An exploration into the vanities of Thackeray's characters. This article provides a look at humorous historical qualities of the novel as well as British life. Students beware! Do not turn to Hollywood for an abbreviated version of the complex novel, Vanity Fair. It is far too extensive for a two hour movie (although the most recent film version was quite good).
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《浮華世界》（Vanity Fair）是薩克萊的代表作，生動刻劃一個折衝當時社交界名花，揭露滑鐵盧戰役前後英國中上階層社會腐敗、偽善、敗德的現狀，表現出犀利的嘲諷與深厚的厭世觀。
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THACKERY AND VANITY FAIRVanity Fair was a turning point in Thackeray's life and career. A gentleman by birth and education, Thackeray was forced to earn his living by writing because most of his money had been lost in a financial crash. The articles, reviews, essays, and sketches he produced for magazines and newspapers did not provide sufficient income either to support a gentleman's status or to provide for the futures of his two daughters. In addition, writing for a living made his status as a gentleman somewhat tenuous. The serialization of Vanity Fair, which was a financial success, quickly established Thackeray's literary reputation. Thackeray was jubilant, "There is no use denying the matter or blinking it now. I am become a sort of great man in my way--all but at the top of the tree: indeed there if the truth were known and having a great fight up there with Dickens." Though Thackeray's novels never sold at the rate of Dickens's novels (in the tens of thousands), he became financially secure with Vanity Fair. Also his social status as a gentleman was assured because of his acknowledged genius; he was no longer an amusing, talented hack writer, just one of a crowd of London journalists.
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As the manager of the Performance sits before the curtain on the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place. There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look-out, quacks (OTHER quacks, plague take them!) bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind. Yes, this is VANITY FAIR; not a moral place certainly; nor a merry one, though very noisy. Look at the faces of the actors and buffoons when they come off from their business; and Tom Fool washing the paint off his cheeks before he sits down to dinner with his wife and the little Jack Puddings behind the canvas. The curtain will be up presently, and he will be turning over head and heels, and crying, "How are you?"
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書中兩個要角，個性特別鮮明突出；一個是書中隱隱把她當作負面人物的莉貝卡，她聰敏、美麗、好學、善體人意、力爭上游，意志力強，想得到的人或東西，都全力以赴，不輕言放棄。這種特性，正是現今社會成功的要素，一個女強人的必備要件啊！雖然她也自私，為了成功，不擇手段，不走正路，很會利用別人，很會耍心機，但請問多少成功人物，不是如此？書前導讀中說：「多少正派人物，視她為蛇蠍美人」，但比起書中許許多多血統高貴的達官貴人的眾男眾女，那種勢利自私，頑固不化，虛榮自大，欺善怕惡的嘴臉，還是可愛多多了。其實她也不見得做了些什麼大惡事，最後她對艾咪麗揭發她亡夫喬治的花心，當頭棒喝，使得艾咪麗回心轉意，認識到杜賓的高貴情操，撮合了他們兩人的結合，這完全是出於無私的善舉，跟自己的利害無觀。雖則這種特性的女人，也非我欣賞的女人，甚至是敬而遠之的，但我們也不能以成敗論英雄，把她當作負面的蛇蠍美人，所以我為可敬卻不可愛的莉貝卡叫屈！
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