After reading law he was moved to become an artist and spent
some time in travel on the Continent.
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE TO "VANITY FAIR" DRAWN BY THACKERAY, WHO
FURNISHED THE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR MANY OF HIS EARLIER EDITIONS]
But this delightful life was rudely cut short by the loss of his
fortune and he was forced to earn his living by literature and
journalism. Under various pseudonyms he soon gained a reputation as a
satirist and humorist, his first success being _The Great Hoggarty
Diamond_. Then years of work for PUNCH and other papers followed
before he won enduring fame by _Vanity Fair_, which he styled "a novel
without a hero."
Charlotte Bronte, who gained a great reputation by _Jane Eyre_, added
to Thackeray's vogue by dedicating to him in rarely eloquent words the
second edition of her novel, against which preachers fulminated
because of what they called its immoral tendencies. Then in rapid
succession Thackeray wrote _Pendennis_, _Henry Esmond_, _The
Newcomes_, _The Virginians_, _Lovel the Widower_ and _The Adventures
of Philip_. All these are masterpieces of wit, satire and humor, cast
in a perfect style that never offends the most fastidious taste, yet
they are neglected to-day mainly because they do not furnish exciting
incidents.
Thackeray, like Dickens in his readings, made a fortune by his
lectures, first on "The English Humorists," and later on "The Four
Georges," and, like Dickens, he received the heartiest welcome and the
largest money returns from this country.
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