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, 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.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: <a href="https://lrb.me/applecrna" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lrb.me/applecrna</a>In other podcast apps: <a href="https://lrb.me/closereadingsna" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lrb.me/closereadingsna</a>Read more in the LRB:John Sutherland on Thackeray:<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n02/john-sutherland/wife-overboard" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n02/john-sutherland/wife-overboard</a>Rosemary Hill on 'Frock Consciousness':<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n02/rosemary-hill/frock-consciousness" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n02/rosemary-hill/frock-consciousness</a><hr> 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.

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Novel Approaches: 'Vanity Fair' by William Makepeace Thackeray

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