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"Vanity, vanity. All is vanity"

I am not even a third of the way through Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and I have been working on it for almost 3 weeks. Frustrating and challenging to say the least. I know part of it is because I have been busy with work schedules, wedding plans, church visits and an unwanted visit by Strep Throat. But another part is that I am finding the book to be incredibly boring.  I made the mistake of watching the movie a few months back and so wasn't sure what to expect. The movie was alright. Definitely not worth watching a second time. And the book is the same. I am just not able to get into it (much like the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo which I read last month).

I am finding the writing style to be mediocre. The punctuation and basic grammar atrocious. The characters are incredibly shallow. The storyline has no clear rhyme or reason. I know all that may be due in part to the time, culture and audience to which it was originally written for. But that still doesn't help me get through it. I am not sure if I will be able to get through it and finish. I was hoping to finish it in a week or two. But now I am thinking that I will be lucky if I finish it before my wedding/honeymoon. I am hoping I can finish it before then because I am planning to take my Nook e-reader with me on our honeymoon and be able to pack light in regards to my books for that week. But we shall see.

The best chapter so far (I just read it today at work) has been when Sir Pitt Crawley, Becky Sharp's employer, proposes to her and the story unfolds that she has secretly married his son, Rawdon. The engraving below is one that William Makepeace Thackeray did himself and was included in the edition I am reading. It's quite humorous to look at the details of the pictures throughout the book, but the details of this one particularly are hilarious due to the pig-like face of Sir Crawley and the condescending look of Miss Sharp. The chapter is one full of drama, gossip and surprise as the proposal is denied and the secret marriage is revealed. Maybe now the book will finally start to get entertaining enough to capture and hold my attention to the end of it.


Comments

  1. *ೃ༄ JillianApril 18, 2012 at 7:39 PM

    Aw, too bad. :( I've only read half of this book so far, but I LOVE it. :)

    ReplyDelete

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