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• Amazon’s <em>Vanity Fair</em> Is a Master Class in Adapting Classic Novels for a Modern Audience

Amazon’s Vanity Fair Is a Master Class in Adapting Classic Novels for a Modern Audience

C lassics may be classic for a reason, but that doesn’t mean they age perfectly. In the 21st century, it seems impossible that marriage could satisfy the intellectual appetites of a whip-smart Jane Austen heroine, or that The Merchant of Venice could have been intended as a positive representation of Jews. Even thornier are stories whose entire moral architecture contradicts current values–like Vanity Fair .

Set during the Napoleonic Wars, William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 epic is as funny, romantic and profound as ever. The challenge in adapting it for a contemporary audience, as Amazon has done in a seven-part co-production with Britain’s ITV that comes to Prime on Dec. 21, is in framing its protagonist, Becky Sharp. A lovely and brilliant but thoroughly broke young woman of low social status, she is forced to find work as a governess. But instead of accepting her fate, she hunts for a rich husband.

In Thackeray’s day, this social climbing made her a delicious, if not fully evil, villain; 170 years later, she looks more like an ambitious woman persisting despite limited options, and a faithful adaptation risks reaffirming the sexist and classist mores of 19th century England. So it’s no wonder that we’ve seen some revisionist Becky Sharps before. With a screenplay co-written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, director Mira Nair’s lavish 2004 film cast Reese Witherspoon as a kinder, less treacherous Becky. The result was a sensuous spectacle in which one of literature’s biggest personalities got swallowed up by the candy-colored scenery.

Adapted by Gwyneth Hughes ( Five Days ) for Broadchurch director James Strong, Amazon’s less flashy but wittier and more morally complex version isn’t quite so generous to Olivia Cooke’s vivacious Becky. From the beginning, she’s a firecracker threatening to incinerate her every suitor and friend–particularly her sweet, fragile schoolmate Amelia Sedley (Claudia Jessie), a bourgeois princess whose betrothal to the fickle George Osbourne (Charlie Rowe) blinds her to the purer affections of his fellow army officer William Dobbin (Johnny Flynn). Amelia’s awkward older brother Jos (David Fynn) is just the first in a line of foolish bachelors who fall for Becky’s fawning. Though the show omits some of the character’s cruelest moments, Hughes doesn’t flinch in depicting her as a selfish, conniving life ruiner.

Yet this Becky is lovable, thanks to the magnetic Cooke, whose performance as a teen sociopath in this year’s Thoroughbreds proved she could humanize just about anyone. All bugged-out eyes and buoyant spirits, her Miss Sharp is the smartest, most beguiling person in every room; it becomes thrilling to watch her manipulate them. And a clever framing device that puts Thackeray on the screen (in the form of Monty Python’s Michael Palin) pays off in a conclusion that reminds us that the author’s perspective on Becky isn’t perfect either.

Vanity Fair isn’t the only great work of literature that has become hard to adapt. Film and TV have struggled for decades to update headstrong female characters of the past, with mixed results: 10 Things I Hate About You charmingly reimagined The Taming of the Shrew for the 1990s, with 90% less taming. Less successfully, a recent Masterpiece adaptation of Little Women overly softened Jo’s prickly beau Friedrich Bhaer, removing any trace of ambiguity from a beloved character’s happy ending.

Amazon’s Vanity Fair isn’t an ideal adaptation. The middle episodes can feel rushed. Scenes that fail to capture the scale of historic moments like the Battle of Waterloo suggest an overburdened budget. A pop soundtrack–which includes “Material Girl”–radiates a desperation to make the story feel current. But Cooke’s performance alone is enough to convince us of its relevance; her Becky Sharp is a woman ahead of her time. By rendering that without denying her flaws, the newest Vanity Fair still manages to revive this singular character for yet another generation.

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The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992 by Tina Brown review – ‘the heart of the zeitgeist, people!’

A lmost 20 years ago I bought a book in a charity shop purely because of the author: it was Life As a Party , by Tina Brown, published in 1983. I was starting to consider journalism as a career and, of all the high-profile female journalists out there to see as a role model, Brown struck me as a pretty good option. Whereas the similarly impressive Anna Wintour , long-term editor-in-chief of American Vogue, made success look utterly joyless, Brown seemed to have such fun, whizzing back and forth across the Atlantic, dropping names like a chainsmoker discarding cigarette butts. Who wouldn’t want to hang out at Tina Brown’s party?

Except, it turned out, the operative word in “Life As a Party” was the second one: Brown’s world wasn’t an actual party, but a simulation of one. That book was her collected journalism from her time as the editor of Tatler, which she took over in 1979 when she was just 25. There, she wrote enthusiastically about people with names such as Baron Enrico di Portanova , and she championed their milieu gamely. I still have the book, even though it is almost entirely incomprehensible, because it taught me an important lesson: when you work in glossy magazines, there is no such thing as detachment, because you are selling your subject to the reader, even one as banal as the lifestyles of Tory toffs. Brown is, unquestionably, a thrillingly dynamic editor, but the primary reason she has been so successful is she is very good at selling.

Brown’s fun and often funny latest book is a sort-of (and far superior) follow-up to Life As a Party . It reveals What Tina Did Next, which was to move to New York, rescue the barely breathing magazine Vanity Fair and become the mega media celebrity she remains today. From Warren Beatty propositioning her over a drink (“Look, any time you want to waste some time … ”) to a then student Boris Johnson (“an epic shit”) apparently passing on stories about her to the Sunday Telegraph, Brown knows how to give her readers what they want, which is gossip about the celebrities and politicians she covered. She builds up a picture of her 1980s that consisted, on the one hand, of a media world so swimming in wealth that Brown could pay her contributors – in 1986! – $10,000 an article (that sound you hear is every 21st-century freelance journalist screaming into their pillow), and, on the other, regularly attending funerals of friends who died from Aids.

