Barry Lyndon follows the cunning rise and tragic fall of an Irish rogue who schemes his way into wealth, nobility, and high society through deception, duels, and marriage. Narrated with ironic detachment, Thackeray's novel exposes the hypocrisy and moral emptiness of 18th-century aristocracy. Despite fleeting success, Barry's ambition, pride, and recklessness lead to ruin, exile, and despair. A masterful blend of picaresque adventure and social satire,...

Henry Esmond is a historical novel set in early 18th-century England, following the life of Henry Esmond, a loyal, honorable man entangled in the political and domestic intrigues of an aristocratic family. Blending romance, wit, and historical detail, it explores themes of love, legitimacy, and loyalty amid the turbulent reigns of the first two Hanoverian kings. The English Humourists and The Four Georges are companion nonfiction works: the former...

London, 1814: In der glanzvollen Welt der britischen Oberschicht bestimmt nicht Moral, sondern Eitelkeit den Wert eines Menschen - gemessen an Titeln, Beziehungen und der Kunst des schönen Scheins. Inmitten dieser Gesellschaft treffen zwei junge Frauen aufeinander, deren Schicksale sich verflechten werden. Die mittellose, aber scharfsinnige Becky Sharp und ihre gutmütige Freundin Amelia Sedley könnten unterschiedlicher nicht sein. Während Amelia...

From this scene we rushed off somewhat discomposed to make a breakfast off red mullets and grapes, melons, pomegranates, and Smyrna wine, at a dirty little comfortable inn, to which we were recommended: and from the windows of which we had a fine cheerful view of the gulf and its busy craft, and the loungers and merchants along the shore. There were camels unloading at one wharf, and piles of melons much bigger than the Gibraltar cannon-balls at another....

The Virginians follows the diverging paths of twin brothers George and Henry Warrington, born into a genteel English family with ties to colonial Virginia. Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution, the novel explores loyalty, identity, and the clash between Old World aristocracy and New World ideals. While George embraces his American roots and joins the revolutionary cause, Henry remains loyal to Britain. Through romance, war, and family...

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair (1847), a panoramic portrait of English society. Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, with a sneaking fondness for roguish upstarts like Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, Barry Lyndon in Barry Lyndon (1844) and Catherine in Catherine (1839). In his earliest works, writing under such pseudonyms as Charles...

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair (1847), a panoramic portrait of English society. Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, with a sneaking fondness for roguish upstarts like Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, Barry Lyndon in Barry Lyndon (1844) and Catherine in Catherine (1839). In his earliest works, writing under such pseudonyms as Charles...

William Makepeace Thackeray's "John Lecch's Pictures of Life and Characters" focuses around his opinions of the works of English caricaturist and illustrator, John Leech (29 August 1817 - 29 October 1864).

Barry Lyndon-far from the best known, but by some critics acclaimed as the finest, of Thackeray's works-appeared originally as a serial a few years before VANITY FAIR was written; yet it was not published in book form, and then not by itself, until after the publication of VANITY FAIR, PENDENNIS, ESMOND and THE NEWCOMES had placed its author in the forefront of the literary men of the day. So many years after the event we cannot help wondering why...

"The Fatal Boots" is a satirical short story by William Makepeace Thackeray that humorously explores the absurd consequences of vanity and social pretension. When a young man dons a pair of ostentatious boots to impress at a party, his exaggerated swagger leads to a series of escalating mishaps, culminating in public humiliation. Through witty prose and sharp social observation, Thackeray lampoons the folly of chasing admiration through superficial...