W.M. ThackerayVanity Fair In its clear-eyed detachment, Vanity Fair seems to belongmore to Henry Fielding’s 18th century, than to the era of Dickens. Yet WilliamMakepeace Thackeray (1811-63) had more in common with his great contemporarythan the differences in their work might suggest. Born within a year of eachother—Thackeray in Calcutta, Dickens in Portsmouth—they both had cause to feelrejected by their mothers. Thackeray’s father—a rich ‘collector’—died before hewas six: the widow promptly sent her boy to England to be educated, and soonremarried. Dickens’ mother saw no injustice in sending her talented boy to workin a factory when her husband was jailed for bankruptcy. After Charterhouse and Trinity, Cambridge, Thackeray studiedart in Paris, where he gambled away his inheritance. He then toyed with law,but was driven to journalism to support his family. Under a series ofpseudonyms he wrote verse, burlesques and parodies for a variety ofperiodicals. He had married at 25, but after four years his adored wifebecame incurably insane, leaving him with three little daughters, and her tomaintain in a mental home. After his unhappy married life, Dickens separatedfrom the wife he had found dull company. Both he and Thackeray had mistresses,both lectured in America, and both died suddenly, leaving unfinished novels. But here the similarities end: whereas Dickens was a trueVictorian, Thackeray felt he had been born too late. All his novels, apart fromVanity Fair, are set in his beloved 18th century, and are underpinned byuncannily accurate historical realism. Vanity Fair—the first novel he published under his own name—appeared in monthly installments in 1847-8. It is set in the Regency period,during and after the battle of Waterloo. As a child, when his ship called atSt. Helena en route for England, Thackeray had seen Napoleon walking in thegardens of Longwood: this memory surfaces in the novel. Thackeray claimed he simply woke up one day with the titleVanity Fair in his head. In the preface—The Curtain Rises—he invites hisaudience to ‘step in for half an hour and look at the performances’. He endshis novel with he words ‘Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets,for our play is played out’. He may have been detached from mankind, but neverhis marionettes. There is little sentimentality in his approach; anyinconsistencies and awkward time shifts must be partly due to his havingwritten the novel in serial form.If the central character in Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon is aFieldingesque anti-hero, Becky Sharp is no less an anti-heroine. Full of guileand treachery, outwitting her opponents as she climbs the social ladder, sheclearly fascinated her creator as much as she delights and amuses the reader.This Circe breaks necks in her ruthless ascent, but she captivates in theprocess.Thackeray’s Book of Snobs was a hilarious exposé of thehypocrisy of early Victorian society: a similar satirical view permeates VanityFair. Amelia Sedley is introduced as ‘a dear little creature’ but the author’s attitudeto her is deeply ambivalent: he first praises her tenderness and devotion, andthen adds that ‘Vanity Fair is yawning over it’. Incapable of appreciating thealtruistic love of Captain Dobbin, she finally becomes ‘our little simpleton’. Before his death, Thackeray instructed his executors not topublish any biography. Most of his novels—he wrote six—are little read, anddetails about his life remain scanty. But in recent decades his reputation hasbegun to raise, thanks in part to Stanley Kubrick’s superb film of BarryLyndon. In life, Thackeray never achieved either the fame or the fortune ofDickens. Perhaps, in these disillusioned times, his hour has finally come. Notes by Betty Tadman Jane Lapotaire Jane Lapotaire’s career has encompassed major roles intheater, television and film, during which time she has twice won the VarietyClub of Great Britain Award for Best Actress, as well as The Society of WestEnd Theatre Award, the Plays and Players Award and a New York Tony Award. Withthe Royal Shakespeare Company, she has played Gertrude opposite Kenneth Branaghin Hamlet and Mrs. Alving in Ghosts. Her films include Anthony and Cleopatra,Surviving Picasso and Shooting Fish. She is Honorary President of The BristolOld Vic Theatre Club and has been President of The Friends of Shakespeare’s Globesince its re-launch in 1996.