Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
67 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsIf you've enjoyed watching the 1998 BBC television miniseries, you'd probably want to renew your acquaintance with William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847 novel, Vanity Fair. However, if you're unfamiliar with what has been dubbed one of the Best 100 Books in English Literature, you certainly have a treat ahead.
Miss Pinkerton's Academy in Chiswick Mall in London is where young ladies with ambitions of making a good marriage are sent by their socially aspiring middleclass parents. Two young ladies, Amelia Sedley and Rebecca (Becky) Sharpe are on their way home after completing their term at Miss Pinkerton's. Amelia is from a well to do family, while Becky is a scheming orphan who has latched on to her amiable friend in the hopes of climbing the social ladder. In Amelia's comfortable Russell Square home, Becky goes to work immediately. Her target is Amelia's clumsy, boastful, wealthy civil servant brother, Joseph, who is home on furlough from India. She also meets the dashing Captain George Osborne, Amelia's childhood sweetheart.
Things don't go according to plan and Becky soon moves to a country mansion, Queen's Crawley, where she takes up a job as a governess to the children of the wealthy widower Sir Pitt Crawley. She manages to entrap the naïve younger son of the house, Rawdon Crawley. Meanwhile, Amelia and George marry. However, George is not all he seems and turns out to be a coward in war and an unscrupulous liar. He is also weary of his marriage and begins to pay undue attentions to Becky, whom he meets in Brighton where she is staying with her husband. The rest of the story follows the lives of the two classmates and their travails.
The title of Vanity Fair is taken from John Bunyan's famous 17th century work, Pilgrim's Progress. In Bunyan's allegorical tale of Christian's journey, Vanity Fair is the name of an endless carnival in the town of Vanity, and represents worldly vices and sinful attachments. Thackeray was writing in the Golden Age of Satire when greats like Dryden, Pope, Swift, Addison, Steele and Fielding were regaling readers with their caustic, acerbic wit. Vanity Fair explores the ideas of transient, materialistic desires and their harmful effects on people. His biting satirical portrait of the selfish and street smart Becky and her overwhelming desire for wealth and social success is one of the masterpieces in English literature.
Thackeray's brilliant gifts for slicing through the pretensions and facades that human beings hide behind remain one of the reasons why Vanity Fair is even today considered a must read classic.
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Episodes
02 – In Which Miss Sharp and Miss Sedley Prepare to Open the Campaign
January 01, 2024 00:00 - 22 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
03 – Rebecca is in Presence of the Enemy
December 31, 2023 00:00 - 18 minutes - 7.63 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
04 – The Green Silk Purse
December 30, 2023 00:00 - 32 minutes - 14.3 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
05 – Dobbin of Ours
December 29, 2023 00:00 - 26 minutes - 11.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
07 – Crawley of Queen’s Crawley
December 27, 2023 00:00 - 19 minutes - 8.58 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
08 – Private and Confidential
December 26, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutes - 13.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
09 – Family Portraits
December 25, 2023 00:00 - 22 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
10 – Miss Sharp Begins To Make Friends
December 24, 2023 00:00 - 18 minutes - 8.58 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
11 – Arcadian Simplicity
December 23, 2023 00:00 - 40 minutes - 18.1 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
12 – Quite a Sentimental Chapter
December 22, 2023 00:00 - 24 minutes - 10.5 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
13 – Sentimental and Otherwise
December 21, 2023 00:00 - 29 minutes - 12.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
14 – Miss Crawley at Home
December 20, 2023 00:00 - 45 minutes - 20 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
15 – In Which Rebecca’s Husband Appears for a Short Time
December 19, 2023 00:00 - 21 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
16 – The Letter on the Pincushion
December 18, 2023 00:00 - 11 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
17 – How Captain Dobbin Bought a Piano
December 17, 2023 00:00 - 20 minutes - 8.58 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
18 – Who Played on the Piano Captain Dobbin Bought
December 16, 2023 00:00 - 32 minutes - 14.3 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
19 – Miss Crawley at Nurse
December 15, 2023 00:00 - 27 minutes - 12.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
20 – In Which Captain Dobbin Acts as the Messenger of Hymen
December 14, 2023 00:00 - 25 minutes - 11.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
21 – A Quarrel About an Heiress
December 13, 2023 00:00 - 26 minutes - 11.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
22 – A Marriage and Part of a Honeymoon
December 12, 2023 00:00 - 24 minutes - 10.5 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
23 – Captain Dobbin Proceeds on His Canvass
December 11, 2023 00:00 - 17 minutes - 7.63 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
24 – In Which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible
December 10, 2023 00:00 - 36 minutes - 16.2 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
25 – In Which All the Principal Personages Think Fit to Leave Brighton
December 09, 2023 00:00 - 52 minutes - 23.8 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
26 – Between London and Chatham
December 08, 2023 00:00 - 21 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
27 – In Which Amelia Joins Her Regiment
December 07, 2023 00:00 - 17 minutes - 7.63 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
28 – In Which Amelia Invades the Low Countries
December 06, 2023 00:00 - 25 minutes - 11.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
30 – The Girl I Left Behind Me
December 04, 2023 00:00 - 27 minutes - 12.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
31 – In Which Jos Sedley Takes Care of His Sister
December 03, 2023 00:00 - 34 minutes - 15.3 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
32 – In Which Jos Takes Flight, and the War Is Brought to a Close
December 02, 2023 00:00 - 14 minutes - 5.72 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
33 – In Which Miss Crawley’s Relations Are Very Anxious About Her
December 01, 2023 00:00 - 22 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
34 – James Crawley’s Pipe is Put Out
November 30, 2023 00:00 - 36 minutes - 16.2 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
35 – Widow and Mother
November 29, 2023 00:00 - 33 minutes - 15.3 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
36 – How to Live Well on Nothing a Year
November 28, 2023 00:00 - 24 minutes - 10.5 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
37 – The Subject Continued
November 27, 2023 00:00 - 48 minutes - 21.9 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
38 – A Family in a Very Small Way
November 26, 2023 00:00 - 34 minutes - 15.3 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
39 – A Cynical Chapter
November 25, 2023 00:00 - 21 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
40 – In Which Becky Is Recognized by the Family
November 24, 2023 00:00 - 22 minutes - 9.54 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
41 – In Which Becky Revisits the Halls of Her Ancestors
November 23, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutes - 13.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
42 – Which Treats of the Osborne Family
November 22, 2023 00:00 - 20 minutes - 8.58 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
43 – In Which the Reader has to Double the Cape
November 21, 2023 00:00 - 26 minutes - 11.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
44 – A Round-about Chapter between London and Hampshire
November 20, 2023 00:00 - 28 minutes - 12.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
45 – Between Hampshire and London
November 19, 2023 00:00 - 27 minutes - 12.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
46 – Struggles and Trials
November 18, 2023 00:00 - 24 minutes - 10.5 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
48 – In Which the Reader Is Introduced to the Very Best of Company
November 16, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutes - 13.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
49 – In Which we Enjoy Three Courses and a Desert
November 15, 2023 00:00 - 19 minutes - 8.58 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com
50 – Contains a Vulgar Incident
November 14, 2023 00:00 - 25 minutes - 11.4 MBMore great books at LoyalBooks.com