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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Vanity Fair is the embodiment of the truth that just because something is considered a "classic" doesn't mean it's good. Every character is intensely unlikeable (except Dobbin). The plot is nonexistent. The writing goes off on so many uninteresting tangents it's a struggle to even get through. Also whoever said this was "funny" was lying to themselves and everyone else.
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I bought this book before starting 6th form. I postponed reading it until now as I was intimidated by the slab of paper. Having now finished it I so wish that I had read it earlier, although it’s an intimidating 800 page chunk it is very much worth it.
Honestly regency classics are an absolute bop, you cannot convince me otherwise. The drama, the pathos, the description. Not to mention the balls and dances! What more could one want? There were some really beautiful parts to this book and there were parts that were genuinely funny and also enlightening about the regency period. I mean my new favourite fact is that people can have purple dyed beards in regency times?!?! Tf!
There were some really beautiful descriptions, as the introduction man said “the most shattering sentence in English literature” is in this book and I wholeheartedly agree. “Darkness came down on the field and city; and Amelia was praying for George , who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart.” Like wow. That hit. The absolute cold, sharp shock of so suddenly killing a main character. Shooketh.
The character of Becky Sharpe is also very artfully written. Never someone so horrible have I simultaneously rooted for and wanted to fight. The concept of having an outspoken, scheming woman in a centre plot who was most definitely the cleverest there is highly intriguing. She is a nasty character and it is interesting to find out what her next move will be. Moreover the attitude to her supposed promiscuity and it being highly insinuated is very interesting to look at considering the time period. I think it would be so interesting to analysis this book/read it again with a more analytical eye.
However, I felt like some parts were dragged out for the weekly original instalments of the novel and to add the suspense but I will give some slack because the Georgians needed some crazy entertainment in their lives. Also there was always some kind of philosophising at the start of each chapter some was interesting and some was just waffle- man’s had a word count he needed to reach the lady doth thinks.
Also it was interesting as Thackeray appeared to be some kind of proto-feminist?? Idk will have to do some tea search into that but he seems to repeat the idea that women struggle in the patriarchal world and it is hard to have so little a voice, “we should go mad had we to endure the hundredth part of those daily pains which are meekly borne by many women”. Plus the concept of domestic violence and it occurring and being nasty happens several points in the book.
In summary: murder, scandal, absolute slander, bitchiness and purple beards. What more could one want. I will be reading again at some point, if I don’t drown in my tbr first…
It was like bridgerton but for snobs. And I loved it.
Honestly regency classics are an absolute bop, you cannot convince me otherwise. The drama, the pathos, the description. Not to mention the balls and dances! What more could one want? There were some really beautiful parts to this book and there were parts that were genuinely funny and also enlightening about the regency period. I mean my new favourite fact is that people can have purple dyed beards in regency times?!?! Tf!
There were some really beautiful descriptions, as the introduction man said “the most shattering sentence in English literature” is in this book and I wholeheartedly agree. “Darkness came down on the field and city; and Amelia was praying for George , who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart.” Like wow. That hit. The absolute cold, sharp shock of so suddenly killing a main character. Shooketh.
The character of Becky Sharpe is also very artfully written. Never someone so horrible have I simultaneously rooted for and wanted to fight. The concept of having an outspoken, scheming woman in a centre plot who was most definitely the cleverest there is highly intriguing. She is a nasty character and it is interesting to find out what her next move will be. Moreover the attitude to her supposed promiscuity and it being highly insinuated is very interesting to look at considering the time period. I think it would be so interesting to analysis this book/read it again with a more analytical eye.
However, I felt like some parts were dragged out for the weekly original instalments of the novel and to add the suspense but I will give some slack because the Georgians needed some crazy entertainment in their lives. Also there was always some kind of philosophising at the start of each chapter some was interesting and some was just waffle- man’s had a word count he needed to reach the lady doth thinks.
Also it was interesting as Thackeray appeared to be some kind of proto-feminist?? Idk will have to do some tea search into that but he seems to repeat the idea that women struggle in the patriarchal world and it is hard to have so little a voice, “we should go mad had we to endure the hundredth part of those daily pains which are meekly borne by many women”. Plus the concept of domestic violence and it occurring and being nasty happens several points in the book.
In summary: murder, scandal, absolute slander, bitchiness and purple beards. What more could one want. I will be reading again at some point, if I don’t drown in my tbr first…
It was like bridgerton but for snobs. And I loved it.
Vanity Fair was good but there were several chapters that I felt unnecessary, particularly in the later half of the book.
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Okay, I tried, I really really really did. But I couldn't do it. I think it was all the author's asides to the reader. Show, don't tell! Urgh, so irritating. So jarring.
Plus, I wasn't rooting for any of the characters.
Plus, I wasn't rooting for any of the characters.
The tone is like Tom Jones era Fielding but more sour. (Though, not sour in the way that Fielding went, oddly).
There are some brilliant set-pieces, particularly the Battle of Waterloo from the perspective of the Baggage Train. The characters are believable and relatable until the last fifty pages where everyone gets a massive dose of melodrama.
I would have given this the full five, had not the last fifty pages dragged so and the ending be such an unclimactic one.
There are some brilliant set-pieces, particularly the Battle of Waterloo from the perspective of the Baggage Train. The characters are believable and relatable until the last fifty pages where everyone gets a massive dose of melodrama.
I would have given this the full five, had not the last fifty pages dragged so and the ending be such an unclimactic one.
challenging
funny
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes