A review by emmarj
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

3.0

I have a 'thing' about never reading abridged versions of anything. I'm not sure why, I just do. This, I think, is the first time I wished I had picked up the abridged version. I liked Vanity Fair but it felt about twice as long as it needed to be. Rather understandable, given that it was originally published as a serial over the period of 20 months. It did not translate well to a novel for me. Perhaps if I had tried to read it a little more piece meal, as intended? But I'm a binge reader, so it was just a lot to take in at once.

I appreciate Thackeray's sense of humor and I found Vanity Fair quite comical. I didn't understand the subtitle about there being no hero, though. I found Dobbin to be rather dreamy and mostly without fault. Well, that's not true... William Dobbin has many, many faults but when you set him next to the other characters of Vanity Fair he looks like a right saint.