As in Vanity Fair itself, the serious stuff seems a little like the token broccoli so you feel less bad about gorging on the biscuits. Brown sells the glamour hard, in her hilariously imitable writing style. She describes her ex-boyfriend, Martin Amis , as “a literary lothario” and her youthful affair with the then-married Harold Evans as “a scandale”, which might win the prize for the most pointless use of French in 2017. Her Oxford college, we are reassured, “was the most intellectually exciting of the women’s colleges” while a trip to the cinema makes Brown crow: “This was the heart of the zeitgeist, people!” Perhaps the most absurd example of her glamour-glossing is when she writes about her contributor Dominick Dunne , whose daughter, Dominique, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1982: Brown feels the need to add that the killer was “a chef at LA’s fashionable Ma Maison restaurant”, a writing tic reminiscent of the Daily Mail’s frequent inclusion of how much a victim or perpetrator of a terrible crime once paid for their house.

Brown forewarns the reader in the introduction: “These were years spent amid the moneyed elite of Manhattan and LA and the Hamptons … Please don’t expect ruminations on the sociological fallout of trickle-down economics.” In other words, the book is merely a reflection of the magazine she was editing. But given that in this same introduction, which she wrote more than 25 years after leaving Vanity Fair, Brown name-drops not just the guests who attended her 1981 wedding (“ Nora Ephron , Ben Bradlee , Anthony Holden … ”) but also the caterers (“Loaves & Fishes in Sagaponack”), the question of whether the book reflects Vanity Fair’s viewpoint or Brown’s is, to say the least, debatable.

“Everything in New York,” she writes at one point, “is about personal marketing.” This certainly seems to be true of Brown, because this book isn’t really about a magazine, it’s about her, and my God, the selling is relentless. Her brilliance as an editor and her popularity with the A-list are recounted often. She writes sweetly about the happiness of her marriage to Evans as well as the struggles of being a working mother of a child with special needs (her son has Asperger syndrome ). But glimpses of something a little less saintly can be occasionally be spotted between the lines, such as when she breezily mentions that she made her child’s nanny cry in the bathroom for two hours. “I think I need someone less invasive,” is Brown’s not wildly reflective takeaway. She makes frequent mention of how she was treated differently – by the media, colleagues and bosses – because she was a woman. But cries of sexism are a little difficult to take seriously from a woman who delights in entertaining male friends with “whining” imitations of “a north London feminist”. It is also notable that her arrival at Vanity Fair seems to have coincided with the sacking of an awful lot of women and hiring of an awful lot of men.

From her resurrection of Tatler at the beginning of the Thatcher era to founding the Daily Beast at the start of the internet news one, Brown has been skilled at being, as she would say, “at the heart of the zeitgeist”. So it is with uncharacteristically bad timing that her book is coming out as the scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein grows. The diaries end with her becoming the editor of the New Yorker, which she discusses in her epilogue, entitled “What Happened Later”. What also happened later, which she doesn’t mention, is that she then left the New Yorker in 1998 to found the short-lived Talk magazine with Weinstein. Brown has been hard at work when promoting the book to distance herself from what I guess she would call the “scandale”, saying that working with Weinstein gave her post-traumatic stress disorder and insisting she knew nothing about his alleged sexual assaults. Some have suggested Brown isn’t quite as blameless as she says. Former New Yorker writer Mimi Kramer has delivered a scathing blogpost about what she calls Brown’s “enabling” of Weinstein. She points out that, for her first issue of Talk, Brown put Gwyneth Paltrow, who has said Weinstein harassed her, on the cover, “dressed in S&M garb, crawling painfully toward the camera on her stomach like a submissive – literally grovelling – and so generically made up so as to render her unrecognisable as an individual. What the hell did [Brown] think she was saying?”

It feels a little unfair to blame Brown for Weinstein, who, like Talk, does not feature in The Vanity Fair Diaries . But it is striking how kind she is to other men in it who have since been accused of harassment or worse. US journalist Leon Wieseltier, who last month apologised for his past chronic harassment, is sacked by Brown after he writes a savage column about Ephron, but remains a friend, despite making creepy comments about women’s sex lives. Donald Trump – who stomps through this book as he must about any book set in 1980s Manhattan – has “a crassness I like”, Brown writes. Perhaps this is merely a reflection of how common sexual assault and harassment are, given how often Brown comes up against men later accused of them. But when journalism becomes about selling stuff, you can be too focused on the sale to look properly at the product. “I hope I never lose my barometer for good and evil,” Brown writes. Maybe time to mend the barometer, Tina.

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THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES

by Tina Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 14, 2017

Entertaining if sometimes mean-spirited and full of valuable lessons in how—and sometimes how not—to run a magazine.

Princess Diana, Donald Trump, Nancy Reagan, and other newsy icons come in for critical assessment by a sharp-tongued London transplant who remade two leading magazines. 

