Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

I have a devout love for 19th century English literature and had thus been meaning to read Vanity Fair for quite a while.  When I saw it at the library just waiting on the shelf for me, I knew the time had come to finally conquer this monster of a novel.

I say "monster" in reference to the size of this book...the copy I had was just shy of 900 pages.  Yeah.  9-freaking-00.

The first 500 were great.  Thackeray offers a hilarious social commentary on high society of the 1800s, if you take the time to genuinely absorb the material.  If you don't, though, several of the jokes will probably go unnoticed and the novel will seem to be little more than a parade of characters at balls and teas who gossip about one another. 

Vanity Fair essentially follows the tale of two young women as they navigate high society in early 19th-century Britain.  Amelia, the first of the two, is mild-mannered, well-born, and demure.  Rebecca, her counterpart, is not born into wealth but is certainly determined to get it by using the cunning and determination that come so naturally to her.  The plot lacks a true central problem, and instead piggybacks on the lives of Amy and Becky to give readers a peep into the affairs of the less-than cultivated bourgeousie.

There are soooo many players in this book that the make it extremely easy to get confused while reading.  Eventually I realized that most of them didn't actually matter, so if I couldn't remember who a particular character was at any point I just kept reading because as long as you get the gist of the action, you're able to follow the thread of the main characters through to the end of the book.

Vanity Fair is subtitled "a novel without a hero," and it's easy to understand within the first 100 pages why.  None of these characters are especially likeable or well-intentioned, with the debateable exception of Amelia.  All are, in the end, self-serving and riddled with closeted vices.  In this way, Thackeray mocks the upper crust of British society while entertaining the reader with a wry sense of humor aided b a wicked acid tongue...for a while, at least.

About midway through the book, I got bored.  Burnt out.  Tired.  It seemed to be a lot of similar dramatic scenarios happening over and over between numerous random characters with minor twists in each to set them apart.  There just wasn't enough real plot or intrigue to make reading so closely worthwhile and my brain simply shut down.  I powered through to the end of the novel but can't say I was sorry when it ended.

Typically I would offer you a review I find trustworthy and accurate or interesting, but for some reason I can't find any that are worth posting this time.  It's hard to even find so much as a synopsis for this book, probably because the plot is so long and surface-level, but seeing as that's the case my commentary is all you guys are gonna get this time.  Sorry!

Bottom line: I would reccomend this if you're at all a fan of 19th c. Brit lit, but only if you need something to keep you occupied for a long haul.  Like if you're flying overseas or have a few days of free time.  It's worth it if you do!