Rating: 
Summary: One of my all-time favourite books.
Review: This book is on my list of all-time favourites. It is a novel that exposes social hypocrisy and sham, and a social satire of Thackery's era. It was written in the mid-nineteenth century. This book is often referred to as "a novel without a hero". It does not in fact have a male hero, but it does have a wonderful female creation. Becky Sharp is a brilliant fictional creation. The novel covers so many different areas of society and Becky's effect on them and their effect on her as she moves through the story. We see many different ways of life from this time, and they are portrayed so very well. The elements that we see are army society, city merchants' society, country gentlefolk's society, genteel poverty, fashionable society, life below stairs, and we see them all so clearly. Most remarkable of all, Thackery's heroine's profound effect on her readers is so different than what we are normally used to. Becky has no redeeming human qualities at all. She is a liar, a hypocrite, ungrateful, dishonest, mercenary and mean. But these qualities make her appear so real because the reader is aware throughout what kind of person that she is. We are under no illusions. I could go on and on because I love this book so, but you need to read this wonderful novel for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic for the sake of classic
Review: Vanity Fair is an important book. Its implications about feminism, greed, lust, and manipulation were prevelent then and are prevelent today. The book has doubtlessly provided a model for many modern satires, and thus there are many modern books that are much easier to relate to. Read this one because it is a classic, not becuase you want a good beach book. If you don't take time to absorb the period wit and atmosphere, you might as well read something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Get on with it!
Review: While interesting, I found this to be a laborious read. The first 135 pages are spent setting the scene and building atmosphere, thereby setting the pace for the whole novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Vanity Fair prys into the yearnings of an era and a culture.
Review: William Makepeace Thackeray was a wonderfully insightful and intelligent rabble-rouser. He speaks in this tale with a very gossipy tone and spectacular wit and with elements of underlying societal truths within his text. As a modern philosopher of his own society during the Victorian era, Thackeray is utterly charming. Vanity Fair must have been a phenomenon not unlike `Sex and the City' which debuted some years ago on HBO television. Vanity Fair, when it was released, was done in "monthly numbers" for over one and one-half years in periodicals. Readers were drawn into the lives of Becky and Amelia and had no quips about producing their hard-earned pounds to read of what would ultimately become of the two fascinating girls. Purposely suspenseful plots "hooked" the London public. Thackeray became a star amongst the literary supreme of London. By inserting himself and his thoughts and views of England, the nature of man, war, poverty and the boastful aristocratic society into the work, he presents himself and his own opinions to the world through Vanity Fair. This novel is as important today as it was when it was released, especially for one studying historical life as it was from day to day. We are given plain viewpoints of somewhat normal, fashionable, destitute and poverty striken women of the era. Very interesting, always charming, a splendid read--albeit a very long one.
Rating:
Summary: Vanity Fair prys into the yearnings of an era and a culture.
Review: William Makepeace Thackeray was a wonderfully insightful and intelligent rabble-rouser. He speaks in this tale with a very gossipy tone and spectacular wit and with elements of underlying societal truths within his text. As a modern philosopher of his own society during the Victorian era, Thackeray is utterly charming. Vanity Fair must have been a phenomenon not unlike 'Sex and the City' which debuted some years ago on HBO television. Vanity Fair, when it was released, was done in "monthly numbers" for over one and one-half years in periodicals. Readers were drawn into the lives of Becky and Amelia and had no quips about producing their hard-earned pounds to read of what would ultimately become of the two fascinating girls. Purposely suspenseful plots "hooked" the London public. Thackeray became a star amongst the literary supreme of London. By inserting himself and his thoughts and views of England, the nature of man, war, poverty and the boastful aristocratic society into the work, he presents himself and his own opinions to the world through Vanity Fair. This novel is as important today as it was when it was released, especially for one studying historical life as it was from day to day. We are given plain viewpoints of somewhat normal, fashionable, destitute and poverty striken women of the era. Very interesting, always charming, a splendid read--albeit a very long one.
Rating:
Summary: Vanity Fair
Review: William Makepeace Thackeray was not a major author, but his major work-Vanity Fair-is a fine piece of English prose. Through his wildly eccentric characters, Thackeray tells us, with humor, what he thought about "hypocritical" Victorian England. Though at times melodrama shows up uninvited, I am confident you will enjoy this work--all 800 pages of it ;-)
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