Brown ( The Diana Chronicles , 2007) arrived in New York in 1983, in the thick of the Reagan era, and set about revamping a magazine that was off just about anyone’s radar. Recruited by Si Newhouse, a tycoon of a literary bent (“Si doesn’t know what the fuck is going on on the VF floor,” she writes, a tad unappreciatively), she did just that, filling the magazine with serious journalism while chasing after the pop-culture evanescent. This diary is a blend of high and low and in between, especially on the high gossip front, as with her fixation on a certain cluster of royals: “No one is more dismayed about this apparently than Diana, who signed up to marry the royal James Bond.” Amid the fluff and the constant fretting about money—possessed of a healthy sense of self-regard, Brown is also keenly attuned to matters of dollars and pence—readers learn a lot about how a high-toned magazine is put together, work involving schmoozing, partying, and ego-stroking as much as blue-penciling, all of which Brown is clearly very good at. A typical day, she reveals, might involving talking a recalcitrant author into a piece he or she might not really have wanted to do, dealing with one’s handlers (“How does two million dollars sound to you?” says superagent Swifty Lazar, shopping a novel by Brown that exists only in the ether), and slotting the David Nivens and the Ahmet Erteguns in for supper. The narrative ends with an upward move to another Newhouse property, the  New Yorker , where, as at  VF , Brown upset dozens of boats (“I replaced seventy-one of the 120 New Yorker staff with fifty outstanding new talents”) while casting a cultural institution in her own image.

Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-62779-136-6

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2017

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS | SALES & MARKETING | GENERAL BUSINESS | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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by Tina Brown

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...

The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990). 

Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-679-42850-X

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Villard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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by Jon Krakauer

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Miniseries – Vanity Fair

Where to watch, vanity fair — miniseries.

Watch Vanity Fair — Miniseries with a subscription on Prime Video.

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Olivia Cooke's brilliant portrayal of the feisty and scheming Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair makes this adaptation of Thackeray's classic novel more relatable for a 21st century audience.

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Olivia Cooke

Becky Sharp

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Claudia Jessie

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Sir Pitt Crawley

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Vanity fair, by william makepeace thackeray.

It is panoramic – a wonderful conspectus of the 19th century. It was a novel that established the British century

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“This was Thackeray’s first major novel … It is panoramic – a wonderful conspectus of the 19th century.” Read more...

The Best Victorian Novels

John Sutherland , Literary Scholar

“ Vanity Fair is another historical novel and a tremendous saga. I would call it the Whig version of the Regency. It is the tale of an adventuress abroad in a land where quick fortunes and metropolitan vices are very much in evidence. It is fantastically good humoured. I suppose it is the way that a liberal Victorian would look back on that time.” Read more...

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REVIEW: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

I will preface this review by stating that Vanity Fair is not a romance, nor is it remotely romantic. For those who are unfamiliar with Thackeray’s classic novel, it is subtitled “A Novel without a Hero”, and satirizes English society circa 1815. It may be of interest to those of us who cut our teeth on Regency-era romances; Vanity Fair presents a somewhat jaundiced view of the British upper classes of the time.

Becky Sharp completes her studies at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy, studies that were subsidized first by her artist father’s teaching at the school and later, after he dies, by her own teaching of French to the pupils. She leaves the school to stay with her good friend Amelia Sedley, who finishes matriculating at the same time. Becky needs to go into service and she has a position secured, but first she will spend some time with Amelia in the comfortably prosperous atmosphere of the Sedley household.

There, Becky meets Jos Sedley, Amelia’s brother, who is visiting, having made his fortune in India. Jos is fat and shy, especially around women, but also vain and given to cultivating and believing ridiculous puffery about himself and his exploits (after Waterloo he seemingly believes he was a vital part of the British victory, in spite of the fact that he spent the entire battle in town, desperately trying to flee to safer environs).

Becky sets her sights on Jos, believing he will offer for her and save her from a life of drudgery. But she’s not able to reel him in before being forced to depart for Queen’s Crawley to work as a governess for Sir Pitt Crawley, a baronet who is a nobleman in name only. Sir Pitt is crude and Queen’s Crawley is dirty and depressing, but Becky manages to do what she does best – charm and ingratiate herself with anyone who is capable of being charmed and willing to be ingratiated. She quickly has Sir Pitt eating out of her hand, and when she meets Sir Pitt’s wealthy relative Miss Crawley, Becky becomes fast friends with the old lady. The entire Crawley family fawns over Miss Crawley in hopes of gaining her inheritance, though Rawdon Crawley, Sir Pitt’s younger son, has long been her favorite and presumptive heir.

Positions in the Crawley family are thrown into disarray, however, after Sir Pitt Crawley’s mousy wife dies. This prompts Sir Pitt to propose marriage to Becky, only to find that she cannot marry him, as she is already secretly married to his son Rawdon. The secret and, some would say, unsuitable marriage (Becky’s mother was an opera dancer, after all) infuriates the entire Crawley family, none more than Miss Crawley. Rawdon was her favorite and she adored Becky for her ability to amuse (usually by cruel mockery of others – Becky knows how to tailor her talents to her audience), but Miss Crawley is at heart a snob and feels betrayed by both parties after the elopement. Rawdon is promptly cut off by his father and dropped from Miss Crawley’s will; all of Becky and Rawdon’s attempts to reingratiate themselves with Miss Crawley fail (in no small part to the machinations of other family members who are scheming to get their hands on the money, as well).

Becky reunites with her friend Amelia after marriage; Amelia has  married under somewhat similar circumstances. Amelia had long been betrothed to George Osborne, son of her father’s business partner. But when Mr. Sedley undergoes a disastrous financial reversal, his old friend Osborne immediately turns on him and orders George to drop Amelia. George only demurs due to the very strong influence of his friend and fellow Army officer, William Dobbin. Dobbin is in love with Amelia himself, so in love that he selflessly wants her to have everything she wants, and she wants George. So George and Amelia are married, and like Becky and Rawdon are cut off financially. But it’s time for the men to head to Belgium to face Napoleon, so at least they don’t have to worry about trying to live in London with no incomes for the time being. Becky and Amelia accompany their husbands to Brussels.

