Vanity Fair (1847)

Becky Sharp knows that charm, connections and a plausible appearance can do the work of an income. Thackeray's intrusive narrator makes social climbing entertaining while refusing to keep the supposedly good people safely above it. Follow the money and marriage calculations rather than looking for a heroine to approve of. Published in 1847–48, the story reaches back to the Napoleonic period. Its length and narrator's interruptions are part of the satirical performance.