I think I initially wanted to read Vanity Fair as a teenager because of Reese Witherspoon. She starred in a movie adaptation of the novel back in the 2000s, and as a kid that grew up watching Legally Blonde and Cruel Intentions, I wanted to see whatever she did. I decided to read the book before watching the movie, so I bought the novel way back when I was in high school. I actually started reading it, but its length and difficult language were a bit too much for me back then. It was one of the few books I ended up putting down (I never ended up watching the movie either). I always knew I wanted to go back to it eventually, so I put it on my Classics Club list. When I saw that the Back to the Classics Challenge had a prompt to read a humorous or satirical classic this year, I knew that Vanity Fair would be the perfect fit. I started off my reading once again, hoping that all my experience over the years reading classics would help me to do better than I did on my first attempt.
The plot of the novel follows several different characters living in England during the Napoleonic Wars, the most prominent of which is Becky Sharp. Becky is a penniless orphan from a lower class family at the start of the story, but she doesn't let that get her down. She is determined to climb her way to the top of the social hierarchy using her formidable powers of deception, flattery, and flirtation. Throughout the course of the novel, she schemes her way into a marriage far above her station and then proceeds to live quite lavishly on "nothing a year" through her husband's meager gambling winnings, extensive lines of credit, and manipulation of her friends and in-laws. Her spirit is admirable, but her methods are very selfish and ruthless. Before long, her intricate system of lies and deceit start to catch up with her and she must find a way to maintain the social position she worked so hard to achieve.
Another character we follow through the novel is Amelia Sedley, an old school friend of Becky's that is in every way her opposite. Where Becky is devious, tricky, and bold, Amelia is shy, meek, and obedient. She starts the novel off very comfortable financially, but when her father loses his fortune through poor business decisions, she finds herself at the lower end of society. Instead of scheming to climb back up like Becky does, she quietly accepts her fate, performs all the admirable duties of a good daughter, and suffers mightily for it. Her fall stands in stark contrast to Becky's rise, and the reader is left to wonder if all her goodness will end up being rewarded in the end.
Through the stories of Becky, Amelia, and a handful of other characters, Thackeray mercilessly lampoons English society and their fixation on social status and money. The novel abounds with instances of people behaving quite badly under the corrupting influence of wealth. They betray friends and family, disregard the feelings of others, and generally behave like monsters in the pursuit of obtaining or maintaining their money. The rich are shown to be silly and callous and the characters that struggle or don't care much about such things are generally shown to be more admirable than their richer counterparts. The overall message is clear - there is nothing about having a lot of money that makes anyone particularly deserving of luxury or status. The divisions between people that have money and those that don't are entirely random, and not at all connected to strength of character or innate goodness. The process of acquiring money if you don't have it is quite corrupting and can lead to personal disaster when taken too far. At the same time, sacrificing and living without can lead one into an equal amount of misery and sadness. Essentially, money is tricky, life is random, and people are terrible. The book is really funny though, I swear.
I enjoyed Vanity Fair well enough. It was full of biting sarcasm and hilarious characters. I appreciated the sense of humor throughout it and could tell that Thackeray was a master of social satire. What I struggled with was its length. My edition of the novel had 696 pages of tiny print, and most of that felt rather aimless. It follows many characters over the course of many year and there's never really one driving plot that unites them all together. It's that kind of book where you're watching characters doing things and have no idea what any of it is building to; you're just along for the ride. There are a lot of obscure allusions to culture and history from the time period which were difficult to understand as well, so parts of the text were confusing. I tried to set myself a goal of reading 50 pages a day, and it was tough to stick to that. It was good, but it definitely wasn't a page turner. If you're in the mood for a big, thick classic though, you could definitely do worse.
I think what I liked the most about the story were the shades of gray among the characters. No one is all good or all bad, not even Becky, who has got to be one of the most outrageously selfish characters of all time. This made the story feel a bit more authentic, even though it's clearly a satire. Similarly, I liked the idea in the text that those who end up with money don't necessarily deserve it. Those who rise or fall in society largely do so based on accidents of birth, and hard work or virtue do not provide a straight path to financial security or even to happiness. In fact, it's often that people succeed by employing the exact opposite tactics. These are cynical ideas to be sure, but they make for an interesting story. It's funny that although this book was set during the 1800s, the ways money can cause problems in society hasn't really changed that much. It was the root of all evil back then and it remains so today.
Overall, I thought Vanity Fair was a solid read, although the process of getting through it felt hopelessly long a lot of the time. Still, it had an interesting cast of characters, contained some excellent social commentary, and definitely gave the reader a lot to think about. I'm glad to have experienced this one; meeting Becky Sharp alone was worth the price of admission. Reflecting back on my first try at the novel, it's pretty cool to think about how far I have come as a reader of classics. I thought this book was too difficult back in high school, and now it was not a big deal at all to understand (obscure allusions notwithstanding). Now I suppose my next step will be to finally watch the movie adaptation and see how it measures up.
Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#64 on my list): 96/100 books completed
Back to the Classics 2021 (A Humorous or Satirical Classic): 10/12
Total Books Read in 2021: 35
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