The meaning of “A Novel without a Hero” isn’t hard to parse. The characters in “Vanity Fair” are all deeply flawed. At first glance it seems like the “best” characters in a conventional sense are Amelia and Dobbin, who demonstrate the selflessness and humility so integral to heroes and heroines in 19th century English novels. But Amelia is a total twit, devoted to George beyond reason and given to crying at the drop of a hat (Thackeray makes fun of her constant waterworks, which I appreciated; late in the book he refers to her as “our simpleton”, which I just loved ). Dobbin is a tad more sympathetic, but he’s not exactly a relatable character, spending years pining after someone who is unworthy of his affection and lacking any sort of charm or sense of humor to lighten his character.

George Osborne is an idiot and a jerk, completely unworthy of Amelia’s devotion. His father is even worse; he justifies his horrible treatment of Mr. Sedley by acting even more horrible, renounces his only son for marrying against his wishes, and only relents partly years after George is killed at Waterloo by taking in Amelia and George’s child (thus taking the beloved child away from Amelia, who selflessly gives him up – gag – so he can have a better life). Oh, the kid is kind of a brat, too.

The Crawleys are also mostly awful, from the odious Sir Pitt to his namesake eldest son, whose pomposity and piety are as tiresome as his sire’s debauchery. Actually, Pitt Jr.’s eventual wife, Jane, is probably a fair candidate for least obnoxious character – she’s a good person without being a martyr about it. Rawdon Crawley is rather unprincipled and something of a happy idiot (at least Becky treats him so, after they marry), but he is redeemed somewhat by his love for their son, also called Rawdon.

Then there’s Becky. What to say about Becky? I really liked her for much of the novel; she fit the anti-heroine mold well. She is someone who clearly grew up via the school of hard knocks, and she’s learned to take care of herself, with a vengeance. She manipulates people, yes, but it helps that most of the people she manipulates are not that sympathetic themselves. I liked this description of her, mid-novel:

“When attacked sometimes, Becky had a knack of adopting a demure ingenue air, under which she was most dangerous. She said the wickedest things with the most simple unaffected air when in this mood, and would take care artlessly to apologize for her blunders, so that all the world should know that she had made them.”

At a certain point, though, Thackeray takes Becky too far, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The first issue is her disdain for her child. I could accept benign indifference (punctuated by bouts of using him when it’s convenient to do so); that would be in line with the Becky the reader has come to know. But Becky seems to really take an active dislike to her son, and it becomes distasteful to read about and makes her seem a lot meaner. Previously she hadn’t been mean, exactly, except on occasion when she mocked someone. But there was usually a reason for it; Becky’s every action is calculated and chock-full of self-interest. Her hostility towards the boy has no purpose, and feels out of character.

It’s especially unpleasant contrasted with her husband’s fondness for his namesake. Rawdon Sr. is no great shakes, but at least he has some parental instinct. He actually seems to improve as a person through his love for the child.

Then there’s Becky’s treatment of Rawdon himself. For years into their marriage, she seems to be acting in both of their interests, and Rawdon seems fine with her flirting (and perhaps more than flirting) with other men if it means that they can continue to live a certain lifestyle without ever paying their bills. But Becky grows increasingly more contemptuous of her husband, and by the time she lets him languish in debtor’s prison, ignoring the pleading note he sends begging her to bring a small-ish sum that will free him, he becomes fed up with her, and so did I as the reader. I was actually sort of sorry to feel that way; I preferred her as an entertaining sort-of-villain, the type who you can never feel too bad about liking because the people she hurts are mostly those who’ve brought it on themselves. But by book’s end Becky is revealed to be thoroughly corrupted and capable of anything, even, perhaps, murder. I didn’t really like the transformation because it smacked too much of conventional morality, of a simplistic division of characters into “good” and “bad”, which clearly hasn’t been Thackeray’s thing for the majority of the book.

As much as I liked “Vanity Fair” (and I did really like it), I found myself wondering at how it had become so beloved. In 2003 it was voted the UK’s “Best Loved Novel” in a BBC poll. It struck me as strange because in some respects, it feels like a bit of a lightweight story. I’d compare Thackeray to Jane Austen, in that both write serio-comic takes on 18th century British life. Thackeray is about 1000 times more cynical and less concerned with morality than Austen, of course. But it’s mostly just an arch commentary on the times, not a big sweeping novel of deep philosophical themes like, say War and Peace . Not that there’s anything wrong with that (I liked Vanity Fair better than War and Peace !), but one wonders what makes a story that’s not after all a big, serious epic something that is remembered and loved 160+ years after it’s published?

Though that’s not a complaint. Vanity Fair is well worth reading, and I’m glad it’s famous enough that it came to my attention. My grade is a B+.

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has been an avid if often frustrated romance reader for the past 15 years. In that time she's read a lot of good romances, a few great ones, and, unfortunately, a whole lot of dreck. Many of her favorite authors (Ivory, Kinsale, Gaffney, Williamson, Ibbotson) have moved onto other genres or produce new books only rarely, so she's had to expand her horizons a bit. Newer authors she enjoys include Julie Ann Long, Megan Hart and J.R. Ward, and she eagerly anticipates each new Sookie Stackhouse novel. Strong prose and characterization go a long way with her, though if they are combined with an unusual plot or setting, all the better. When she's not reading romance she can usually be found reading historical non-fiction.

