"Vanity Fairwas aBritish weekly magazine that was published from 1868 to 1914. Founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles[who passed away 100 years ago this year] in London, the magazine included articles on fashion, theatre, current events as well as word games and serial fiction. The cream of the period’s "society magazines", it is best known for its witty prose and caricatures of famous people of Victorian and Edwardian society, including artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, business people and scholars."
"Taking its title from Thackeray's popular satire on early 19th-century British society, Vanity Fair was not immediately successful and struggled with competition from rival publications. Bowles then promised his readers 'Some Pictorial Wares of an entirely novel character', and on 30 January 1869, a full-page caricature of Benjamin Disraeli appeared. This was the first of over 2,300caricatures to be published. According to the National Portrait Galleryin London, "Vanity Fair's illustrations, instantly recognizable in terms of style and size, led to a rapid increase in demand for the magazine. It gradually became a mark of honour to be the 'victim' of one of its numerous caricaturists. Bowles’s witty accompanying texts, full of insights and innuendoes, certainly contributed towards the popularity of these images"."
Thackeraydoes not mention Bunyanin the novel or in his surviving letters about it, where he describes himself dealing with "living without God in the world", but he did expect the reference to be understood by his audience, as shown in an 1851Timesarticle likely written by Thackeray himself."
On a side note, I saw the Brad Pitt produced movie'She Said' when I was at the cinema yesterday with my younger son, whose idea it was to see when we learned just how bad the ratings were on RottenTomatoes for Mel's new film 'On the Line', which we had planned to see ... you could say that'She Said'was our PLAN Bon the day;-)
I still want to see Mel's movie, but not at the cinema now.
Maybe when it hits a streaming service that I already have a subscription to?
And while I haven't read 'Vanity Fair'(or plan to any time soon) I have watched the excellent 1998 6-part TV serieson Britbox this week, which was inspired by the novel.
I was surprised to read at Wikipedia that the author of 'Vanity Fair' passed away on Christmas Eve, but looking at a photo on the same Wikipedia page of his grave, it reads on his tombstone that he passed away on December 21st?!
I still want to see Mel's movie, but not at the cinema now.
![William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 [?] December 1863)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray#/media/File:William_Thackeray_grave_Kensal_Green_2014.jpg){kind=link}
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