James Baquet

John Bunyan wrote a heavy-handed allegory called “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Characters have names like “Mr. Worldly Wiseman” and “Pliable,” and the book’s protagonist is named “Christian.” Places are named “The Slough of Despond” and “The King’s Highway.”

But none has influenced popular culture like the place where every temptation is available to humans: “Vanity Fair.” Today it’s the name of a well-known magazine, but in 1848 it was a novel, by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray.

It is typical of its time: many characters, plots and subplots, and lots and lots of words. It will take two articles to cover it all, but it’s an excellent way to get familiar with the style of 19th-century English novels.

The book has two main characters. One is Amelia (“Emmy”) Sedley, a good-natured, simple-minded girl — with a wealthy dad. But it is her friend, the willful, scheming gold digger Rebecca (“Becky”) Sharp who steals the show.

Becky is born in humble circumstances, but is attracted to the finer things in life. She first attaches herself to her school chum Emmy, and uses that girl’s position in society to improve her own. Men are especial targets for her, including Emmy’s fiancé, Captain George Osborne, and her bumbling (but rich!) brother Jos. After making a play for George, and failing, Becky sets out on her own.

She goes to work for a minor nobleman, Sir Pitt Crawley. She secretly marries Sir Pitt’s second son, Rawdon, but the move backfires: When Sir Pitt’s wife dies, he proposes to Becky, who had not expected the poor woman to die so soon. Meanwhile, Sir Pitt’s very rich spinster half-sister controls the family fortune, and while she once might have left her wealth to Rawdon, she changes her mind, because she hates Becky. The money instead goes to Rawdon’s older brother.

Meanwhile, Napoleon has escaped from his exile on Elba, and the wobbly stock market leaves Emmy’s father bankrupt. George Osborne’s father forbids him to marry the now-broke Emmy, but at the urging of his friend William Dobbin, he does so anyway, and is disinherited.

We’ll finish the story next time.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. financially ruined

2. works in reverse

3. pal, friend

4. planning, usually in an evil way

5. removed from someone’s will

6. stubborn

7. story in which each part is a symbol of something

8. a (usually) woman who tries to get a man’s money

9. not subtle, clumsy

10. older, unmarried woman