Thackeray, William Makepeace

New York. 1985. Penguin Books. Reprinted Penguin Classic Paperback Edition. Very Good in Wrappers. 0140430350. Edited & With An Introduction by J. I. M. Stewart. 814 pages. paperback. The cover shows a detail from A Swarm of English Bees Hiving in the imperial Carriage by George Cruikshank, in the British Museum (photo: John Freeman). keywords: Penguin Classic Paperback England Literature 19th Century. FROM THE PUBLISHER - A rich and resplendent story of English society during the Napoleonic Wars. In it there is, to quote Thackeray, ‘a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling: there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look-out, quacks bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers.' Through this free-wheeling melee of brilliant improvisations sail Becky Sharp, one of literature's most resourceful, engaging and amoral characters, and Amelia Sedley, her less lustrous but more ambiguous foil. Their story is, in J. I. M. Stewart's words, ‘a landmark in the history of English fiction'. inventory #29447 ISBN: 0140430350.