Vanity Fair

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Vanity Fair is a good novel overall. Character development is good -especially regarding Becky-, plot is quite well planned. Writing is excellent, with a good use of language and irony. BUT it's too long. Way too long. Like 'they could spare me 400 pages' long. I literally skimmed through and skipped entire pages. I get it, the longer a novel was, the more money ou got from it back in the XIX century, but it feels like too much nowadays.

Excellent, satire at its best.

I’ve got to Mark this as a DNF. I absolutely love the classics but this is one I struggled with. Although some of the satire was humorous, I just found the storyline tedious. It did not capture my attention at all and I struggled with the 20+ chapters I did read. I tried sticking with it but was so bored I couldn’t see wasting any more of my time. I already regret the time I did spend.

I've nothing against thick books or classics. Actually, some of my favourite books are thick classics, but I won't be adding Vanity Fair to the list. I had been looking forward to this read but I simply struggled with it from beginning to end. I think it could have been a great read had it been told in a more concise manner. Thackeray's writing is excellent but his descriptions were tediously detailed and I'm afraid I was bored throughout the book. None of the characters were likeable (they were actually quite annoying), which certainly didn't help. A disappointing read.

This is a decent "classic," at least in my opinion. Thackeray avoids cluttering the narrative with excess information and characters. I did not particularly enjoy the book however because it felt very contrived. Perhaps if I had read it slower I would have understood the point Thackeray was trying to convey. I probably would have gotten more out of the book if I had read it being in a fiction mindset rather than a non-fiction mindset. I've been reading so much non-fiction lately, it's hard to make the shift. I do love the inclusion of the illustrations. It's a nice break in the text. For a reader of the classics, definitely read this one. For a casual reader? There's nothing extremely compelling. It's a take it or leave it kind of book in that situation.

4,5