Vanity Fair

No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental friend Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George, in this satirical epic of love and social adventure.

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Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley stand at the heart of this richly comic dissection of English society during the Napoleonic wars. Becky is charming and amoral and well equipped to fight for worldly success. Amelia is sweet and sentimental and longs for her worthless soldier lover, while the good but dull Dobbin stands patiently by. With a cast of characters grotesque, corrupt and downright wicked, the vast sweep of the novel allows Thackeray's wit and morality to shine a light into society's murkier corners.