Becky has always reminded me of Undine Spragg of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country, which is a biting, satiric look at American social climbing of the early 20th century. Surprisingly, though I had the same revulsion towards Becky that you did, I found Undine disturbingly entertaining to the end. Perhaps because we get into her young, neglected son’s POV, who also views the irony of her plight.

Yeah, I agree with your assessment of the book. I chewed my way through it a couple of years back and I remember it being a massive undertaking – not just because of the page count, because I’m used to longer books (I read loads of epic fantasy), but because of the characters. I liked Becky as well, but was slightly fed up with her towards the end. The male characters were rather unlikeable and I remember wanting to shake Amelia to get her to wake up a bit. That said, I liked the whole much better than some other classics, but I’d never say it’s the best British classic novel out there! But I think that part of its popularity (and its resilient status in the canon) is that it was written at a time when not many books came out, so everyone read it and then recommended it and so forth, so it kind of snowballed into this classic status. I feel this way about a lot of classics, which we basically read just because they’re classics – even if we don’t really like them – and we feel they should be awarded more respect than novels from contemporary authors who hadn’t made it into the canon yet. God, I’m sorry for such a rambling comment, I hope it’s not too much :) I just think it’s great that bloggers still review classics, not just hyped up ARCs!

I was more fed up with Amelia by the end than Becky. I think it’s always interesting the kind of automatic revulsion we have towards fictional (and real) mothers who reject their children. I must admit I kind of liked? admired? Becky as a character for disliking her own son so openly. She reminds me somewhat of book Scarlett O’Hara, although Scarlett is more uninterested in her various progeny than downright cruel to them.

It’s been years since I read this, but my memory is that I turned against Becky when she left some bill (a landlord?) unpaid, and Thackeray offhandedly mentions that this lead to the ruin of that family. Such careless cruelty — especially when she’d grown up relatively poor herself — was the dealbreaker for me. As for Dobbin, whom I’d viewed as the closest thing to a hero the novel had, his love for Amelia (whose personality defined twit and doormat) became a negative rather than a positive. IIRC, at the very end he comes to realize that she is not worthy, but by then it’s too little, too late.

@ Kaja : I promise you, there were plenty of Victorian novels which never reached ‘classic’ status. The thing is, most of us have never read them or heard of them because they never reached classic status.

Vanity Fair was a DNF for me. I managed Anna Karenina, War and Peace and most of the works of Dickens, but just couldn’t get through this. I get that it’s a classic (and I can even see why), but for me, it’s a one-star read.

Dear author: you are in good company when I give your book one star. It’s a personal opinion. Nothing more.

@ Evangeline Holland : I may have to try that one – the only Wharton I’ve read is Ethan Frome , which seems somewhat thematically different from her other books.

@ Kaja : I am the biggest rambler there is, so….

I get what you’re saying, but at the same time there are a lot of novels (and novelists) that have sunk into obscurity, too. I think it’s maybe a matter of the books being popular at the time, but then there’s *something* that makes them continue to be popular long enough for them to be sort of enshrined in the canon.

I do sometimes real classics that I don’t strictly like ( Jude the Obscure , anyone?). I’m loath to put down a book once I start it, and since classics can be hard to get into (old-fashioned writing styles, etc.) if I allowed myself to toss each one that didn’t grab me, I’d never read any. And I’d miss some good stuff, I think.

I do wonder what current authors and books will be canonized eventually.

@ Elaina : I think for me the problem was that Becky was generally not shown as being malicious (well, not *very* malicious, and sometimes it was to advance herself by amusing others, so it had another purpose rather than plain meanness). So her hostility struck a false note with me.

Yes, probably some of it has to do with the fact that she was his mother – but again, I wouldn’t have minded her being indifferent to him. Honestly I blame Thackeray more than Becky for introducing what felt like a quality that didn’t really fit what we knew of Becky’s personality. It felt a little like character assassination to me. I may be a little protective of Becky. :-)

@ Susan/DC : Yes, Dobbin finally gets a clue, but it’s sort of anti-climatic. You can’t really like him, though I felt a little sorry for him.

As for Becky and the unpaid bills, that behavior is such a ubiquitous feature of Regency-era romances (and I guess it was somewhat of a reality?) that I confess I didn’t even bat an eyelash at it. It is pretty harsh.

@ Iola :I guess each reader is different because Vanity Fair was way more readable to me than War and Peace , which was a true slog.

Becky’s antipathy toward her child is an interesting problem but I don’t think it’s at all inconsistent with her character type. It would indeed be harder to believe if an amoral, self-seeking, social climber like Becky were maternal in any way. Add the fact that she has so little respect for her hapless husband and it seems only natural that she disdains his even more dependent and inconvenient little namesake. This most distasteful side of Becky’s personality is both quite realistic and prevents her from being just another attractive charlatan that practices her wiles on mostly deserving victims. In addition, Thackeray seems to be asking us to weigh the distastefulness of Becky’s relationship with her husband and son against Emmy’s with her husband and son. No, the problem with Becky’s dislike of Rawdon Jr is that Thackeray, uncharacteristically, makes so little of it. I mean for an author who intervenes so frequently, insightfully, and entertainingly into his own narrative, I expected that WMT would have made made some notable comments on mothers and sons.

