If I had to use one word to describe Thackeray's Vanity Fair it would be long. Some books are close to 1000 pages, yet reading them does not feel like a chore. The pages flip quickly if the story is exciting and you want to know what will happen next. All of Diana Gabaldon's books are long, yet when I read them I do not have the urge to throw the book out the window after lamenting to myself, "Is it over yet?"But enough complaining. I suppose I am not used to 19th century British literature. Even though I graduated with a degree in English, I somehow managed to escape a full education in Brit lit. I have never read Dickens--a glaring omission I know--and I am not well schooled in post-colonial lit. I was attempting to expand my knowledge with this book.
Vanity Fair is a satire that was first written in monthly installments, that was then later combined to make it a whopping 800 pages. Thackeray satirizes British society in such a way that leaves the reader little hope for the virtues of humans. His characters are all flawed, which I suppose is an accurate representation of life, yet in literature don't we always seek to escape into a kinder world than in that which we live? His novel has been compared to War and Peace, that it is the only novel in the English language that can be compared to it. Vanity Fair actually came first, so some might argue Tolstoy modeled his book after Thackeray's.
The ending corresponds with Thackeray's theme of a new kind of realism. He portrays characters that live in a real world and meet real endings. There is no happy ending here. Yes, there is a marriage between the two characters who should have gotten together at the beginning of the novel, but it isn't even a satisfying union as Thackeray writes that Dobbin's love for Amelia would never be what it once was. After this book, I need something a little on the light and fluffy side.
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