Thackeray, William Makepeace | Vanity Fair, Thackeray's satirical masterwork

Property from an Important American Collection

Thackeray, William Makepeace

Vanity Fair. A Novel without a Hero. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848

Large 8vo. “The Great Hoggarty Diamond” advertisement preceding illustrated frontispiece and title, 39 steel and wood plates by the author including the rustic font header on p.1 and the suppressed "Marquis de Steyne" woodcut on p.336, “Mr. Pitt” for "Sir Pitt" on p.453; light foxing, particularly to plates. Publisher's blue cloth stamped in blind, spine gilt; spine sunned, some light shelfwear. Collector's green morocco slipcase, blue cloth chemise.

First edition, first issue, of the first work published under Thackeray's own name — the Richard Manney copy.

Thackeray's satirical masterwork, a commentary on British society first serialized in Punch between January 1847 and July 1848. The early serials were printed with eye-catching canary yellow covers and featured Thackeray's own illustrations. It's subtitle, A Novel without a Hero, epitomizes Thackeray's central message: every character, like every human, is flawed to some degree.

REFERENCE:

Van Duzer 231

PROVENANCE:

Richard Manney (bookplate; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 295)