William makepeace thackeray

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W M. Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in the fa mily of an English official of high standing. Unlike Charles Dickens, he had a very good education both at school and at Cambridge University Wishing to be an artist, he went to Europe to study art. For some time he lived among the artists of Paris. Later, when he returned to London, he learned that he had lost all his money, for the bank where it was deposited had gone bankrupt. Thus, he had to earn his living. He began to draw sketches, but was not very successful. He started writing satirical and humorous stories and essays. Later he wrote novels and delivered lectures.

Thackeray wrote in the same years and under the same

political conditions as his great contemporary Dickens did. Their works complement each other in presenting the life of the period. Dickens usually chose for his main character the "little" man with his troubles and difficulties. Thacke­ ray directed his satire against the representatives of the upper classes of society, whom he knew better. Dickens was inclined to look for a happy solution that smoothed over the existing contradictions. Thackeray, by contrast,

was merciless in his satirical attacks on the ruling classes. He considered that art should be a real mirror of life. He showed bourgeois society and its vices without softening their description. In this approach to art he was a follower of Jonathan Swift, the great satirist of the Enlightenment.

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Thackeray's most outstanding works are The Book of Snobs (under this title he published a collection of satirical essays) that appeared in 184G-1847, and his novel Vanity Fair ( 1847-1848).

THE BOOK OF SNOBS

In this book Thackeray presents a gallery of men and women of the ruling classes of England. He writes about the parasitical life of the aristocracy; he describes the evils of the bourgeoisie, which is only interested in resembling as ncar as possible the aristocracy Thackeray also writes about the English military men of high rank, who in their stupidity and self-conceit place themselves entirely above the rank and file; he also attacks the clergy with his biting satire. All these people are snobs, according to Thackeray, because they cringe before those who are superior, and are rude and despotic towards those who are below them.

Most of the chapters of this book have the word "snob" in the title. Thus, there is a chapter on The Snob Royal, on Great City Snobs, Military Snobs, Party-Giving Snobs, on Clerical Snobs, on Some Country Snobs and so on. The word "snob", which had existed long before Thackeray's time, acquired a new meaning under his pen. It became a mirror of moral and psychological ideas of national character, customs and personal traits.

The book is a perfect reflection of Thackeray's satirical and highly negative approach to bourgeois society. It is

a real encyclopedia of the life of the ruling classes in England. These classes retain much of what Thackeray saw in them even today.