The thing I find interesting about this correspondence is that it is entirely female.I know that novel reading now,as in the 19th and 20th centuries,is a largely female activity (apart,of course,from the brutish blood and bullets fiction that men seem to enjoy),but as a long retired teacher of English I cannot but deplore this sad division.Becky Sharpe ,perhaps the sexiest little piece in English literature (green eyes and famous frontal development) deserves to be better known and more widely admired.She is,of course,an absolute bitch,but she is a model for modern women.Let me make it clear that I am a man,a very old man,who reveres and delights in women.

Don’t you be hitting on me Thomas. I’m a guy. Like you I also think women are awesome. Luckily every one I’ve ever known has been better than Becky. She’s interesting, sure, but just on paper. Cheers buddy!

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Reviews For Vanity Fair Magazine

I can't wait for this one.

I used to subscribe to Vanity Fair, but don't anymore. It never came quickly enough. I would see the magazine in the racks at the local bookstore and couldn't wait for it to show up in my mailbox. Yes, I'm paying more than I would otherwise, but it's worth it. Vanity Fair is a magazine that has something for almost everyone. It's in depth articles and beautiful photographs are worthy of a place on a bookshelf -- mine, in fact, are lined up in order dating from 1996. The March 2000 issue included: Just Great Friends -- an article about the friendship between Rupert Everett and Madonna -- it was much more entertaining and fresh that I would have though possible; Deadly Devotion -- The story about a young college administrator who's affair with her father-in-law (who happened to be the college president) drove her to suicide; Signature Sontag -- a bio of the famous author by Christopher Hitchens (a Vanity Fair regular); Natalie Wood's Fatal Voyage -- an in depth account of what probably happened that fateful night; Also, columns regarding Elian Gonzalez, The Planet Hollywood debacle, and Bill Gates. To name only a few. There are frequently articles regarding politics. In December 1999 there was a great article on John McCain, along with another piece by Christopher Hitchens (you know, the man who hated both Princess Diana and Mother Teresa) on the Rudy and Hilary race. The two things that I believe sets Vanity Fair apart from the others is the depth of its articles -- some of the pieces are 10 pages long, with no monotony; and the ability of most of the writers to take what otherwise might be a ho-hum topic -- a photographer of Empire penguins, for example -- and turn it into a fascinating story. The Letters to The Editor column can be as interesting as the main features, and often includes many letters from subjects themselves. On the last page, there is the Proust Questionnaire, a list of questions asked of the rich and famous -- recently David Spade was asked "Which words or phrases do you most overuse?" to which he replied, "The thing about me that's neat..." and "Are you a famous movie star? Oh, that's me. Hi, I'm Dave..." Annie Leibowitz is often a featured photographer, and the annual Hall of Fame issue that spotlights some of the more influential names of the past year includes some of her best work. Let's not forget those ads. Some of the most beautiful shots I've seen, although at times (my only complaint) is that there are too many of them. It can be hard to find the table of contents. Vanity Fair is refreshing, sharp, and enlightening. I'll pay newsstand price for it any day. Recommended: Yes

An Intelligent Read

I consistently buy Vanity Fair because the quality of the articles is excellent. Recently, the magazine has been redesigned. This redesign appears to have been done to make Vanity Fair more appealing to younger readers. I am a 24 year old female, however, I often share the magazine with my parents and male and female friends-- all of whom find it intelligent and interesting. Plus, the beautiful pictures from photographers like Herb Ritts add to the look of the magazine. I find Christopher Hitchens' writing particularly good. He manages to apply his acerbic wit and obvious intelligence to all of his topics (from setencing minors to death, to the state of Cuba) and I was recently impressed by his sensitive piece on Susan Sontag. Though many of my male friends insist that this is a woman's magazine, I must disagree. Usually after they read a few issues, they see my point of view. Yet few of them will buy the magazine for fear of seeming girly. Perhaps the magazine could launch a marketing campaign to counteract that instinct. Though I must admit that I occasionally suffer from momentary lapses in self-esteem after reading an issue of Vanity Fair (oh, to be as beautiful, intelligent and/or talented as the people featured in each issue), the magazine has certainly enhanced my cultural awareness and provides interesting material for "cocktail party" situations. A similar magazine might be Talk. Personally, I don't find Talk nearly as enjoyable as Vanity Fair. Perhaps it is the difference in paper quality, but I think it is something more. Vanity Fair manages to make most subjects fascinating to me: Hollywood (old and modern), politics, war, profiles of individuals (recently-- a photographer who died young, and took pictures only of penguins; a vibrant Hollywood agent who died young from manic depression), architectural spreads, profiles of art collections and artists, etc. Vanity Fair is an excellent magazine and you may become a more intelligent person if you can learn from it. Recommended: Yes This is a: News magazine

Just the Articles, ma'am

I love this magazine. I'll say it again: I love this magazine. I wait impatiently for it to arrive each month. It is unlike anything I have ever read, yet I feel more educated and more knowledgable because of it. Vanity Fair is not a teenager's magazine. It does not offer advice on how to win him back, or the new styles for this years prom/season. It is full of ten page articles that include actual facts, not always someone's opinion on how to minimize your hips or make your breasts look bigger. The articles inform, educate and enlighten the reader because they do offer opinion, but it is based on actual facts. But I won't lie to you. Vanity Fair does also offer some beautiful photography by Annie Lebowitz and some other wonderful photographers. And there is usually a celebrity on the cover, though not someone you would neccessairly expect. And you see this celebrity outside of their normal element, and shown in such a different way that they're sometimes unrecognizable. I'll admit this magazine does take some time to work through, as the articles are lengthy, but take my word on it, they are worth the time with the t.v. off. Recommended: Yes This is a: News magazine

Vanity Flair-Cover To Cover

I have been a Vanity Fair reader for years after stumbling upon an issue with beautiful photography gracing it's cover. This caught my attention enough to pick it up, read cover to cover and then subscribe. The contributors are top notch. Hard hitting news stories written to some depth alongside lighter weight celebrity profiles. Dominick Dunne is a favorite contributor. His slant on court cases and the workings of the American judicial system is always fascinating. Another unusual aspect of Vanity Fair is that their stories usually tie together in some way to paint a complete picture of current events. As far as their ads are concerned....it generates revenue but sometimes makes reading the magazine cumbersome. Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: News/Current Events This is a: News

Vanity for sure!

