William Makepeace Thackeray is an English satirist and master of the realistic novel. He published the novel Vanity Fair in 1847-1848. This grandiose work brought popularity to the writer. It should be noted that Thackeray's previous literary works were published under a pseudonym, but Vanity Fair was signed by the English satirist's own name.
Start
Two young people are leaving Pinkerton Pension. One of them, Emilia Sedley, is the daughter of a wealthy English nobleman. Emilia is a well-mannered girl endowed with all kinds of virtues. And why are kindness, generosity and tenderness of the heart considered dispassionate and rather dreary qualities? Unclear. But along with the positive character traits, Emilia was frankly stupid. There was nothing in her that would indicate high intelligence.
The second girl to leave the boarding house was Rebecca Sharp. The complete opposite of the first heroine. Rebecca is the daughter of an unknown French dancer and a mediocre artist. This young lady was a fragile creature. Small stature and asthenic pallor, which had nothing to do with the pallor of aristocratic skin. The girl grew up in absolute poverty, but with cheerful shades of a jumping dragonfly. In this environment, she learned wit, deception, hypocrisy, dissipation and had an absolutely adventurous mindset.
How often it happens in life that opposites attract. The girls are unusually friendly. So different, and therefore they are drawn to each other. Emilia lacks the fire and tireless vitality of Becky. And that, in turn, is attracted by the sophistication and aristocracy of her friend. Well, and, of course, the fact that she is from a wealthy family. Rebecca is invited to visit. She tries with all her might to please the rich relatives of Emilia. She does it simply masterly. Using her seductive charms on Emilia's brother, Joseph Sedle, she practically falls in love with him. All that was needed was to use flattery and outright lies. And this insignificant fool is head over heels into a liar. But her plans are not destined to come true, as Emilia's fiancé, George Osborne, intervenes.
But is it possible to stop a flawed girl on the way to her secured happiness. Rebecca tries on the role of governess at Pitt Crowley's estate. This is a disgusting old man, a vulgar, dirty, bad-smelling drunkard. Well, who, no matter how hypocritical, the opportunist and the liar Miss Sharp does not become his favorite. It took the girl less than a year to become practically the mistress of this English kingdom.
Crowley's half-sister
Sir Pitt's half-sister comes to visit Crowley's Kingdom every year. The old lady is a tyrant. She harasses the servants in every possible way and gets great pleasure from it. Miss Crowley is very rich, and numerous relatives hope that they will get at least something from the inheritance. This old miss recognizes no one other than Rawdon Crowley. A reveler, a gambler and a duelist, who is not at all burdened with intelligence, is considered the favorite of the old aunt. In addition to him, Miss Crawley is imbued with sympathy for Rebecca's governess, who tries to please her in everything. Rawdon Crowley and Rebecca are secretly married.
Despite the fact that Miss Crawley treats Rebecca with sympathy, she is against the misalliance of her beloved nephew and cannot forgive him. The tradition and its commitment to marriage of convenience remains unchanged. Rebecca is upset that she hastened to marry a young rascal. Since a place soon became available next to Sir Pitt. And he offers the young governess his hand and heart. The girl understands that she missed her chance and sobs uncontrollably with bitterness and anger.
The young couple are doing worse and worse. Auntie was offended by her nephew, Sir Pitt died, leaving almost nothing but devastation of the family nest. Rebecca and Rawdon Crowley now live on his small guard captain's salary. But the young spouse does not like this state of affairs, and she decides to get a fun life by any means.
Clouds thickened over Emilia's head
Unpleasant events take place in Emilia's house. The flight of Napoleon from Elba and the landing of his army in Cannes negatively affect the state of affairs on the stock exchange. This leads many to ruin, including Emilia's father, John Sedley. Their property goes under the hammer. The family moves to a poor rented housing. But Emilia is not unhappy for this reason. She loves her fiancé George Osborne with all her heart, but it is he who becomes the source of all her misfortunes.
He pays for her unselfish love with inattention, coldness, lack of tenderness, and constant adventures to the left. But still this union will be. And Emilia marries her lover against the wishes of her father. The parent and the groom himself were against this wedding because of the destruction of the bride's house. Captain Dobbin, who is passionately in love with Emilia, contributed to the reunion of the two young people. His generosity and honesty allowed him to abandon his feelings for the girl, seeing that she was in love with another. As a result, the young couple is deprived of the financial support of the groom's father and lives only on a salary, like the young family of Rebecca.
Fatal meeting
Two young married couples meet in Brussels. The regiment of Dobbin and George, as well as General of the Guard Tafto and his adjutant, Rawdon Crowley, were sent to this city. Becky immediately makes a lot of necessary acquaintances. She is surrounded by admirers, including Emilia's husband. Becky's coquetry, despite her friendship with Emilia, reaches the point that George Osborne, enchanted by her, invites Rebecca to flee with him. He has nothing to offer a young girl except his ardent heart. But she is not interested in it, she needs money. Full of remorse and disappointment, George says goodbye to Emilia and leaves for the war. After a short time, he is killed at Waterloo.
