:

Author: (British) William Makepeace Thackeray, annotated by Wu Jianguo
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-10-01
Features: William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was a prominent British critical realist novelist of the 19th century. Born on July 18, 1811, in Alipore near Calcutta, India, he came from a wealthy family, as his father was a tax collector and administrator for the British East India Company. At the age of four, his father passed away, and his mother remarried, leaving him to inherit a substantial inheritance. At the age of six, he was sent back to England for education and entered Charterhouse School at the age of 11. In 1829, after graduating from the school, he enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge. However, he was uninterested in the education at the time and left Cambridge without obtaining a degree to study in Weimar, Germany, where he met scholars like Goethe and other notable figures. In 1831, he followed his family's advice to return to London to study law but abandoned the legal profession due to a lack of interest. In 1833, he founded the weekly magazine The National Flag, and later that year in October, he traveled to Paris to focus on art but abandoned this path as well. In 1836, he became a Paris-based correspondent for The Constitutional Journal. Soon after, the journal ceased publication, and he returned to Britain, determined to live as a writer, contributing articles to newspapers and magazines, and married Isabella Shaw, the daughter of an Irish army colonel. They had three daughters, but four years later, his wife fell ill and became mentally unstable until her death.
Thackeray began publishing numerous articles in newspapers and magazines starting in 1833, using several pseudonyms and releasing several collections that received positive reviews. However, it was not until the publication of his novel Vanity Fair that he was recognized as a genius. To support his sick wife and young daughters, he worked tirelessly, illustrating his own works and publishing them one after another, while also giving speeches and lectures across Britain and the United States. In 1857, he failed in his attempt to be elected as a Member of Parliament in the Oxford constituency. In 1859, he became the editor of the newly launched Cornhill Magazine. Eventually, he fell ill due to overwork and died of a heart attack in London on the eve of Christmas in 1863.
Thackeray's early novels included works that satirized the various scoundrels and adventurers of high society and critiqued popular crime-themed novels of the time. Notable early works include The Yellowplush Correspondence (1838), Catherine (1840), The Great Hoggarty Diamond (1841), and The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844). His major novels include The History of Pendennis (1848–1850), The History of Henry Esmond (1852), The Newcomers (1853–1855), and The Virginians (1857–1859). His final novel, Denis Duval, was left incomplete at eight chapters upon his death and was published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1864.
Thackeray also published a collection of essays, with The Book of Snobs (1847) being particularly famous. This collection consists of 45 portraits of snobs from all strata of British society. The Roundabout Papers (1863) gathers a series of his witty essays. Among his literary criticisms, The English Humourists (1853) stands out as particularly outstanding.
Thackeray was a prolific writer, leaving behind a legacy of beloved and engaging works for future generations.