Close Readings: 'Vanity Fair' by William Makepeace Thackeray
<p>Thackeray's comic masterpiece, 'Vanity Fair', is a Victorian novel looking back to Regency England as an object both of satire and nostalgia. Thackeray’s disdain for the Regency is present throughout the book, not least in the proliferation of hapless characters called George, yet he also draws heavily on his childhood experiences to unfold a complex story of fractured families, bad marriages and the tyranny of debt. In this episode, taken from our Close Readings podcast series 'Novel Approaches', Colin Burrow and Rosemary Hill join Tom to discuss Thackeray’s use of clothes, curry and the rapidly changing topography of London to construct a turbulent society full of peril and opportunity for his heroine, Becky Sharp, and consider why the Battle of Waterloo was such a recurrent preoccupation in literature of the period.</p><br><p>To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:</p><p>Directly in Apple Podcasts: <a href="https://lrb.me/applecrna" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lrb.me/applecrna</a></p><p>In other podcast apps: <a href="https://lrb.me/closereadingsna" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lrb.me/closereadingsna</a></p><br><p><strong>Sponsored Links:</strong></p><br><p>'Wahnfried' at Longborough Festival Opera: <a href="https://lfo.org.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lfo.org.uk/</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
The LRB Podcast · The London Review of Books
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Show Notes
Thackeray's comic masterpiece, 'Vanity Fair', is a Victorian novel looking back to Regency England as an object both of satire and nostalgia. Thackeray’s disdain for the Regency is present throughout the book, not least in the proliferation of hapless characters called George, yet he also draws heavily on his childhood experiences to unfold a complex story of fractured families, bad marriages and the tyranny of debt. In this episode, taken from our Close Readings podcast series 'Novel Approaches', Colin Burrow and Rosemary Hill join Tom to discuss Thackeray’s use of clothes, curry and the rapidly changing topography of London to construct a turbulent society full of peril and opportunity for his heroine, Becky Sharp, and consider why the Battle of Waterloo was such a recurrent preoccupation in literature of the period.
To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrna
In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsna
Sponsored Links:
'Wahnfried' at Longborough Festival Opera: https://lfo.org.uk/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.