There was this couple in a town I lived in who gave all of their children intensely threatening names, like 'Repent or Burn' (whom everyone outside the family called 'Rob.') This has nothing to do with anything, except that 'Makepeace' is a rather less offensive portmanteau..
I'm kind of exhausted in advance by the idea of reviewing Vanity Fair (the novel, not the magazine). I read it as sort of a supplement for my Vic Lit class, and because it's kind of a big deal. Also because I am daft.
.Vanity Fair is long. And I know I've been saying that about a lot of books lately, but at 750+ pages and completely devoid of any sort of puppies, murders, or mad relatives, VF takes the plodding, marathonic cake.
.Becky Sharp is a plucky orphan, but the unsavory kind. Over the course of what feels like an eternity, she acquires a beau and then a position as a governess when that beau fails to beau-up, and then secretly marries the uncle (I think? A family tree would have been handy since everyone is always being referred to as 'the Colonel' and 'the Baroness' and people's positions keep changing as other people die and I forget who is who) of the girls she is governessing, but then falls out of favor with him and becomes poor and drunk and slovenly before meeting up with her respectable old friend Amelia whose (now dead) husband she almost stole and under whose respectability she now cloaks herself before doing poor Amelia a good turn and quietly vanishing at stage left.
.And I maintain my platform that satire is only funny if you are an Expert in the Times. Which is why Gulliver's Travels continues to fail to amuse, and why most of Vanity Fair was beyond my radar.
.Five caterpillars, because it was kind of endearing. It was just...so long!
Congratulations you've finish a rather long book. I've seen the Vanity Fair movie starring Reese W. it was pretty interesting I should acquire this book soon.
ReplyDeleteThis one took me from about September to February to read. I kept putting it down and reading shorter books in the meanwhile, and then I'd pick it up again and read a few chapters and then put it down again ... it just never drew me in. But, it was kind of momentous to finish. And I kind of liked how Becky never said die and kept turning up.
ReplyDeleteI might have rated it a bit higher but you're right that this is a too-long book. Perhaps it should be called "A Novel in Need of a Good Edit"? I actually liked the shifting, strange family tree and maybe this isn't a very good sign, but I thought aspects were quite amusing. A little boring at times (though the men's stories were my favorites - most interesting of them all) but it's still got a bit of charm in the characters.
ReplyDeleteThough, yes, long. Very, very long.
I enjoyed it the first time I read it but it failed miserably the second time. I have no idea why. I think it felt like he was trying to hard to be funny.
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing whatsoever to do with the book, but: poor Repent Or Burn. I knew Puritans used to give their kids names like that back in olden times, but I had no idea people still did it.
ReplyDeleteI got My Cousin Rachel today! :)
ReplyDeleteI was surprised at how much VF is like GWTW..or the other way around. Margaret Mitchell must've internalized VF during her formative years, just like I internalized GWTW.
ReplyDeleteI've read either Middlemarch or Vanity Fair (and possibly both). I recall finding whichever one I remember to be terribly plodding. I was also completely mistaken as to whom the romantic lead was, so was utterly disappointed when my guy and girl didn't get together.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of distinction between these two books should embarrass me, but somehow it doesn't.
Lil' Thackeray is sad.
ReplyDeleteThis is a ploddingly slow read--I really think that an editor today would cut 200+ pages from it. I wanted to like it, I really did. I found some of the characters to be marvelous and was happy that Becky didn't miraculously transform at the end but I just don't get how it came to be a book that has survived the times--and I do get the satire--there's just too much of it!
ReplyDeleteLisa
Oh, I so disagree with you! I am a voracious reader of novels (as well as of British book blogs), and my two favorite novels of nineteenth century literature are "Middlemarch" and "Vanity Fair". Both novels are ten caterpillars for sure.
ReplyDeleteセレブ達は一般の人達とは接する機会もなく、その出会う唯一の場所が「逆援助倶楽部」です。 男性はお金、女性はSEXを要求する場合が多いようです。これは女性に圧倒的な財力があるから成り立つことの出来る関係ではないでしょうか？
ReplyDelete急に時間が出来ても友達はみんなカレシと一緒でかまってくれません…アタシと遊んでくれる人メール下さい☆ a.a-mai@docomo.ne.jp
ReplyDelete会員制の逆援交際倶楽部では男性は無料、一日最低額10万円保障での交際をお求めできます。ご登録された女性様達はセレブであるがための悩みをそれぞれの方が持ち、皆様、男性との営みを求め、ご登録されております。彼女たちとの初々しい一時をお楽しみ、謝礼をいただいてくださいませ。会員制ですので人数に限りがあるため、打ち切りの場合はご了承ください
ReplyDelete凄く困ってます☆ love-cac@docomo.ne.jp すぐに連絡ください
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ReplyDeleteマダムと甘い時間を過ごしてみませんか？性欲を持て余しているセレブたちは出張ホストサービスで男性を探し、セックスを求めているのです。ホスト希望の方なら容姿や年齢は一切不問！ご近所の女性を探して、多額の報酬をゲットしよう
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ReplyDelete今まで同い年や年下としか付き合ったことなくて疲れてしまいました…優しくリードしてくれるような大人の男性に憧れます。 ayu-cha@docomo.ne.jpよかったらメールしてみてください。
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with your Japanese spam? Or is that Chinese? I can't really tell.
ReplyDeleteI have never liked Gulliver's Travels, so I'm happy to hear that you didn't either. It makes my avoidance of VF that much more credible.