William understood Diana more but idealized her less. He would always be her baby, a scamp who was “thick” at his lessons and “naughty, just like me.” His emotions, like hers, were always simmering near the surface. Prince Harry idolized Diana more and understood her less. The two-year age gap between them was critical in forging their distinctive worldviews and, equally so, in shaping their perceptions of their mother. A pleasure to read, the work of the fellow writer to Dickens and the Brontë sisters, revolving around what people do for money, is just as topical today as it was back then.From their earliest childhood, William and Harry were collateral damage in a cold war between their parents, one that could turn hot in front of them in alarming ways. With “Vanity Fair”, William Makepeace wrote a social panorama that was to be published countless times, in the form of books, movies and theater plays.

Not even as a mother capable of real warmth, her scheming ultimately chases everyone away. She, who does not even flinch from legacy hunting, can secure herself a livelihood.

In the end, however, after trials and tribulations against the background of the Napoleonic wars – Thackeray’s novel takes place in the time 1815-1830 – the loser is: Machiavellian Becky. Good-natured to naive, the daughter of a bankrupt seems to be a loser. Becky’s girlfriend Amelia Sedley is a stranger to such strategic thinking. And they let the tempting young woman have her way.

In order to gain a fortune, she repeatedly ensnares influential men. She knows exactly what she wants and uses all her feminine charms. Rebecca “Becky” Sharp’s approach is a very straightforward one. Published from 1848 onwards, the serialized novel is a satirical assessment of how different people behave in the game for money and prestige. And so he was compelled to earn his living as a writer.Īt least, it enabled him to write from an insider’s perspective when he held a mirror up to the greedy Victorian England with his “Vanity Fair”. Still underage, young Thackeray was not lucky with gambling, neither at the table nor the stock exchange.

But just as quickly as he had come to money, however, he lost it again. Born in 1811 to a colonial offer in Calcutta, Thackeray enjoyed financial security thanks to a significant inheritance early in his life. Hardly any author is so qualified to write about the seductive power of money as William Makepeace Thackeray. Published by Manesse, Bibliothek der Weltliteratur, 1959

Vanity fair by william