Book info

• Title Vanity Fair
• Author William Makepeace Thackery
• Year 1847
• Genre Classic

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 sentimental companion Amelia Sedley, however, longs only for the caddish soldier George.

Thoughts

Another Big Read book, I delved into this classic without any preconceptions, having never heard of it. It took me a little while to get into it, particularly as I haven’t read a classic for a while and it takes time to adjust. I did like it but also thought that there wasn’t an awful lot in the way of story.

Not a lot seemed to happen, and I don’t mean compared to modern stories for modern attention spans, but even compared to some other classics. There was a bit of drama at the beginning with the frowned upon marriages, and then an awful lot of waiting around whilst grudges smouldered. A bit of extra-marital drama about three quarters of the way through, and then it was death that came to resolve all the plot lines.

It was enjoyable enough but I was just left thinking I hadn’t really got anything from it.

Rating: 3 / 5