I am an advid reader of this magazine and have been for a very long time now. I dont think I could explain exactly what one thing draws me to the magazine exactly. Vanity fair has so much to offer. Of course this is more (definately) a womans "point of view" magazine but I have at times even caught my husband browsing the pages. LOL :-) maybe he is trying to learn something! Vanity Fair covers stories on your favorite celebrities, it features the latest trends in fashion and style, it has tips on make up and beauty issues, sex techniques, as well as real life stories about real life people!! Of course in every issue there are ads thast deal with again fashion and beauty but even some of the ads are worth pondering. The editorial staff does a wonderful job!! They have a way of wording their articles that makes it easy for a woman to read, and if it should happen, even for a man to read and understand. I have always loved this magazine since the day I got my first issue! I would recommend this magazine to anyone..man or woman!! Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: Articles This is a: News magazine

Vanity Fair, it's all worth it

Vanity Fair is one of my many favorite magazines. This magazine is upscale. It has lots of great articles. It's got politics, high society, culture, family treason, authors, celebrities, you name it, Vanity Fair will give it to you. What I like most about Vanity Fair is the quality of writing. The writers are top notch. There use of syntax, grammar, vocabulary and narrative is excellent. Vanity Fair does true crime stories with Dominck Dunne. You have high society writings, about the wealthy New York and international money makers and how screwed up their lives are. The horoscopes are witty. The last page of the magazine, called Proust Questionnaire is probably one of my favorite things about this magazine. Here, they ask one famous person several thought provocating questions, such as What do you most value in your friends, when and where are you most happiest. Vanity Fair is one of the thickest magazines out there, sure it's crammed with lots of glitzy advertisements, but there are really, long(sometimes too long) articles that really get into the heart of the matter. Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: Editorials/Social Commentary This is a: News

Fantastic magazine - the intellectuals choice

God, I'm a sucker for this magazine. Filled in the world like we are, of advertising-boosted mags, tat and general rubbish to 'sell' countless issues - at least this magazine provides 'opinions' of people, stories and events that leave us to read in minute detail and decide outcomes for ourselves. As a UK resident I feel that Britain is especially cluttered with magazines that are only 'rag-mag' as opposed to Vanity Fair, the latter which provides an outlook on both national and international stories that the average 'questioning' Brit or American can relate to. Sure, the appeal is also a bit glitzy, luxury and aspirational but the reportages are sheer quality and constantly brilliantly written, issue after issue. I challenge any Brit, at least, to find similar quality, brains and/or appeal. I can't really fault VF. If I have aspirations left in life, one of them would be to write for either Vanity Fair or National Geographic - both icons of the print media - institutions even! Long may they continue. Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: Articles This is a: News magazine

'Vanity Fair'

I have had a subscription to 'Vanity Fair' for a few years now. I wouldn't dream of letting it lapse. Each month, they present a variety of articles. Every month usually has at least one celebrity profile. The interviews are usually very thorough, covering the subjects life and current work. The accompanying photographs are by such noted people as Annie Leibowitz and Herb Ritts. They are fun and informative. There are also articles about current events and politics. The current issue has a great article about Bill Gates'. For me, the most interesting articles are the mysteries that pop up every other month or so. They have detailed, insightful, thorough articles about various notorious crimes, unsolved mysteries and trials. They seem to be rather fairly written, giving pros and cons to popular theories. The current issue has a great article about Natalie Wood's death and the crime spree of Sante and Kenneth Kimes. As a freelance screenwriter, many of their articles have given me ideas for my writing. I wait for each month's issue to arrive in my mailbox and then devour it from page to page. My only complaint, the noxious perfume ads. Some months, there are 6 or 7. My first act is always to tear them out. Love the magazine. Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: Articles This is a: News magazine

genuinely general interest

For the person looking for a good 'general interest read' then a magazine doesn't come better edited than Vanity Fair. In an era of niche-publications, VF beats the niche magazines at their own game- it beats Premiere and People at celebrities and gossip; George and Time at politics; W and Vogue at society and high fashion; hell, it even whacks the gay press when it does a gay story! The best part about VF is its writing. The articles are detailed, well-written, polished, and lengthy- the kind of solid, in-depth, cover-the-angles investigative journalism that went out when shortened attention spans came in. There are alot of ads but ad pages pay for the consistent excellence of VF. While VF does veer to the social and cultural elements, the magazine is so chocked full of long articles (twice as many and more varied as the competition I'd say), that anyone from a fashion victim to a policy buff can find a good read within its pages. Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: Articles This is a: Tabloid

A Week Long, Intelligent Read

I love Vanity Fair. I can't say that enough. The celebrity interviews are in depth and bring out a more intelligent, artistic side of the star or artist, which is something that is rarely done in the superficial interviews we are all used to. The political commentaries are insightful and the political coverage is full force, down with the issues and inside all of the players heads. Their heavy focus on the arts (and by that I mean ARTS, not only entertainment) is interesting, and opens the average reader up to some culture not normally discussed in a public forum. Wonderful pictures, coupled with all of these articles leads to a magazine that cannot be so easily and quickly devoured as most magazines of the time. This magazine should not be classified under celebrity gossip. It is so much more. Recommended: Yes Primary Reason for Buying: Articles This is a: News magazine

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Vanity Fair's Hollywood Hardcover – October 23, 2000

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• Print length 320 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Viking Studio
• Publication date October 23, 2000
• Dimensions 10.52 x 1.28 x 12.28 inches
• ISBN-10 067089141X
• ISBN-13 978-0670891412
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review.

