thackeray (just like Dickens' light blue-green color), so that passers-by can notice the new Thackeray book number on the bookstall from a distance. Vanity Fair was Thackeray's first work published under his own name, which was highly praised at that time. The original monthly magazine and later bound editions featured Thackeray's own illustrations, which sometimes provided plot tips or symbolic images (for example, a main character was shown as a mermaid who ate people), and the text did not explicitly mention it. Most contemporary editions either don't copy all the illustrations, or copy them so badly that many details are lost.
Thackeray thinks this book is not only interesting, but also instructive. This intention is proved by the narrative of the book and Thackeray's personal letters. This novel is now regarded as a classic of English literature, although some critics claim that it has structural problems; Thackeray sometimes forgets the huge scope of his works and confuses the names of characters with minor plot details. The number of allusions and references it contains will make it difficult for modern readers to understand.
The word "Vanity Fair" originated from john bunyan's fable Pilgrim's Progress published in 1678, in which a small town held a market in a village called "Vanity Fair".
This novel inspired the adaptation of several films.
Thackeray's illustrations for chapter six.
Summary of plot
Spoiler Warning: Details of the plot and/or ending are as follows.
The story begins in Miss Pinkerton's Young Women's College, where the protagonists Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley have just finished their studies and are preparing to go to Amelia's home in Rosell Square. Becky is portrayed as a strong-willed and cunning young woman who is determined to succeed in society, while Amelia Sedley is a kind-hearted but simple-minded young girl. However, by the end of the novel, readers will realize that neither of these two characters is perfect.
In Russell Square, Miss Sharp was introduced to Captain george osborne and Amelia's brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and conceited but rich civil servant who had just arrived from India. Becky attracted him and wanted to marry him, but the ultimate failure was to warn Captain Osborne and himself of shyness and embarrassment. Becky witnessed his foolish behavior in vauxhall.
Becky Sharp said goodbye to Sedley's family and began to serve Sir Peter Crowley, the baronet, who had hired her as a tutor for his daughters. Her behavior at Sir Peter's house won Sir Peter's favor, and he finally proposed to her after his second wife died prematurely. Unfortunately, Becky (who is happy to be the next Mrs. Crawley) has secretly married her son, Roden Crawley.
Sir Pitt's half-sister, Miss Crawley, an old maid, inherited her mother's10 million pounds and was very rich. 70,000. Where will she leave her great wealth? This is the root of the constant conflict between the branches of the Crowley family, which shamelessly compete for her love; At first, her favorite was Captain Loudon Crowley, Sir Pitt's youngest son. Miss Sharp eloped with him; But this improper relationship angered Miss Crawley, who finally deprived her nephew of his inheritance and gave it to his brother.
When Becky Sharp made her fortune, Amelia's father went bankrupt. Captain george osborne, persuaded by his friend Dobbin, married Amelia despite her poverty and strong opposition from her ambitious father. His father wanted him to marry Miss Schwartz, the heiress of a sugar plantation in the West Indies and a contemporary of Miss Pinkerton's Amelia.
When all these personal events were happening, the Napoleonic Wars were ready, and george osborne and William Dobbin were suddenly deployed to Brussels, but before that they met Becky and Captain Crowley in Brighton. The holiday was interrupted by the order to March on Brussels. Newly-married Osborne is tired of Amelia, and he is more and more attracted to Becky.
At a dance in Brussels (based on the dance of the Duchess of Richmond the night before Waterloo), George gave Becky a note and invited her to elope with him. The next morning, he was sent to Waterloo and died in the battle. Amelia gave birth to a posthumous child, also named George. With the death of Osborne, Dobbin, the godfather of George Jr., gradually began to express his love for the widowed Amelia, but she loved George's memory too much to return his feelings. Sad, he went to India for many years.
At the same time, Becky continued her ascent, first in postwar Paris and then in London, where she was sponsored by the great Marquis of Stirn. She secretly sponsored her and introduced her to London society. Despite her evil background, her success was unstoppable, and she finally met the Regent himself.
At the peak of her success, Becky's inappropriate relationship with the rich and omnipotent Marquis Stein was discovered by Roden. He left his wife and became the governor of Coventry Island through Lord Stein's office to take him out of England. Mrs Crawley lost her husband and credibility, and Stein warned her to leave England, and she became a vagrant on the European continent. Wherever she went, she was followed by Lord Stein's shadow. As soon as she got a foothold in a respectable company, one of Stein's men somehow found her and spread rumors about her disgraceful history-destroying her.
As Amelia's beloved son George grew up, his grandfather became fond of him and took him away from poor Amelia who knew that the rich and miserable old man would give him a better start than she or her family could manage materially. At the same time, Joseph Sedley and William Dobbin returned to England. Dobbin expressed his constant love for Amelia, but although Amelia also loved Dobbin deeply, she told him that she could not forget her dead husband.
While in England, Dobbin managed to reconcile Amelia with her father-in-law. The death of George's grandfather left Amelia and George Jr. with a large fortune.
After the death of old Mr Osborne, Amelia, Joseph, George and Dobbin traveled to Germany, where they met Becky as poor as a church mouse. Dobbin quarreled with Amelia and finally realized that he had wasted his love on a woman who was too superficial to repay.
