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 Pure class October 18, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
It really is that good. How much you like this book will depend to a large extent on how much you like the Victorian novel. If you like Dickens, the Brontes, Elliot and the like, then you are in for a real treat, because Thackeray is the best of the lot. Less verbose and rambling than Dickens, less sentimental than Elliot, more ironic than the Brontes, Thackeray is a supreme writer of English - ironic, cheerful and pessimistic by turns, sometimes tender and affectionate then cruel and caustic, he maintains a narrative control that invites the reader to share his moral vision of the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian England, and the world we all inhabit.
Vanity Fair has that universal quality of the best fiction - it enables you to see the world in a new way. An hour reading this novel is time spent with a true comedian, someone who sees the grotesque, humorous, admirable, cruel, stubborn, heroic, gentle etc reality of the human condition and can tell it in chapters of the best English since Shakespeare.
A novel written before its time. April 26, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Although a mammoth read, Thackeray has voiced what other Victorian writers felt obliged to conceal. Vanity Fair retains its relevance in today's capitalist consumer society. I believe there is a Becky Sharp lurking within all of us! Best read I have read in the past year.
A marvellous reading April 7, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a marvellous reading of a great book. Jane Lapotaire's ironic and sometimes slightly world-weary delivery does full justice to the comedy of the novel, and listening to her narration made the daily drive to and from work (almost) a pleasure.
 Worthy classic but a huge book July 7, 2005
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Worthy classic, enjoyed reading it, but it is a huge book and for modern readers sometimes quite slow moving. Having said that, the story and characters of Vanity Fair still apply today and it deserves its status as a classic quite rightly.
Not bad for a classic! June 17, 2003
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
Let's face it, these days there aren't that many students who really enjoy ploughing their way through a chunky eight-hundred-and-something page victorian novel, yet we're all forced to read them in school. I have to say, though, I genuinely enjoyed this one.For a book this old and this thick, it's suprisingly and refreshingly light. Thackeray does waste quite a lot of time with trivial details, but not neatly as much as Dickens or Hardy. Thackeray plays with his readers and plays with his characters and the result is a delightful satire that pokes fun at everyone. What's interesting about the story is that defies convention. It doesn't just end with everyone getting married and living happily ever after; all the marriages take place near the beginning of the book and most of the book is about life after marriage. The characters are well written and amusing. What's really remarkable is how clearly the book paints a picture of society, many parts of which are still valid today. If you want to read an interesting classic, go for this one. It's fairly easy to read, despite it's legnth, and is amusing and interesting.
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