Thackeray began work on Vanity Fair in 1845, and Bradbury and Evans made an offer for it in 1846. The novel eventually began serialisation in Punch in January 1847, running until July 1848. A one-volume edition was published in 1848 and a revised edition appeared in 1853. The present title of the novel alludes both to John Bunyan (1628-88)’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) and to the book of Ecclesiastes (see 1v2, 1v14, and 12v8). The Pilgrim’s Progress describes Vanity Fair: “Therefore at this Fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands

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Published 16 July 2004

Citation: Sullivan, Lindsay. "Vanity Fair". The Literary Encyclopedia. 16 July 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8590, accessed 9 February 2010.]