Vanity Fair
The novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray satirizes middle-class English society of the early 19th century. The novel also inspired a 2004 movie titled 'Vanity Fair' by Mira Nair.
Plot
The story opens at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for young ladies, where we meet the protagonists Becky Sharp, an intelligent and cunning young woman determined to make her way in society, and Amelia Sedley, a good natured and kind rich girl. The book accompanies Becky and Amelia's life through happy times and sorrowful days between London, Brighton, the countryside and the Battle of Waterloo.
Criticism
With a very few exceptions, none of the characters in the novel are good; they are all flawed in very human ways. Vanity Fair can be seen as an exposition of human flaws (vanity itself being chief among them) and paints a fairly bleak view of the human condition.
The term "vanity fair" originates from the allegorical novel The Pilgrim's Progress published in 1678 by John Bunyan, and from the fair held in the town of Vanity in that work.
Vanity Fair is also the name of a large-circulation American glamour magazine. See Vanity Fair magazine. It was also the name of a 1960s UK pop group recording on Page One Records.
