Vanity Fair - Original TV Score

Advantages: Lot's of great stories, interesting and varied, many pages
Disadvantages: Might be too expensive for some

...Background: Vanity Fair is published by Conde Naste and costs £3.40. In 1913 Conde Nast bought a men's fashion magazine named "Dress" he then renamed the magazine "Dress and Vanity Fair" publishing four issues in 1913. It is said that Conde Naste paid $3,000 so that he could have the right to use the name "Vanity Fair" in America, but it is not known if the right was given by an earlier English publication or some other source. Although there was a brief period of inactivity the magazine was relaunched in 1914 as "Vanity Fair". Editor, Frank Crowninshield helped the magazine grow in popularity. In 1919 Robert Benchley joined Dorothy Parker to become managing editor of "Vanity Fair". Crowninshield hired the most notorious writers of the era. Aldous Huxlley, T.S Eliot, Ferenc Monhar, Getrude Stein, and Djuna Barnes all appeared... Read review

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Advantages: Entertainment, fun, pictures loads of information
Disadvantages: Price and advertisements

...My first introduction to Vanity Fair was in my childhood when I used live in a remote village. There was an outlet called Vanity fair where all sorts of goodies were available and when ever we were in need of something which was not easily available we went to Vanity fair and lo it was there. As I grew up I came across John Bunyan?s Pilgrim?s Progress and there I came know of another Vanity fair which meant ?A place or scene of ostentation or empty, idle amusement and frivolity? and I thought that was impressive. On the other hand, however, William Makepeace Thackery used ?Vanity Fair? to christen his very widely read satirical novel of 1948, being serialized in Punch magazine of Great Britain during that period. When I grew up a little more the ?Vanity fair? of my village had its imprint on my mind. Because as far as I remember... Read review

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Advantages: A brillant, satirical portrait of Regency high society
Disadvantages: In my eyes none, but I own that some may not appreciate Thackeray's mocking of everybody!

...A novel without a hero but with not one but two very worthy heroines... William Makepeace-Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India in 1811 to parents of English decent. On his father's untimely death in 1815 William was sent to England to be educated leaving his mother behind in Calcutta. Despite the very few years he actually lived in India the country obviously had quite an impact on his consciousness because an Anglo-Indian figure features in Vanity Fair (Jos Sedley) and apparently some of Thackeray's other works as well. In England he completed the standard education of a gentleman first at boarding school and then Cambridge. Thackeray was no natural student, however, and ended up leaving Cambridge without his degree and setting off to travel around the Continent. On his return to England William lived the merry life of a single... Read review

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