Funny thing...

Funny thing, this Vanity Fair is about the shallow, General Law world and all the vanity and worldly pride that goes on in that world, and as I read this novel I'm frequently, continually, stung with memories it brings up from my own life of little events and instances where I was treated in a similar way characters in this novel are treated (or treat others). I find myself wincing often, or drifting into a violent bout of imagination regarding some past event. It's because this book is singularly about Vanity Fair (title of course taken from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress), and whenever Thackeray almost gets into a subject that is outside the considerations of Vanity Fair (like prayer or something) he stops himself and says: "No, this novel is not about going into any of that. This novel is about Vanity Fair and it is here we will stay." (He is a very 'meta' narrator in this novel, talking to the reader often like that, or addressing fictitious readers he gives stock names to like 'Mr. Smith' or 'Mrs. Jones'.) So he is unrelenting in describing Vanity Fair (describing General Law realm life), and the narrative triggers things inside you almost on every page. It's interesting from this angle. Perhaps unique.