Vanity Fair

Subtitled "A Novel Without a Hero," Vanity Fair is Thackeray's deliciously sharp satire of 19th-century British society, following two women whose fates couldn't be more different. Amelia Sedley is sweet, loyal, and naive; Becky Sharp is brilliant, ruthless, and determined to claw her way up from poverty to the highest echelons of society. As their fortunes rise and fall across London ballrooms, the battlefields of Waterloo, and the drawing rooms of the aristocracy, Thackeray skewers the vanity, hypocrisy, and moral emptiness of the age with devastating wit. First serialised in 1847–48, it remains one of the great satirical novels in the English language. Vintage Old Books, Mom’s personal collection