Thackeray The Life of a Literary Man by D. J. Taylor. (2001, 494 pages)

Born 1811 Calcutta

Died 1863. London

Vanity Fair 1848

I first became aware of William Makepeace Thackeray through reading The Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman in the long ago, his Vanity Fair was among the enshrined works.  When I finally completed Vanity Fair earlier this year it was as my last to be read work of English language fiction on Fadiman's list. I admit I was put off by the thought of a thousand plus page Voctorian novel.  I should have known  to trust Clifton Fadiman.   It was a great delight to read Thackeray's depiction of the vanities of England in the early 19th century.  Becky Sharp, the lead character of the novel, is 

A wonderful creation,  in her anything goes drive to rise from poverty to high society.  I next read his Barry Lyndon, remembering what a great movie was made from the novel. 

I have read a number of biographies of well known writers over the last few years.  No one can really explain how one person's life experiences lets them write masterworks but from these biographies something of the well springs of creativity can be discovered. .   Some writers have fascinating tumultuous lives and  produce works of genius, other live completely bland existences and do the same.  Of course Hart Crane's chaotic life is easier to make exciting than that of an insurance company executive like Wallace Stevens.  William Thackeray's life, viewed externally, was not all that exciting once he began to be a famous writer and that makes it challenging to write  an interesting biography about him.  D. J. Taylor has done a very good job of giving us details and a real feel for his day to day existence.

Taylor did a very good job of talking about the lives of English civil servants and merchants when they return from India.  A ten or twenty year tour with the Crown or the Company could, with a little  luck and guile, could return you to England rich.  Thackeray was born into an Anglo Indian family and we learn a lot about this milieu.  Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Thackeray's life was his marriage.  In this late twenties he fell madly in love with a 17 year old girl.  Sadly after bearing him two daughters who were to become the emotional center of Thackeray's life, she went insane.  Before this he spent time in Paris and Weimer, gambling and spending time and his father's money in dissipation.

Thackeray struggled to make a living as a writer until he began to publish serials of his novels.  Vanity Fair made him truly famous.  Taylor goes into a lot of detail on Thackeray's friendship and feud with Charles Dickens.  We also go along on his very lucrative lecture tours to America,  

As he aged Thackeray began to gain a lot of weight.  He also developed a never consummated emotional relationship with a married woman, his wife being confined for years to asylums or in the homes of paid care givers.  He was very concerned with providing for the care of his wife and his daughters.  One of his daughters became the first wife of Leslie Stephens who 

during a subsequent marriage become the father of Virgnia Woolf.   Literary London was a small world.

This biography brings Thackeray to life.  We see his ups and downs.  We learn about the business side of being a Victorian novelist.  Thackeray was heavily involved with the vital periodic world and Taylor  gives us a lot of details about this.

We see Thackeray struggle to write, never coming again close to his peak work.

Thackeray was a decent man, very devoted to his children and doing his best for his wife.

I am glad I read Taylor's biography.  

I was given this  book by the publisher.  I was also given his biography of George Orwell and hope to read it soon.  

D. J. Taylor is the author of eleven novels, including Kept (2006), which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book, Derby Day (2011), longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and The Windsor Faction (2013), a joint winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. His nonfiction includes a biography of Thackeray and Orwell: The Life (2003), which won the Whitbread Biography Award. His journalism appears in a variety of newspapers and periodicals, including the Independent, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Wall Street Journal.

Mel u 

The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon by William Thackeray 1844 - With Scene Shots of the Stanley Kubrick Movie

Earlier this month I read William Thackeray's great classic, Vanity Fair.  Upon completing it I wanted to read another of his works.  I recalled back some thirty five years ago when I saw the 1975 Stanley Kubrick movie based on Thackeray's Memoirs of Barry Lyndon.  I still remember how beautiful the movie was, the wonderful costumes, and presentation of 18th century life.  I was not really eager to read another 1000 page novel right now and Barry Lyndon is under 400 pages so I decided to give it a try.  I ended up totally enjoying it.  

   Lady Lyndon and Barry's Son

I liked that it was partially set in Ireland.  The novel is narrated, with a few intrusions by the fictional editor of the memoirs, by Barry Lyndon.  He tells a tale a brilliant mixture of sharp insight and self-delusion. We see him go from being captured to fight in the German army to being considered, at least by himself, one of the great men of European society.  Gambling plays a big part in his life.  He is a feared duelist with the sword or pistol.  A great lover, or so he tells us, first driven from Ireland when he falsely thinks he killed a romantic rival  in a duel over a woman.  The book was initially serialized so something exciting happens in almost every chapter.  

       Lord Bullington, Barry's step son and arch enemy

Barry Lyndon is exciting with nonstop action.  Barry is convinced he is entitled to great riches and is wronged by everyone but perhaps his Irish mother.  I did not end up liking Barry but maybe i felt a bit sorry for him.

By all means first read Vanity Fair but lovers of the Victorian novel, especially picturesque adventures, should consider putting Barry Lyndon on their one of these days maybe list.

Mel u

Vanity Fair by William Thackeray. 1848

Vanity Fair by William Thackeray first was added to my to be read list in the long ago when I read Clifton Fadiman's description of it in his Lifetime Reading List.  He praised it for its panoramic view of British society and the creation of perhaps the original literary bad girl, Rebecca Sharp.  In November of last year I read a book described by the publisher as "The Vanity Fair of the Weimer Republic, Wolf Among Wolves by Hans Fallada.  I decided the time had at last come to read Vanity Fair.

I am not inclined to retell the plot, Wikepedia has a good summery those trying to avoid reading the book can utilize. I will just talk a bit about my reactions and what I liked   about the work.  

Becky and her life time friend and cocenter of the novel, Amelia Smedley are both just graduating from a finishing school.  Becky was a charity student, her mother was a second rate opera singer and her father a gambler, her best friend Amelia was from a wealthy family.  Upon graduation the school owner was in the habit of giving girls copies of Doctor Johnson's dictionary.  I was totally flabbergasted when Becky   threw her copy out of the window of the coach taking her away.  I saw this as Thackeray's  first salvo fired at the pretensions of English society.  I laughed out loud, something I rarely do reading a book written over 150 years ago.  

Becky is looking to raise her status in life through the proper employment of her considerable charms.  There are more twists and turns in the plot than in a road through the mountains of Baguio.  Everybody but Amelia has a bad side, in some characters that is their only side.   Lots of exciting, tragic, and some pleasant things happen.  The book was first published serially so Thackeray had to end chapters leaving the readers waiting eagerly  for the next episode.

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One thing I really liked about the novel was the treatment of the impact of the wars against Napolean as seen from the perspective of the English upper class where officer ranks were purchased.  Additionally I really enjoyed and was not expecting the accounts of British life in India.  

Vanity Fair is long at close to 1000 pages but I think Thackeray needed this length for  his portrait of British society.  He also makes frequent remarks about the characters which exhibited great insight.  He speaks directly to the reader and I liked his remarks a lot. Fadiman described Thackeray as "a worldly wise clubman" and this seems accurate to me. I found the book got more interesting as I read in and learned more about the world of Becky and Amelia.  The longer I read on the more I liked the novel. 

Vanity Fair belongs on the life time list of all serious literary autodidacts.  It is often listed as one of the hundred best novels in the world.  I am very happy to have at last read this classic.

I hope those more experienced in Thackeray might suggest others of his novels I might read or should I just stop with Vanity Fair?

How is the movie, I hoped to find it on Netflix but did not. 

 Mel u