Like any good party, this vast book offers sparkling talk as well as gobs of eye candy. The brilliant Peter Biskind evokes the '70s heyday of superagent Sue Mengers, D.H. Lawrence makes a stab at defining "sex appeal," Patricia Bosworth adds the patented VF dash of scandal in a piece on Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend's murder, and Hitchens gives a quickie history of the fabled Sunset Strip. Not everything rises to the august occasion: Carl Sandburg's poem about Chaplin and Clare Boothe Luce's snooty ode to Garbo are mostly of antiquarian interest. Most of the historic stuff is great (e.g., Fritz Lang directing a crowd scene in Metropolis ), and the most austere cineaste should own this book. On practically every page, Vanity Fair's Hollywood dazzles. It's a keeper. --Tim Appelo

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking Studio; First Edition (October 23, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 067089141X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670891412
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.51 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.52 x 1.28 x 12.28 inches
• #312 in Movie Reference
• #2,792 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
• #7,085 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies

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Graydon carter.

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Vanity Fair

The Scary Skinny on Counterfeit Ozempic

By Katherine Eban

Alec Baldwin Is Bringing His 7 Kids to Reality TV

By Savannah Walsh

Bob Menendez Won’t Let Those Pesky Corruption Charges Keep Him From Office

By Bess Levin

Meghan and Harry’s Daughter Celebrates Her Birthday With Friends

By Erin Vanderhoof

Biden Thinks “Something Snapped” in Trump

By Eric Lutz

Will Lewis on WaPo Turmoil: “I Can’t Sugarcoat It Anymore”

By Charlotte Klein

“I Can’t Sugarcoat It Anymore”: Will Lewis Bluntly Defends Washington Post Shake-Up

Why counterfeit ozempic is a global-growth industry, stormy daniels has marriage advice for melania trump: dump his ass, kate middleton update: the princess has “turned a corner” with cancer treatment, sources say, mary trump expects a post-conviction “revenge tour”, the archive.

Seduced and Abandoned

Editors’ picks.

By Leah Faye Cooper

FEATURED VIDEO

Jennifer connelly breaks down her career, from 'top gun' to 'requiem for a dream'.

Allison Williams & Ebon Moss-Bachrach Reunite After 7 Years

The Inspirations Behind 45 Years of 'Mad Max,' Explained by Furiosa's George Miller

News from the ton.

Politics, Power, and Personality. Read more »

Team Trump Claims Guilty Conviction Led to $141 Million Fundraising Bonanza in May

How I Became a Target of the Russian Disinformation Machine—And the GOP

By Steven Brill

Trump, Facing Time in Prison, Absurdly Claims He Never Called for Locking Up Hillary Clinton

Trumpworld’s Post-Conviction Spin Cycle

Trump is looking for a little help from his friends on the supreme court after historic conviction, rupert murdoch marries elena zhukova, if google kills news media, who will feed the ai beast, donald trump joined tiktok on saturday and already has millions of followers.

TV, Film, and Awards. Read more »

Jonathan Groff Didn’t Want to Spend 7 Years as a “Singing Teenager” on Glee

By Chris Murphy

William Jackson Harper’s Wild, Wonderful Year on the New York Stage

By David Canfield

Maya Hawke Takes a Refreshing Stance on Her “Nepotistic” Rise

The Maddening MoviePass Scandal You Didn’t Know About

By Julie Miller

Mike Tyson Ulcer Issue Tanks Fight With Jake Paul

‘heartsick’ jennifer lopez cancels ambitious stadium tour, 3 body problem renewed by netflix for two more seasons, “i want to shoot…now”: how a new documentary captures the totality of faye dunaway, run lola run 25 years later: a breathless oral history.

Culture, Style, Celebrity, and Royals. Read more »

How Sarah Ferguson’s “Honest and Frank” Relationship With Princess Eugenie and Beatrice Helped with Cancer Conversations

By Kase Wickman

Christina Applegate Is “Trapped In Darkness” of Depression Three Years After MS Diagnosis

Meghan Markle “Felt Like She Was Coming Home” During Her Nigeria Trip With Prince Harry

Travis Kelce’s Barber/Bro Can't Wait for Him and Taylor Swift to Get Married

How prince harry’s own struggle with mental health inspired nigerian students, lenny kravitz lets channing tatum and zoë kravitz’s wedding plans slip, how travis kelce reacted to being asked when he would make taylor swift “an honest woman” in front of a crowd, david beckham and king charles are beekeeping buddies, sean combs accusers to testify before grand jury in new york: report, our biggest stories, straight to your inbox..

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IN PHOTOGRAPHS

Cannes Red Carpet 2024: Best Fashion, Outfits From the Film Festival

By Maggie Coughlan, Kia D. Goosby, and Miles Pope