"Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray

Summary The materialistic society described in Vanity Fair centers on Becky Sharp, Amelia Sedley, good-natured but naive boarding-school friends, whose destinies are intertwined but different. Clever and ambitious Becky is born into poverty as the daughter of a artist and actrice (commoners of the lowest sort). She planed to marry Amelia's brother Joseph, but fails. She is in charge of her own marriage because she was left an orphan. She ends up marrying Rowdon Crawley, he is disinherited later on. And Becky, true to her crafty nature, manages to live in fashion because of the patronage of Lord Steyne. When Rowdon finds out, he leaves to become governor of Coventry Island. Becky is ostracized (once again) and she moves to the Continent. …