Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray 1811–1863
The book, and the century it came out of.
Becky Sharp leaves school by throwing the dictionary out of the carriage window, and proceeds to climb through a society that deserves her. Thackeray subtitled it a novel without a hero and meant it: the good are dull, the charming are ruinous, and Waterloo is fought in a single sentence offstage while the wives wait in Brussels. He drew the original illustrations himself. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Martin, De Roy and Callcott among them.
As the manager of the Performance sits before the curtain on the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place.
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Literary Classics
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 936 pages
- Reading time
- about 19 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486034695
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
Published in parts, 1847–48
It came out in monthly numbers while revolutions broke out across Europe — Paris in February 1848, then Vienna, Berlin, Milan — and while England, alone among the great powers, did not have one. Thackeray was writing about the generation of Waterloo for readers who were watching another old order come down.
The serial form shows: he was writing each number close to publication, watching sales, and adjusting. The famous last line about the puppets going back in the box was written by a man who had spent two years living with these people in public.
This book in culture: 12 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here are 8 of them, the earliest and the most recent among them — and none of them is the book.
The whole afterlife of Vanity Fair — screen, stage and beyond →
- 1911 Vanity Fair Charles Kent short film
- 1922 Vanity Fair Walter Courtney Rowden short film
- 1923 Vanity Fair Hugo Ballin
- 1935 Becky Sharp Lowell Sherman
- 1956 Vanity Fair miniseries
- 2005 Vanity Fair Mira Nair
- — Vanity Fair David Giles TV series
- — Vanity Fair Phoebe Waller-Bridge TV series
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Vanity Fair, first published 1848, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486034695, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Vanity Fair?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. William Makepeace Thackeray's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 936 pages, which is roughly about 19 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
