Reviews
Contrary to the Victorian literary heroism, Vanity Fair is a novel without a hero, that depicts satirically an era when people spend most efforts keeping up pretenses of a grandeur life and living above their means. (And I must say we as a society are still plagued by this disease to this day.) The protagonist Becky Sharp, the daughter of a poor painter and Opera singer, is a ruthless and shameless social climber that marries, charms, and schemes all the way into the upper class circle. But can you really blame her? Born a woman in a time when birth and wealth determine everything while brain and talents matter little, she has learned how to survive ever since a little girl. With Becky in mind, it's also hard to congratulate on the other more virtuous characters' improved circumstances due to some inheritances falling into their lap. Becky's famous statement - "I could be a good woman if I had five thousand pounds a year" - leaves one indignant and then disturbed. There are no characters without faults in Vanity Fair, and that makes the novel more realistic than its contemporaries.
