Vanity Fair - LimpidSoft

1 Vanity Fairby William Makepeace ThackerayStyled by LimpidSoftContentsBEFORE THE CURTAIN4 CHAPTER I8 CHAPTER II23 CHAPTER III42 CHAPTER IV57 CHAPTER V842 CONTENTSCHAPTER VI106 CHAPTER VII132 CHAPTER VIII148 CHAPTER IX171 CHAPTER X186 CHAPTER XI199 CHAPTER XII233 CHAPTER XIII250 CHAPTER XIV275 CHAPTER XV313 CHAPTER XVI332 CHAPTER XVII3513 CONTENTSCHAPTER XVIII368 CHAPTER XIX393 CHAPTER XX415 CHAPTER XXI435 CHAPTER XXII454 CHAPTER XXIII473 CHAPTER XXIV486 CHAPTER XXV513 CHAPTER XXVI553 CHAPTER XXVII570 CHAPTER XXVIII584 CHAPTER XXIX6044 CONTENTSCHAPTER XXX631 CHAPTER XXXI651 CHAPTER XXXII675 CHAPTER XXXIII709 CHAPTER XXXIV731 CHAPTER XXXV766 CHAPTER XXXVI788 CHAPTER XXXVII805 CHAPTER XXXVIII836 CHAPTER XXXIX865 CHAPTER XL884 CHAPTER XLI9035 CONTENTSCHAPTER XLII928 CHAPTER XLIII943 CHAPTER XLIV962 CHAPTER XLV983 CHAPTER XLVI1002 CHAPTER XLVII1019 CHAPTER XLVIII1037 CHAPTER XLIX1061 CHAPTER L1077 CHAPTER LI1095 CHAPTER LII1133 CHAPTER LIII11546 CONTENTSCHAPTER LIV1174 CHAPTER LV1193 CHAPTER LVI1225 CHAPTER LVII1250 CHAPTER LVIII1267 CHAPTER LIX1291 CHAPTER LX1313 CHAPTER LXI1325 CHAPTER LXII1353 CHAPTER LXIII1375 CHAPTER LXIV1399 CHAPTER LXV14327 CONTENTSCHAPTER

2 LXVI1449 CHAPTER LXVII14818 The present document was derived from textprovided by Project Gutenberg (document599) which was made available free of document is also free of manager of the Performance sits before the cur-tain on the boards and looks into the fair , a feelingof profound melancholy comes over him in his surveyof the bustling place. There is a great quantity of eatingand drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and thecontrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fid-dling; there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling thewomen, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look-out, quacks (otherquacks, plague take them!)

3 Bawling infront of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tin-selled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while thelight-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets be-10 BEFORE THE CURTAIN hind. Yes, this isVanity fair ; not a moral place certainly;nor a merry one, though very noisy. Look at the faces ofthe actors and buffoons when they come off from theirbusiness; and Tom Fool washing the paint off his cheeksbefore he sits down to dinner with his wife and the littleJack Puddings behind the canvas. The curtain will be uppresently, and he will be turning over head and heels, andcrying, How are you?

4 A man with a reflective turn of mind, walking throughan exhibition of this sort, will not be oppressed, I takeit, by his own or other people s hilarity. An episodeof humour or kindness touches and amuses him hereand there a pretty child looking at a gingerbread stall;a pretty girl blushing whilst her lover talks to her andchooses her fairing; poor Tom Fool, yonder behind thewaggon, mumbling his bone with the honest familywhich lives by his tumbling; but the general impressionis one more melancholy than mirthful. When you comehome you sit down in a sober, contemplative, not unchar-itable frame of mind, and applyyourself toyourbooks have no other moral than this to tag to the presentstory of Vanity fair .

5 Some people consider Fairs im-11 BEFORE THE CURTAIN moral altogether, and eschew such, with their servantsand families: very likely they are right. But persons whothink otherwise, and are of a lazy, or a benevolent, or asarcastic mood, may perhaps like to step in for half anhour, and look at the performances. There are scenes ofall sorts; some dreadful combats, some grand and loftyhorse-riding, some scenes of high life, and some of verymiddling indeed; some love-making for the sentimental,and some light comic business; the whole accompaniedby appropriate scenery and brilliantly illuminated withthe Author s own more has the Manager of the Performance tosay?

6 To acknowledge the kindness with which it hasbeen received in all the principal towns of Englandthrough which the Show has passed, and where it hasbeen most favourably noticed by the respected conduc-tors of the public Press, and by the Nobility and is proud to think that his Puppets have given satis-faction to the very best company in this empire. The fa-mous little Becky Puppet has been pronounced to be un-commonly flexible in the joints, and lively on the wire;the Amelia Doll, though it has had a smaller circle of ad-mirers, has yet been carved and dressed with the greatest12 BEFORE THE CURTAIN care by the artist; the Dobbin Figure, though apparentlyclumsy, yet dances in a very amusing and natural man-ner; the Little Boys Dance has been liked by some.

7 Andplease to remark the richly dressed figure of the WickedNobleman, on which no expense has been spared, andwhich Old Nick will fetch away at the end of this singu-lar with this, and a profound bow to his patrons, theManager retires, and the curtain , June 28, 184813 CHAPTERICHISWICKMALLWHILEthe present century was in its teens, and onone sunshiny morning in June, there drove upto the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton s academy foryoung ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach,with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fatcoachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate offour miles an hour.

8 A black servant, who reposed on thebox beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs assoon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton sshining brass plate, and as he pulled the bell at least aCHAPTER Iscore of young heads were seen peering out of the nar-row windows of the stately old brick house. Nay, theacute observer might have recognized the little red noseof good-natured Miss Jemima Pinkerton herself, risingover some geranium pots in the window of that lady sown drawing-room. It is Mrs. Sedley s coach, sister, said Miss Jemima. Sambo, the black servant, has just rung the bell; and thecoachman has a new red waistcoat.

9 Have you completed all the necessary preparationsincident to Miss Sedley s departure, Miss Jemima? asked Miss Pinkerton herself, that majestic lady; theSemiramis of Hammersmith, the friend of Doctor John-son, the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone herself. The girls were up at four this morning, packing hertrunks, sister, replied Miss Jemima; we have made hera bow-pot. Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, tis more genteel. Well, a booky as big almost as a haystack; I have putup two bottles of the gillyflower water for Mrs. Sedley,and the receipt for making it, in Amelia s box.

10 15 CHAPTER I And I trust, Miss Jemima, you have made a copy ofMiss Sedley s account. This is it, is it? Very good ninety-three pounds, four shillings. Be kind enough to addressit to John Sedley, Esquire, and to seal this billet which Ihave written to his lady. In Miss Jemima s eyes an autograph letter of her sis-ter, Miss Pinkerton, was an object of as deep venera-tion as would have been a letter from a sovereign. Onlywhen her pupils quitted the establishment, or when theywere about to be married, and once, when poor MissBirch died of the scarlet fever, was Miss Pinkerton knownto write personally to the parents of her pupils; andit was Jemima s opinion that if anything could consoleMrs.