William Makepeace Thackeray
Thackeray's early works were marked by savage attacks on high society, military prowess, marriage, and hypocrisy, often written under various pseudonyms.Thackeray's later novels, such as Pendennis and The Newcomes, reflected a mellowing in his tone, focusing on the coming of age of characters and critical portrayals of society.[2] Never very keen on academic studies, Thackeray left Cambridge in 1830, but some of his earliest published writing appeared in two university periodicals, The Snob and The Gownsman.On reaching age 21, he came into his inheritance from his father, but he squandered much of it on gambling and on funding two unsuccessful newspapers, The National Standard and The Constitutional, for which he had hoped to write.Forced to consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue it, except in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings.The Thackerays had three children, all daughters: Anne Isabella (1837–1919), Jane (who died at eight months old), and Harriet Marian (1840–1875), who married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor, biographer and philosopher.[citation needed] Thackeray now began "writing for his life", as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family.Baxter, an American twenty years Thackeray's junior whom he met during a lecture tour in New York City in 1852, married another man in 1855.Accustomed to the spread-eagle style of oratory too prevalent at the Capitol, they were delighted with the pleasing voice and easy manner of the burly, gray-haired, rosy-cheeked Briton, who made no gestures, but stood most of the time with his hands in his pockets, as if he were talking with friends at a cozy fireside.[2] Although not the most fiery agitator, Thackeray was always a decided liberal in his politics, and he promised to vote for the ballot in extension of the suffrage and was ready to accept triennial parliaments.[2] Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, writing works that displayed a sneaking fondness for roguish upstarts, such as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair and the title characters of The Luck of Barry Lyndon and Catherine.In his earliest works, written under such pseudonyms as Charles James Yellowplush, Michael Angelo Titmarsh and George Savage Fitz-Boodle, he tended towards savagery in his attacks on high society, military prowess, the institution of marriage and hypocrisy.Thackeray's writing career really began with a series of satirical sketches now usually known as The Yellowplush Papers, which appeared in Fraser's Magazine beginning in 1837.Literary theorist Kornelije Kvas wrote that "the meteoric rise of the heroine of Vanity Fair Rebecca Sharp is a satirical presentation of the striving for profit, power, and social recognition of the new middle class.About this novel, there have been found evident analogies—in the fundamental structure of the plot; in the psychological outlines of the main characters; in frequent episodes; and in the use of metaphors—to Ippolito Nievo's Confessions of an Italian.[23] Anne's family's deception was unexpectedly revealed in 1812, when Richmond Thackeray unwittingly invited the supposedly dead Carmichael-Smyth to dinner.During the Victorian era Thackeray was ranked second only to Charles Dickens, but he is now much less widely read and is known almost exclusively for Vanity Fair, which has become a fixture in university courses, and has been repeatedly adapted for the cinema and television.In Thackeray's own day some commentators, such as Anthony Trollope, ranked his History of Henry Esmond as his greatest work, perhaps because it expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, as did some of his other later novels.Some later commentators have accepted this self-evaluation and seen him as a realist, but others note his inclination to use eighteenth-century narrative techniques, such as digressions and direct addresses to the reader, and argue that through them he frequently disrupts the illusion of reality.[27] In 1887 the Royal Society of Arts unveiled a blue plaque to commemorate Thackeray at the house at 2 Palace Green, London, that had been built for him in the 1860s.
Thackeray (disambiguation)daguerreotypeCalcuttaBengal PresidencyBritish IndiaLondonCharterhouse SchoolTrinity College, CambridgeVanity FairThe Luck of Barry LyndonHarrietsatiricaladapted for a 1975 filmStanley KubrickFraser's MagazineThe TimesCornhill MagazineEast India CompanyThomas ThackerayHarrow SchoolSaint HelenaNapoleonSouthamptonChiswickJohn LeechWeimarJohann Wolfgang von GoetheMiddle TempleAnne IsabellaHarriet MarianLeslie StephenCatherineThe Morning ChronicleThe Book of SnobsEyre CroweLeigh-on-SeaJane BrookfieldIrish Catholicsanti-Irish sentimentGreat Irish FamineCharles DickensPendennisThe NewcomesThe History of Henry EsmondWashingtonB.P. PooreCapitolHanoverianLiberalCardwellstricture of the urethraKensal Green CemeteryKensington GardensMarochettiWestminster AbbeyA Shabby Genteel StoryMrs. Perkins's BallIvanhoeMen's WivesThe Rose and the RingThe VirginiansThe Adventures of PhilipTennysonBBC Radio 4Adam BuxtonNewgatepicaresqueHenry JamesBildungsromancoming of ageIppolito NievoNorth AmericaGeorge WashingtonSouth MimmsGeorge ChinnerySouth 24 Parganas districtBengal EngineersAl MurrayJoanna NadinEtchingAnthony TrollopeMarathiBal ThackerayKeshav Sitaram ThackerayCharlotte BrontëJane EyreRoyal Society of Artsblue plaqueIsraeli EmbassyAncient Order of DruidsMichael PalinMiles JuppThe Man Who Invented ChristmasJoJo's Bizarre AdventureThe CrowThe Diary of a Young GirlEdward Dandothat termRoger BontempsBarry LyndonBritish EmpireArmenian College & Philanthropic AcademyMirza Ghalib StreetOxford Dictionary of National BiographyNew StatesmanHarvard UniversityThe Daily TelegraphThe ExaminerForster, MargaretMelville, LewisPrawer, Siegbert S.Taylor, D. J.WikisourceStandard EbooksProject GutenbergInternet ArchiveLibriVoxWayback MachineLibrary of CongressColonel Newcombe, the Perfect GentlemanBecky SharpPierścień i różaAnne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie1956–571946 playWilliam de Wiveleslie Abney