Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I read William Makepeace Thackeray's classic VANITY FAIR for Victober, a celebration in October of Victorian literature. Join me on my Riff Raff’s Reading Renaissance journey for a spoiler-free deep dive into this English literature classic from 1848 — a biting satire of Victorian society, perhaps the greatest novels ever written “without a hero” and introducing the prototype anti-heroine Becky Sharp as we explore themes of ambition, hypocrisy, class, and moral imperfection..
Topics covered:
Why Vanity Fair stands apart from other Victorian novels
Thackeray’s fascinating life and how it shaped his writing
Character insights: Becky Sharp, Amelia Sedley, George Osborne, and William Dobbin
Victorian satire, social climbing, and “a novel without a hero”
Beautiful passages, language highlights, and themes of morality and ambition
Perfect for fans of Victorian literature, book reviews, and classic English novels.
If you love Dickens, Brontë, or George Eliot, this one’s for you.
Subscribe for more thoughtful, spoiler-free book discussions!
CHAPTERS:
00:00 VicTober & Why I chose Vanity Fair
00:54 Perfectly Imperfect Characters
01:48 Story Overview (Spoiler-Free)
03:09 Satire, Class & Hypocrisy
03:46 Where the title comes from
05:04 Thackeray’s Life, Inspirations & Works
10:14 The Book Itself - Key Passages & Highlights
28:20 What the experts say about the book
35:34 Themes reflecting Victorian Society
36:57 What other authors thought of Thackeray
38:00 The iconic Becky Sharp & her descendants
39:10 How Vanity Fair Shaped Modern Fiction
40:08 My Reflections on Thackeray’s Writing Style
43:19 New Words discovered
44:20 Character Names - barbed parodies & puns
46:38 Final Thoughts
QUESTION FOR YOU:
Ifg you've read Vanoty Fair - do you think Becky Sharp is a villain — or just a survivor of her society? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
BOOKS REFERENCED
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
An Outline of English literature - Pat Rogers
How To Be Well Read - John Sutherland
The Western Lit Survival Kit - Sandra Newman
The New Lifetime Reading Plan - Clinton Fadiman & John S Major
The Bright Book of Life - Harold Bloom
English Literature - Anthony Burgess
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell,
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
FILMS REFERENCED:
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Basic Instinct (1992)
#VanityFair #BookReview #VictorianLiterature #ClassicBooks #WilliamMakepeaceThackeray #RiffraffsReadingRenaissance #victober #BeckySharp #BookTube #LiteraryAnalysis #EnglishLiterature #victober
I read William Makepeace Thackeray's classic VANITY FAIR for Victober, a celebration in October of Victorian literature. Join me on my Riff Raff’s Reading Renaissance journey for a spoiler-free deep dive into this English literature classic from 1848 — a biting satire of Victorian society, perhaps the greatest novels ever written “without a hero” and introducing the prototype anti-heroine Becky Sharp as we explore themes of ambition, hypocrisy, class, and moral imperfection..
Topics covered:
Why Vanity Fair stands apart from other Victorian novels
Thackeray’s fascinating life and how it shaped his writing
Character insights: Becky Sharp, Amelia Sedley, George Osborne, and William Dobbin
Victorian satire, social climbing, and “a novel without a hero”
Beautiful passages, language highlights, and themes of morality and ambition
Perfect for fans of Victorian literature, book reviews, and classic English novels.
If you love Dickens, Brontë, or George Eliot, this one’s for you.
Subscribe for more thoughtful, spoiler-free book discussions!
CHAPTERS:
00:00 VicTober & Why I chose Vanity Fair
00:54 Perfectly Imperfect Characters
01:48 Story Overview (Spoiler-Free)
03:09 Satire, Class & Hypocrisy
03:46 Where the title comes from
05:04 Thackeray’s Life, Inspirations & Works
10:14 The Book Itself - Key Passages & Highlights
28:20 What the experts say about the book
35:34 Themes reflecting Victorian Society
36:57 What other authors thought of Thackeray
38:00 The iconic Becky Sharp & her descendants
39:10 How Vanity Fair Shaped Modern Fiction
40:08 My Reflections on Thackeray’s Writing Style
43:19 New Words discovered
44:20 Character Names - barbed parodies & puns
46:38 Final Thoughts
QUESTION FOR YOU:
Ifg you've read Vanoty Fair - do you think Becky Sharp is a villain — or just a survivor of her society? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
BOOKS REFERENCED
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
An Outline of English literature - Pat Rogers
How To Be Well Read - John Sutherland
The Western Lit Survival Kit - Sandra Newman
The New Lifetime Reading Plan - Clinton Fadiman & John S Major
The Bright Book of Life - Harold Bloom
English Literature - Anthony Burgess
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell,
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
FILMS REFERENCED:
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Basic Instinct (1992)
#VanityFair #BookReview #VictorianLiterature #ClassicBooks #WilliamMakepeaceThackeray #RiffraffsReadingRenaissance #victober #BeckySharp #BookTube #LiteraryAnalysis #EnglishLiterature #victober
