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So after loving Vanity Fair so much, I went to Half Price books to see what other nice Thackeray books they had. I found a hundred year old library edition of several books in one, Henry Esmond, Catherine, Denis Duval and Lovel the Widower. I immediately stated reading Catherine as the advertisement included for it before the first page sold me instantly.
Of course having been written by Thackeray it wasn't entirely without humor or sympathy. The characters were made to be hated, and he took great joy in pointing this out from time to time, and how they had no virtue and no one should be sympathetic towards them at all. Of course during the climax he did have to take a step backwards and point out that by his masterful writing style he had indeed done just that.
The annoying thing about this story was it appeared to have been edited a bit too much. There were several sections with lots of asterisks, where you could read at the bottom a description of a piece of descriptive prose, or ghastly newspaper writing, that they decided was no longer relevant and did not wish to be included in this later edition. A bit sad. But it was still an enjoyable story for all that. While being only about a 100 pages long, it was no vanity fair, but enjoyable nonetheless. As much for it's own story as to what it said about the novels about brigands that were popular at the time.
I shall definitely have to read more Thackeray, however first I think I need to read Six Chapters of a Floating Life that my mom got me for my birthday as I've been wanting to read it for years. And while it's autobiography and not fiction I think it should make excellent bed time reading.
The story of "Catherine" which appeared in Frazer's Magazine in 1839-1840, was written by Mr. Thackeray, under the name of Ikey Solomons, Jun., to counteract the injurious influence of some popular fictions of that day, which made heroes of the highwayman and burglars and created a false sympathy for the vicious and criminal.
With this purpose, the author chose for the subject of his story a woman named Catherine Hayes, who was murdered at Tyburn in 1726 for the deliberate murder of her husband, under very revolting circumstances. Mr. Thackeray's aim obviously was to describe the career of the wretched woman and her associates with such fidelity to truth as to exhibit the danger and folly of investing such persons with heroic or romantic qualities.
Of course having been written by Thackeray it wasn't entirely without humor or sympathy. The characters were made to be hated, and he took great joy in pointing this out from time to time, and how they had no virtue and no one should be sympathetic towards them at all. Of course during the climax he did have to take a step backwards and point out that by his masterful writing style he had indeed done just that.
The annoying thing about this story was it appeared to have been edited a bit too much. There were several sections with lots of asterisks, where you could read at the bottom a description of a piece of descriptive prose, or ghastly newspaper writing, that they decided was no longer relevant and did not wish to be included in this later edition. A bit sad. But it was still an enjoyable story for all that. While being only about a 100 pages long, it was no vanity fair, but enjoyable nonetheless. As much for it's own story as to what it said about the novels about brigands that were popular at the time.
I shall definitely have to read more Thackeray, however first I think I need to read Six Chapters of a Floating Life that my mom got me for my birthday as I've been wanting to read it for years. And while it's autobiography and not fiction I think it should make excellent bed time reading.