Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 Excerpt: ...interesting only as the early practice of one who before long rose to be a master of English. On the whole, as we look back upon these writings, we do not think that if his fame at that time was unequal to his merits, the public were much to blame. The veiy high opinion which his friends entertained of him must have been due more to personal intercourse than to his published works. It was not until 1846 that Mr. Thackeray fairly showed to the world what was in him. Then began to be published, in monthly numbers, the story of Vanity Fair. It took London by surprise--the picture was so true, the satire was so trenchant, the style was so finished. It is difficult to say which of these three works is the best--Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond, or The Newcomes. Men of letters may give their preference to the second of these, which is indeed the most finished of all his works. But there is a vigour in the first-mentioned, and a matured beauty in the last, which to the throng of readerswill be more attractive. At first reading, Vanity Fair has given to many an impression that the author is too cynical There was no man less ill-natured than Mr. Thackeray, and, if anybody doubts this, we refer him to The Newcomes, and ask whether that book could be written by any but a most kind-hearted man. We believe that one of the greatest miseries which Mr. Thackeray had to endure grew out of the sense that he, one of the kindest of men, was regarded as an ill-natured cynic. The first to follow in Mr. Dickens's wake was Mr. Thackeray. It is said that his Vanity Fair was declined by an eminent publishing firm; and when the early numbers, clad in their prime yellow covers, and illustrated with the quaint figures, first made their appearance, they excited little attention. It was not lon...