However, out of conscience, Becky showed Amelia a note from George (Amelia's dead husband) asking her to elope with him. This broke George's ideal image in Amelia's mind, which finally brought Dobbin and Amelia together.
Becky regained her temptation to Joseph Sedley and gained control of him. After signing part of his money to Becky as life insurance, he finally died of a suspicious disease. In the original illustration completed by Thackeray, Becky is behind the curtain, holding a small bottle (possibly poison) in her hand; The title of this painting is "Becky plays Clytaemestra for the second time" (at a party earlier in the book, she plays Clytaemestra in a crossword puzzle. His death seems to have brought her wealth.
The turning point of fate made Roden Crawley die several weeks before his brother, and his brother's son had died. So the title of Baron was passed on to Roden's son. If he outlives his brother by one day, he will become Sir Roden Crawley, and Becky will become Lady Crawley-a title she will use for the rest of her life.
The reader is finally told that although Dobbin married Amelia and he was always very kind to her, he never fully recovered his love for her.
Literary significance and literature. criticize
Contemporary critics
Even before the publication of the last serial novel, critics praised it as a literary treasure. Although critics are full of praise for him, they are disappointed with the persistent dark description of human nature and worry that his pessimistic metaphor is too much. In response to his critics, Thackeray explained that he thought most people were "disgusting stupid and selfish". The unpleasant ending aims to cause readers to look inward at their own shortcomings.
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The subtitle "A novel without heroes" is apt, because all the characters are more or less flawed; Even the most compassionate people have weaknesses, such as Captain Dobbin, who is prone to vanity and melancholy. Most of the human weaknesses revealed by Thackeray are related to greed, laziness, snobbery and tricks, deception and hypocrisy to cover up these weaknesses. However, no character is completely evil. Even the immoral and cunning Becky was thrown into her own resources by poverty and its shame (she is the daughter of a indebted artist). Thackeray's tendency to highlight the shortcomings of all his characters shows that he is eager to have a higher level of realism in his novels, rather than an unlikely or idealistic person like many contemporary novels.
This novel is a satire on the whole society, characterized by hypocrisy and opportunism, but it is not a reform novel; There is no sign that social or political change, or greater piety and moral reformism can improve the nature of society. Therefore, it paints a rather bleak picture of the human condition. Thackeray continues to play an omniscient narrator, a writer who is famous for using this technique. He constantly provides narration about his characters and compares them to actors and puppets, but his contempt even extends to his readers; Accusing all people who may be interested in this "vanity fair" is "either lazy, kind or ironic."
This work is often compared with another great historical novel about the Napoleonic Wars: Tolstoy's War and Peace. Although Tolstoy's works emphasize more on historical details and the influence of war on his hero, Thackeray takes war as the background of his characters' lives. Major events on the European continent do not always have the same important influence on the behavior of Thackeray's characters. On the contrary, their mistakes tend to intensify with time. This is in sharp contrast to the conflict of redemption forces in War and Peace. For Thack eray, the Napoleonic Wars as a whole can be regarded as another vanity expressed in the title.
At the end of the work, John Sutherland wrote in his book "Is Heathcliff a murderer? /kloc-a major puzzle in the novels of the 0/9th century. Although Becky is portrayed as a person with a very suspicious moral sense, her idea of premeditated murder is a great progress for this role. Thackeray was fiercely critical of the popular crime novels at that time, especially the novels by Edward Bulwer Litton. These sensational reports-called "Newgate novels"-draw inspiration from the pages of Newgate calendar, and sometimes even the whole story. Thackeray's main objection is to beautify the behavior of criminals; Therefore, it seems strange that he portrayed Becky as such a villain. His intention may be to trap Victorian readers into their own prejudices and make them think the worst of Becky Crowley Ne Sharp, even though they have no evidence of her behavior. This explanation was not helped by three lawyers, namely Burke, Thurtle and Hayes, who were named after the famous murder at that time (although this may be a further comment on the legal profession).
Although Thackeray is not sure whether Becky murdered Jose, this development is in line with the general trend of the development of characters in the novel. As the book continues, the tone of Vanity Fair seems to have faded. At the beginning of the novel, Becky Sharp is a clever girl who focuses on improving her destiny by marrying into the upper class. Although she has no feelings at all, she is still portrayed as Amelia's good friend. At the end of the novel, she is implied to be an adulterer and a murderer. Amelia is a warm and friendly girl at the beginning. Although she is sentimental and naive, at the end of the story, she is portrayed as empty and shallow. Dobbin first showed loyalty and generosity, although he didn't realize his own value; At the end of the story, he is portrayed as a tragic fool, a man bound by his sense of responsibility. He knows that he wasted his talent on Amelia, but he can't leave her. Whether Thackeray intentionally used this style when he started writing, or whether this style was formed in the process of writing, is an unsolvable problem. Regardless of its origin, the increasingly grim prospect of this novel will surprise readers, because Thackeray and the people whom readers initially sympathized with proved to be unworthy of such attention.
The role of Becky Sharp is based in part on Thackeray's grandmother Harriet Becher. When she eloped with Captain Charles Christie, she abandoned her husband and children. Shortly after Christie and her husband died, she married another officer, Edward Butler. Thackeray lived in Paris with his grandmother in AD 1830 and AD 1840.