Riassunto
Riassunto di La fiera delle vanità
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love big social novels, sharp comedy about money and manners, and characters who are neither saints nor villains.
Che cos’è questo libro
Vanity Fair is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in monthly parts in 1847 and 1848. Its subtitle in the first edition calls it a novel without a hero, and that is a fair warning. Thackeray gives you a crowd of people who want money, rank and comfort, and he watches how far they will go to get them. The story begins in 1813 and follows its people through the years of the Napoleonic wars and after.
The book follows two young women who leave the same school on the same day. Amelia Sedley is gentle, loving and rich. Becky Sharp is clever, poor and alone, and she means to rise by her wits. Around them move soldiers, merchants, baronets, widows and a good many creditors. Thackeray tells it all through a narrator who calls himself the Manager of the Performance and treats his characters like puppets in a show.
What do you get from it? A wide, funny and sometimes painful picture of English society at the time of Waterloo, with some of the sharpest character studies in the language. You also get a story that keeps you guessing who deserves your sympathy. Let us begin where the book begins, at a school for young ladies on a bright morning, with a dictionary thrown out of a carriage window.
In questo riassunto
- 1Two girls leave school with different hopesFree
- 2Becky sets her cap at Jos Sedley
- 3A governess finds a house full of schemers
- 4A secret marriage costs Rawdon a fortune
- 5Brussels and the eve of Waterloo
- 6Money decides who rises and who falls
- 7Becky climbs through London society
- 8What the story is really about
- 9A narrator with a puppet show
Punto chiave 1 di 9
Two girls leave school with different hopes
The story opens at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies, on Chiswick Mall near London. Amelia Sedley is leaving after years there, and she is loved by everyone. She is the daughter of a prosperous London merchant, and her future seems laid out for her. Her friend Rebecca Sharp, called Becky, is leaving too, but she has nothing waiting for her except a post as a governess.
Becky is the orphan of a poor artist and a French opera dancer. She has grown up half hungry, moving between cheap lodgings and creditors. At the academy she has worked as a pupil teacher, and she has learned to please people she privately despises. Miss Pinkerton gives Amelia a grand farewell. She gives Becky only a cold handshake and refuses her the usual gift of a dictionary.
As the carriage pulls away, Miss Pinkerton's sister, who has a kinder heart, slips Becky a copy of Johnson's Dictionary after all. Becky flings it out of the window as the coach rolls off. It is a small act, but it shows you her nature at once. She is tired of being grateful to people who look down on her, and she does not hide her scorn when she thinks no one important is watching.
The two girls are set up as a pair, and Thackeray keeps them side by side for the whole book. Amelia is warm, trusting and a little foolish. Becky is quick, cold and cheerful in the face of bad luck. The reader is asked early to decide whether goodness or cleverness fares better in a world that rewards neither very fairly.
Becky goes home with Amelia for a short stay before taking up her post. This lets her see a comfortable house, a loving family and the kind of life she wants. It also starts every other thread of the story, because the people in the Sedley house become the people she will use, and sometimes hurt, as she climbs.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- Becky Sharp
- A clever, impoverished orphan and Amelia's schoolmate, Becky uses charm and calculation to seek money and rank.
- Amelia Sedley
- A trusting merchant's daughter and Becky's schoolmate, Amelia loves her childhood fiancé, George Osborne.
- William Dobbin
- An awkward, loyal army officer and George's friend, Dobbin quietly loves Amelia without demanding her affection.
- George Osborne
- A handsome, spoiled army officer, George is Amelia's childhood fiancé and William Dobbin's admired friend.
- Rawdon Crawley
- A debt-ridden dragoon captain and Sir Pitt's son, Rawdon falls for Becky and hopes for his aunt's fortune.
- Jos Sedley
- Amelia's vain brother, Jos collects taxes in India and attracts Becky's attention during his visit home.
- Sir Pitt Crawley
- Rawdon's coarse, miserly father, Sir Pitt employs Becky as a governess at his country house.
- Lord Steyne
- A wealthy marquess with a doubtful reputation, Lord Steyne becomes Becky's influential patron in fashionable society.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 312,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 20 h 45 min
- Listening time34 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about La fiera delle vanità
What is Vanity Fair about?
It follows Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, two friends from a London school, through Regency England and the Napoleonic wars. Thackeray uses their stories to mock social climbing, greed and hypocrisy, while showing real love and loyalty in a few characters.
Why is it called Vanity Fair?
The title comes from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, where Vanity Fair is a market of worldly goods and empty pleasures. Thackeray applies the idea to English society, where rank, marriage and reputation are bought and sold.
Why is Vanity Fair called a novel without a hero?
Thackeray gave it that subtitle because no single character is purely good or admirable. Becky is brilliant but selfish, Amelia is kind but blind, and even honest Dobbin has flaws. The book offers a crowd rather than one champion.
Is Vanity Fair a true story, and when was it written?
It is fiction, though it uses real history such as the Battle of Waterloo as a background. Thackeray published it in monthly parts in 1847 and 1848, and set it about thirty years earlier, between 1813 and the years after Waterloo.
Is Vanity Fair hard to read?
The humour, the plain scenes and the lively narrator make it easier than it looks. Reading in short sessions works well, as the book was first printed in monthly parts.