[Review] Vanity Fair -- Thackeray

I just finished Vanity Fair and, though enjoyable, I can't help thinking it would have been better read episodically. That is, it has similarities to any TV show. The arc is less interesting than each episode and watching them altogether will only make you overwhelmed. 800 pages of gossip on two inter-connected families can be a little too much even when each page is witty and comical.

Indeed, Thackeray's writing is very readable. He brings you in as an accomplice, regularly breaking the fourth wall, talking about the process of writing and who he heard what from. And he makes the most delightful pronouncements upon humanity. The entire book is an exercise in laughing at onesself (if you a member of the upper middle class of England in 1830).

There is one other flaw. Beck Sharp is a fascinating character. She is beautiful, talented, ambitious, charming, and will let nothing stand in the way. Her foil, Amelia, is pious and simple and good, and frankly, uninteresting. I know we're meant to root for Amelia, but vice is so much more interesting and Thackeray even acknowledges this in his pages. But nonetheless, there is still much amusement in wondering whether Mr. X will make it back in time to propose to Miss Y and what exactly Mr. Z meant when he referred to the sordid past of Widow Q.

But now I've had enough. I think I won't proceed to Emma. I just need a little break from Victorian sensibilities!