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Thackeray reveals in his novel the themes of time, narcissism, illusions against reality and relationships between people.

I can't say that I liked the book. Despite the fact that it is easy to read because of the harmonious and beautiful language, the narration seemed protracted to me. Nevertheless, characters are vibrant and alive, it's difficult to single out the main storyline and the main characters in the book, the description of the life of one without the others completely loses its meaning.

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Emilia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp end their stay at the boarding house and safely find their long-awaited freedom.

Emilia, out of the kindness of her heart, offers Becky to stay with her, to which she gladly agrees. And immediately the girl proceeds to seduce Emilia's brother Joseph but she doesn't succeed.

Soon Rebecca finds a place as a governess in the house of Sir Pitt Crawley. She manages to charm all the household, including the eldest son Crowley, whom the owner himself is afraid of. Later she begins to rule the house and feels almost like the mistress of the estate.

Soon Rebecca meets Pitt's half-sister, a very rich lady, who takes Becky to London, where she charms the younger Crowley and even manages to secretly marry him. After Sir Pitt's wife dies, and he offers to marry Becky. And then she realizes how she miscalculated and hurried, marrying the scamp and duelist Rawdon.

Becky's family is beginning to be ignored by everyone. She has to survive on Rawdon's small salary, but Becky does not lose her presence of mind and dreams of a brilliant place for herself in society.

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On the title page of "Vanity Fair" Thackeray proclaims that it's a novel without a hero: and here most of the characters are either bad or worthless and the other are weak or absurd. The impression of human life is that of a hopeless chaos of selfishness, hypocrisy and futitlity.
The novel is written in pure and simple English, but it easily reveals all the varieties and shades of thoughts and feelings -- humorous, ironic, sad and other .
The author uses a lot of epithets here to emphasize the diversity, fancy, colorfulness of a rich life. Moreover, there are a lot of paraphrases and allegories.
Also in the text there are many reflections of the author about the heroes, their families, rhetorical questions are often used to ephasize that it's like a theatrical play.

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Rebecca Sharp (the protagonist of the novel,a strong-willed young woman obsessed with status and wealth);

Amelia Sedley (a good-natured, determined person, a victim of so many things like her family's financial ruin, Rebecca's ruthlessness, and high society's overall cruelty);

George Osborne (a disrespectful playboy, Amelia's love interest)

Joseph Sedley (a relatively wealthy man, who admires people only based on whether or not they come from a nobility line);

William Dobbin (George's best friend, sincere and kind).

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Literary trend: realism
The genre: a novel without a hero

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A comedy of manners, which I liked more than the works of Fonvizin, which remained in my memory from school years. It's  humorous, easy to read. I could say that this play may be used like a manual for those who suffer from gossip and unfair attitude. Moreover, it reminded me that every spoken word can destroy someone's career, relationship or even life.

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Lady Sneerwell is the local gossip of Bath.

Sir Oliver has a fortune and two nephews, Charles and Joseph. Sir Oliver can’t decide which nephew to leave his fortune to and tries to find out as much as he can about their characters before leaving them anything.

Both Charles and Joseph are in love with the same girl, Maria. Meanwhile, Maria and Lady Scandal are both in love with Charles. Lady Scandal attempts to wreck the relationship between Charles and Maria by spreading malicious rumours about Charles’s reputation, suggesting he is a libertine.

Sir Oliver visits each of his nephews in disguise, to test out their characters. Charles is selling off family paintings to make ends meet. Sir Oliver pretends to be a money lender and offers to buy his own portrait, which Charles refuses to sell.

Sir Oliver visits Joseph disguised as a poor relative asking for help, but Joseph displays his meanness and shallowness by turning him away. When Sir Oliver reveals his identity, Joseph is revealed as a hypocrite. Sir Oliver bequeaths his fortune to Charles and Charles is married to Maria.

