Thackeray, William Makepeace (18111863)

Thackeray, William Makepeace (18111863)

English novelist and journalist, known for his satirical and moralistic studies of upper- and middle-class English life, especially in the Victorian age. His works include The Yellowplush Correspondence ( 1837); The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan ( 1838-1839); Catherine ( 1839-1840); A Shabby Genteel Story ( 1840); The Paris Sketch-Book ( 1841); The Great Hoggarty Diamond ( 1841); The Fitz-Boodle Papers ( 1842-1843); Men's Wives ( 1843); Jeames's Diary ( 1845); Mr. Punch's Prize Novelists ( 1847); The Snobs of England ( 1847), later The Book of Snobs; Vanity Fair ( 1847-1848), his best-known work; Pendennis ( 1848-1850); Rebbecca and Rowena ( 1850); Henry Esmond ( 1852); The Newcomes ( 1853-1855); The English Humorists of the 18th Century ( 1851) and The Four Georges ( 1855-1856), lectures delivered on a tour of America; Christmas Books ( 1857), containing Mrs. Perkins' Ball and The Rose and The Ring, among other tales; The Virginians ( 1857-1859), a sequel to Henry Esmond; Lovel the Widower ( 1860); The Adventures of Philip ( 1862); and Denis Duval ( 1864), left unfinished at the author's death. Thackeray also wrote a number of ballads, satirical and otherwise.

Thackeray was born in India and early in his career studied law and then drawing. He worked on newspapers in Paris and London, and virtually all of his works were published serially in Fraser's Magazine or in Punch; in 1859 he became editor of The Cornhill Magazine. The insanity of his wife, Isabella Shawe, in 1840 is considered to have influenced the character of his work in some part.