Return to Crowley's Kingdom
Rodon and Rebecca's family leaves for Paris. They spend three years there. The young woman here wins hearts. Now she has reached her Olympus. She is accepted in the highest Parisian society. But after a while the young couple returned to London. They live on credit, borrowing from everyone right and left.
Aunt Rodon dies, but bequeaths her property to her eldest nephew. He is married to a beautiful and dignified woman from high English society, Lady Jane. The brother-baronet feels sorry for the younger relative and invites him and Rebecca to live together on their estate. Rebecca finds herself in the Kingdom of Crowley again. She again weaves intrigues and tries to charm everyone with her deceitful virtue. The newly minted baronet is caught like a fish on a hook by the flattery of the intriguer. Rodon's older brother is a frequent visitor to their family. The nobleman who protects the girl, Lord Stein, stays here almost every day. With his light hand, Rebecca meets many influential people.
The Lord presents her with diamonds. Finally, she manages to stand on a par with noble and respectable ladies. Rebecca is introduced to the court. High society accepts her, and Rebecca sees that his morals are not so virtuous. The same lies, sycophancy, hypocrisy and flattery reign here. Her husband is burdened by such a life, these receptions and balls. He is increasingly moving away from his wife and becomes attached to her son, which the young mother does not need at all. As a result, he brings Rebecca to clean water, convicting her of infidelity, and challenges her patron to a duel. It all ends with Rawdon leaving England to become governor of Coventry Island.
The couple broke up. Rebecca disappears from view. Their son is raised by an uncle and his wife. She becomes a real mother for the boy.
Emilia
A young woman is having a hard time going through the death of her beloved spouse. The birth of her son saves her from despair. They live with their parents and patiently endure extreme hardship.
John Osborne, grandfather, seeing how the little boy looks like his deceased son, is imbued with love for him and invites Emilia to give him up for education. The young mother agrees. She understands that her son will have all the best and makes a sacrifice. Emilia devotes herself to caring for an elderly father after her mother died. She brightens up his loneliness. The dedication of this woman is amazing. And fortune finally turns to face her.
Major Dobbin returns from distant India. The enamored officer offers help to Emilia's family. The woman is so deeply overwhelmed by the loss of her husband that she does not notice Dobbin's love for herself. Emilia's father dies. The father-in-law also goes to the forefathers, bequeathing half of his fortune to his beloved grandson, restoring the guardianship of the widow of his deceased son. Later, she learns that she owes everything to the officer. It was he who was a secret benefactor who did not allow them to starve to death.
Emilia and Rebecca
Their meeting takes place on the banks of the beautiful Rhine. Emilia with her son and brother are traveling. At this time, Rebecca wastes in card games the last money that she got from her husband, and makes acquaintance with dubious persons. She has long been no longer accepted in decent society, considering that the presence of this woman is an insult. Seeing Emilia's brother, old forgotten feelings stirred in Becky's soul. She hopes for a better outcome. Launches her spell. Tells scary stories about himself. As if her beloved child had been taken away from her and her good name had been dishonored.
Joseph again falls for the bait of a cunning schemer. Yes, life has not taught Emilia anything either. She was filled with pity for her ex-girlfriend. Dobbin warns his beloved that Rebecca is not who she claims to be. They quarrel a lot. And the officer decides to leave the woman, not finding her understanding. In this situation, Rebecca behaved unexpectedly. She shows Emilia's letter, which contains evidence of George's infidelity. Emilia realizes that he never really loved her. Now she knows who was devoted to her all the time, took care of her and loved her. She responds to Dobbin's feelings. They live together a long and happy quiet life in a small and very comfortable house and are friends with Crowley. Joseph, Emilia's brother and Rebecca's husband dies. The woman herself lives comfortably, has many friends, but to the end she does not find her true happiness.
Analysis of the work
This novel is called Vanity Fair for a reason. In it, the writer showed the state of society, its mores and social divide. The novel is so realistic that it seems to have no time. And today the features of that time are relevant. The pinnacle of everything is snobbery, hypocrisy, lies, rudeness. Everything is based on money. Everything is bought and sold. It's like a huge fair and the perfect creativity of scum. It should be noted that the novel also has the full title “Vanity Fair. A novel without a hero. And after all, it really accurately reflects the given work.
At its core, there is no protagonist in it. Positive characters are ambiguous. Take Emilia. It seems like this woman might be the main character. However, she simply does not have enough fighting qualities of character for this. Rebecca is prose. She personifies today's business people. Thieving, cunning, unscrupulous on hand. Captain Dobbin can be a goodie contender. The way it is. But a certain aftertaste of dissatisfaction remains. But he is much better than all the other characters in the novel. Vanity Fair - you have to do a lot in order not to get there. The novel is worth reading for everyone.
