Showing results for "Vanity Fair" in Literature & Fiction

Set during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this classic gives a satirical picture of a worldly society. The novel revolves around the exploits of the impoverished but beautiful and devious Becky Sharp who craves wealth and a position in society. Calculating and determined to succeed, she charms, deceives and manipulates everyone she meets. A novel of early 19th-century English society, it takes its title from the place designated as the centre of human corruption in John Bunyan's 17th-century allegory.

Brought to you by Penguin. No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George...

Vanity Fair centers on the young Becky Sharp and her dear friend Amelia Sedley during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Rebecca Sharp is the daughter of an art teacher and a French dancer, being ambitious, intelligent, and strong willed in order to get what she wants out of society. She is often touted as amoral and an anti-heroine. Alternately, her friend Amelia is kind, good natured, and born into wealth. The interwoven fortunes of the two women play out among a backdrop of social skirmishes and human afflictions of pride and ego.

One of the great Victorian novels by an author at the height of his powers, Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of the calculating, upwardly-mobile Becky Sharp and her gentle, good-hearted friend Amelia Sedley as they leave their boarding school and embark upon their lives in Vanity Fair–the social-climbing, wealth-obsessed world of Regency England in the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon has England on edge. For the cunning and conniving Becky Sharp, it’s an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and improve her lowly station. Her friend Amelia Sedley, a blue-blood pawn, affords Becky entrée into the moneyed class. As the guileless Amelia pines for a rakish soldier, the ruthless Becky climbs upward, setting the stage for a domestic battlefield of greed, ambition, deception, and dizzying reversals of love and fortune.

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 - January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio personality. Benchley produced over 600 essays, which were initially compiled in twelve volumes, during his writing career. He also appeared in several films, including 48 short treatments that he mostly wrote or co-wrote and numerous feature films.

Stephen Leacock (30 December 1869 - 28 March 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humourist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humourist in the world

Robert Benchley (September 15, 1889 - November 21, 1945) is remembered best for his contributions to the magazine The New Yorker; his essays for that publication, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. He also made a name for himself in Hollywood, when his short movie How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards. Benchley produced over 600 essays, which were initially compiled in twelve volumes, during his writing career.

A hilarious contemporary retelling of the classic society novel, VANITY FAIR, featuring the irrepressible Becky Sharp Beautiful, brilliant, ruthless – nothing can stop Becky Sharp. Becky Sharp has big dreams and no connections. Determined to swap the gutters of Soho for the glamorous...