Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, published in 1848, is a panoramic satirical novel subtitled A Novel Without a Hero that chronicles the ambitions and follies of English society during the Napoleonic era. Centered on the contrasting fortunes of two women leaving Miss Pinkerton’s academy—cunning, impoverished Becky Sharp, who schemes her way through social ladders via wit, seduction, and marriage to the reckless Rawdon Crawley, and naive, virtuous Amelia Sedley, devoted to her feckless husband George Osborne amid financial ruin and the Battle of Waterloo—the narrative exposes vanity, hypocrisy, and moral compromises among the upper classes. Through Becky’s ruthless ascent and Amelia’s passive suffering, supported by loyal Captain Dobbin, Thackeray weaves a richly ironic tapestry of human weaknesses, culminating in bittersweet resolutions that critique the emptiness of worldly pursuits.