Classic fiction

Vanity Fair

by William Makepeace Thackeray

Clever and socially ambitious Becky Sharp leaves school determined to rise through a society where money and connections matter more than sincerity. Her calculating path contrasts with the affectionate but naïve Amelia Sedley, whose devotion to George Osborne survives evidence that should change her view of him. War, marriage, debt, scandal, and shifting fortunes repeatedly rearrange the characters without making the world more virtuous. Witty, sprawling, and deliberately without a conventional hero, this satire suits a long weekend for readers who enjoy sharp social observation, morally flexible survivors, Napoleonic-era upheaval, and a narrator eager to expose everyone's vanity.