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The play is written in ironic, witty tone.
Sheridan developed a unique technique for defining his characters by how they spoke: some hypocritical characters sounds artificial, whereas sincere and kind heroes sounds simplier.
Moreover, it features allusions to Shakespeare, Greek gods, Don Quixote, Petrarch, and Waller.

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Sir Peter Teazle (an older man of fixed character who has married a younger woman);

Sir Oliver Surface (the wealthy uncle of brothers Joseph and Charles Surface);

Joseph Surface (Sir Oliver’s nephew, outwardly respectable but at heart a manipulative hypocrite);

Charles Surface (Joseph's extravagant with loose morals brother);

Lady Teazle (a young, intelligent girl from the countryside and a quick learner of city ways);

Maria (an orphaned heiress and ward of Sir Peter).

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Literary trend: Realism
The genre: a comedy play

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William Makepeace Thackeray (July 18, 1811 - December 24, 1863)

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William Makepeace Thackeray (July 18, 1811 - December 24, 1863)

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William Makepeace Thackeray was born at Calcutta in 1811. His father, Richmond Thackeray, had been an Indian civil servant, as had William's grandfather. His mother was nineteen at the date of his birth, was left a widow in 1816, and married Major Henry Carmichael Smyth in 1818.

Always an independent spirit, he went his own way, attending various schools, but leaving Cambridge without taking a degree. His relatives wanted him to study law; he leaned toward the fine arts. At Trinity College, Cambridge, he contributed to a little paper called The Snob.

About 1834, Thackeray went to Paris and took up the study of art. He had early shown talent as a caricaturist. His pencil was at its best in such fantastic work as is found in the initial letters of the chapters in his books, and in those drawings made for the amusement of children.

In 1837, Thackeray came to London and became a regular contributor to Fraser's Magazine. From 1842 to 1851, he was on the staff of Punch, a position that brought in a good income. During his stay at Punch, he wrote Vanity Fair, the work which placed him in the first rank of novelists. He completed it when he was thirty-seven.

In 1857, Thackeray stood unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate for Oxford. In 1859 he took on the editorship of the Cornhill Magazine.

Thackeray died December 24, 1863. He was buried in Kensal Green, and a bust by Marochetti was put up to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

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Richard Brinsley Sheridan (October 30, 1751 - July 7, 1816)

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Richard Brinsley Sheridan (October 30, 1751 - July 7, 1816)

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Sheridan was born in 1751 in Dublin, but his family moved to London when he was seven, and he never returned to Ireland.

He attended Harrow and in 1770 moved with his family to Bath.

Sheridan’s rise as a playwright was rapid. His first play, The Rivals, opened at London's Covent Garden Theatre in 1775, but its first performance was not a success. Sheridan revised the play, and this time the result was positive. Brimming with wit and surefooted in its structure, the play established the young Sheridan’s reputation as a writer.

Years later in February 1809, Sheridan famously stood outside the theatre and watched it burn while drinking a glass of wine. He is supposed to have remarked ‘A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside’.

In 1777 his Trip to Scarborough brought him money and fame, further multiplied by the fabulous success of The School for Scandal, staged in the same season. This is the best comedy of manners of the 18th century. and one of the pinnacles of comedy. Two comedy storylines are borrowed from his own early plays that were never staged, The Slanderers and The Teazles; comedy ridicules gossip, hypocrisy and the harmful effects of a secular lifestyle. Sheridan's burlesque comedy The Critic, or A Tragedy Rehearsed (1779), continues the attack on sentimentalism and other currents of the time, begun in early plays.

He deployed his theatrical talents on the political stage, and became known as a great orator and critic of other men’s speeches in the Commons. Eventually, he broke with his former ally Charles James Fox over the French Revolution. He succeeded Fox as MP for Westminster in 1806 only to lose the seat in 1807. He stood for election for Stafford again in 1812, but was defeated.

His failure to be re-elected, the Drury Lane fire and the loss of his income from the Theatre all led to Sheridan falling into debt. Hounded by creditors and bailiffs, he died in poverty in 1815. He is buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.