Vanity Fair Resources

Websites

Victorian Web

Everything you ever wanted to know about our favorite repressed ancestors, brought to you by Brown University. This links to the page on Thackeray.

The East India Company

General info from the Victorian Web about the East India Company and how it basically owned India.

Napoleon

Lean about Napoleon from the BBC.

Movie or TV Productions

Vanity Fair (2004)

Atrocious nonsense starring Reese Witherspoon. Don't see this one. Or if you do, don't think you've learned anything about the actual novel.

Vanity Fair (1998)

This BBC miniseries is about as good as the adaptations get. There's no narrator, which is a bummer, because he's half the novel, but at least they stick to the plot and keep the characters.

Becky Sharp: Lady of Fortune (1935)

From the title you can tell they played up the histrionics a bit.

Historical Documents

The Novel Itself

So you don't have to type out long quotations.

Review of Thackeray's Novels

A New York Times article about Thackeray's work from 1853. (PDF file)

The Book of Snobs (1847)

This is where Thackeray first worked out how social climbing and class rank works. It's hilarious.

The Diary of C. Jeames De La Pluche, Esq. (1845-46)

Thackeray's very funny short story about a valet who lucks out in the stock market and makes a gentleman of himself. Great stuff.

Video

Thackeray Poem

A reading of Thackeray's funny poem summarizing the plot of a sentimental German novel.

Trailer for the 1935 Becky Sharp Movie

Apparently this entire movie is online, in nine parts on YouTube

Images

Portrait of Thackeray

Take a look at Thackeray.