The Virginians
by William Makepeace Thackeray 
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The author of Vanity Fair focuses his attention on the American Revolutionary War in the sprawling epic The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century. The novel follows the trials and tribulations of twin brothers George and Harry Warrington whose personal lives intrude on their decision to fight in the war effort..
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This was a lengthy tome which was interesting but not fascinating. Another book that I feared would never end. The book takes place in the 18th century prior to the Revolutionary War. Twin sons of Virginia "nobility" visit their ancestral home in England and have a variety of experiences in the old country. One son ends up in the British Army and in Canada and from there, goes home again. The other marries (beneath him - according to the family) and stays in England. The most interesting part of the book was towards the end with the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. The second son has gone home and the twins (who are deeply connected) find themselves fighting on opposite sides. I found the British view of the war the most interesting show more part of the book and it made me wonder, had I lived back then, whose side would I have been on? 3 stars. Don't read it if you're looking for action. It was rather like reading a diary. show less
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Author Information
719+ Works 24,505 Members
William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, where his father was in service to the East India Company. After the death of his father in 1816, he was sent to England to attend school. Upon reaching college age, Thackeray attended Trinity College, Cambridge, but he left before completing his degree. Instead, he devoted his time to show more traveling and journalism. Generally considered the most effective satirist and humorist of the mid-nineteenth century, Thackeray moved from humorous journalism to successful fiction with a facility that was partially the result of a genial fictional persona and a graceful, relaxed style. At his best, he held up a mirror to Victorian manners and morals, gently satirizing, with a tone of sophisticated acceptance, the inevitable failure of the individual and of society. He took up the popular fictional situation of the young person of talent who must make his way in the world and dramatized it with satiric directness in The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844), with the highest fictional skill and appreciation of complexities inherent within the satiric vision in his masterpiece, Vanity Fair (1847), and with a great subtlety of point of view and background in his one historical novel, Henry Esmond (1852). Vanity Fair, a complex interweaving in a vast historical panorama of a large number of characters, derives its title from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and attempts to invert for satirical purposes, the traditional Christian image of the City of God. Vanity Fair, the corrupt City of Man, remains Thackeray's most appreciated and widely read novel. It contrasts the lives of two boarding-school friends, Becky Sharp and Amelia Smedley. Constantly attuned to the demands of incidental journalism and his sense of professionalism in his relationship with his public, Thackeray wrote entertaining sketches and children's stories and published his humorous lectures on eighteenth-century life and literature. His own fiction shows the influence of his dedication to such eighteenth-century models as Henry Fielding, particularly in his satire, which accepts human nature rather than condemns it and takes quite seriously the applicability of the true English gentleman as a model for moral behavior. Thackeray requested that no authorized biography of him should ever be written, but members of his family did write about him, and these accounts were subsequently published. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
William Makepeace Thackeray has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Is abridged in
One hundred best novels condensed: 3 of 4 see note: Adam Bede; Tess of the D'Urbervilles; Don Quixote; East Lynne; Count of Monte Cristo; Paul and Virginia; Tom Brown's School Days; Waverley; Dombey and Son; Romola; Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Last of the Mohicans; Wreck of the "Grosvenor"; Right of Way; Coniston; Far from the Madding Crowd; Woman in White; Deemster; Waterloo; Hypatia; Kidnapped; Oliver Twist; Gil Blas; Peg Woffington; Virginians by Edwin Atkins Grozier
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1857
- Important events
- American Revolution (1775 | 1783)
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 280
- Popularity
- 115,056
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, Hungarian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 39
- ASINs
- 38
