Vanity Fair (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes and Noble Classics:
* New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
* Biographies of the authors
* Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
* Footnotes and endnotes
* Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
* Comments by other famous authors
* Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
* Bibliographies for further reading
* Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences―biographical, historical, and literary―to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R“I think I could be a good woman, if I had five thousand a year,” observes beautiful and clever Becky Sharp, one of the wickedest―and most appealing―women in all of literature. Becky is just one of the many fascinating figures that populate &&LB&&RWilliam Makepeace Thackeray&&L/B&&R’s novel &&LI&&RVanity Fair&&L/I&&R, a wonderfully satirical panorama of upper-middle-class life and manners in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century. &&LP&&RScorned for her lack of money and breeding, Becky must use all her wit, charm and considerable sex appeal to escape her drab destiny as a governess. From London’s ballrooms to the battlefields of Waterloo, the bewitching Becky works her wiles on a gallery of memorable characters, including her lecherous employer, Sir Pitt, his rich sister, Miss Crawley, and Pitt’s dashing son, Rawdon, the first of Becky’s misguided sexual entanglements. &&L/P&&R&&LP&&RFilled with hilarious dialogue and superb characterizations, &&LI&&RVanity Fair&&L/I&&R is a richly entertaining comedy that asks the reader, “Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?” &&L/P&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RFeatures more than 100 illustrations drawn by Thackeray himself for the initial publication.&&L/B&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RNicholas Dames&&L/B&&R&&L/B&&R is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and is the author of &&LI&&RAmnesiac Selves: Nostalgia, Forgetting, and British Fiction, 1810–1870&&L/I&&R, and other commentary on nineteenth-century British and French fiction.&&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R