Israel at Vanity Fair: Jews and Judaism in the Writings of W.M. Thackeray

The book seeks to combine Thackeray’s many decisions regarding, and comments on, Jews and Judaism, from Old Testament times to his own present, into a chronologically ordered narrative. Texts and early versions that have not found their way into the collected editions are considered alongside well-known passages from Barry Lyndon , Vanity Fair , The Newcomers and Rebecca and Rowena . Since Thackeray illustrated many of his own works, graphic illustrations are also chronicled and considered. The writings and drawings examined are set in a fourfold context: Thackeray’s own life, psychological make-up, and developing art and opinions; the social history of Britain and its Jews; British and European literary and graphic conventions, traditions, and stereotypes; and the interplay of prejudice or animus with an essential British fairmindedness that strives to present as truthful a picture as the author’s limited perspectives, or satiric and humorous purposes, will allow.