By Liu Mingyue1 Thackeray was a representative of critical realism in 19th-century England who has the same reputation with Charles Dickens.Thackeray was born at Calcutta in 1811. His father, Richmond Thackeray, had been an Indian civil servant, as had William's grandfather. At the age of six, Thackeray was sent to be educated in England. On his way to England from India, the small Thackeray saw Napoleon on St. Helena. In his early education, an independent spirit was infused to small Thackeray. So he went his own way, attending various schools, and leaving Thinity College, Cambridge without taking a degree. 2 He married Isabella, an Irish girl, in Paris, 1836, who enchanted him with her singing, and who was the model for Amelia in Vanity Fair. Three daughters were born, one dying in infancy. After the birth of the third child, Mrs. Thackeray's mind was affected and she had to be placed with a family who took care of her. The little girls were sent to Thackeray's mother in Paris. Although Mrs. Thackeray outlived her husband by thirty years, she did not recover. As a young man with a ruined fortune and a tragic marriage, Thackeray was forced to earn his life with his pen. Politically Thackeray was a radical, advocating social reform and democracy. In his opinion, the existing society was corrupted as well as corrupting. He took it as his duty to expose the vices of his age, especially those in the upper-middle class. And He also regarded snobbery and the money-grabbing as the chief vice in his society. He criticizes the social moral that makes up the society. His criticism embraces people of all social strata; his social-climbers and snobs and money-grabbers can be found in any class. He always speaks in an ironical, sarcastic and cynical tone of an on-looker. He used his pen to disclose the darkness of society, and the Vanity Fair is a vivid and satire embodiment of that time and society. 3 1.Vanity Fair （（《《名利场名利场》》，，1848））2.The History of Henry Esmond 3. （（《《亨利亨利·伊斯蒙德伊斯蒙德》》，，1852））4.3.Others4 Vanity Fair A Novel without a Hero Vanity Fair is Mr. Thackeray’s most important work. The novel describes two women: Amelia Sedley who does not esteem the values of Vanity Fair and Rebecca Sharp who cares for nothing else. 5 The History of Henry EsmondOut of modesty, one supposes, the impossibly virtuous Henry Esmond narrates his adventures in the third person. Raised to believe himself a nobleman's love-child, he eventually discovers he is a legitimate heir. This knowledge he suppresses in favor of his near relations and benefactors, especially the Jacobite Lady Castlewood and her daughter, both of whom he loves devotedly, and one of whom he eventually marries. In the meantime, neither he nor his kin can escape the political, martial, and religious turmoil of Queen Anne's England. 6 Other Masterpieces:Full-length novels:1.The History of Pendennis（《彭登尼斯》，1850) ）2.The Newcomes（《纽克姆一家》，1855）3.The Virginians（《弗吉尼亚人》，1859）Medium-length novels:The luck of Barry Lyndon（《巴里·林顿的遭遇 》，1844）Short story collections:The book of Snobs （《庸人之书》or 《势利眼集》，1848）7 8 。