1.
Vanity Fair (novel)
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Vanity Fair is an English novel by William Makepeace Thackeray which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was published as a volume in 1848 with the subtitle A Novel without a Hero. It is sometimes considered the founder of the Victorian domestic novel. The story is framed as a play and the narrator. The serial was a popular and critical success, the novel is now considered a classic and has inspired several film adaptations, in 2003, Vanity Fair was listed at No.122 on the BBCs The Big Read poll of the UKs best-loved books. The books title comes from John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress, a Dissenter allegory first published in 1678. In that work, Vanity Fair refers to a stop along the route, a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity. From its appearance in Bunyan, Vanity Fair or a vanity-fair was also in use for the world in a range of connotations from the blandly descriptive to the wearily dismissive to the condemning. By the 18th century, it was taken as a playground and, in the first half of the 19th century, more specifically the playground of the idle. All of these appear in Thackerays work. The narrator, variously a show manager or writer, appears at times within the work itself and is highly unreliable, rebecca Sharp is a strong-willed, cunning, moneyless, young woman determined to make her way in society. After leaving school, Becky stays with Amelia Sedley, who is a good-natured, simple-minded young girl, there, Becky meets the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne and Amelias brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious but rich civil servant home from the East India Company. Hoping to marry Sedley, the richest young man she has met, Becky entices him, George Osbornes friend Captain William Dobbin loves Amelia, but only wishes her happiness, which is centred on George. Becky Sharp says farewell to the Sedley family and enters the service of the crude and profligate baronet Sir Pitt Crawley and her behaviour at Sir Pitts house gains his favour, and after the premature death of his second wife, he proposes marriage to her. However he finds that she has married his second son. Sir Pitts elder half sister, the spinster Miss Crawley, is rich, having inherited her mothers fortune. Initially her favourite is Rawdon Crawley, but his marriage with Becky enrages her. First she favours the family of Sir Pitts brother, but when she dies, she has left her money to Sir Pitts oldest son, Amelias father, John Sedley, becomes bankrupt
2.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He is known for his works, particularly Vanity Fair. Thackeray, a child, was born in Calcutta, British India. His mother, Anne Becher, was the daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher. Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England in 1816, the ship on which he travelled made a short stopover at St. Helena, where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. Once in England he was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick, and then at Charterhouse School, Thackeray disliked Charterhouse, and parodied it in his fiction as Slaughterhouse. Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with a monument after his death, Thackeray then travelled for some time on the continent, visiting Paris and Weimar, where he met Goethe. He returned to England and began to study law at the Middle Temple and he also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. The Thackerays had three children, all girls, Anne Isabella, Jane and Harriet Marian, who married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor, Thackeray now began writing for his life, as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. Between 1837 and 1840 he also reviewed books for The Times and he was also a regular contributor to The Morning Chronicle and The Foreign Quarterly Review. Later, through his connection to the illustrator John Leech, he began writing for the newly created magazine Punch, in which he published The Snob Papers and this work popularised the modern meaning of the word snob. Thackeray was a regular contributor to Punch between 1843 and 1854. Tragedy struck in Thackerays personal life as his wife, Isabella, succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child, in 1840. Finding that he could get no work done at home, he spent more and more time away until September 1840, struck by guilt, he set out with his wife to Ireland. During the crossing she threw herself from a water-closet into the sea and they fled back home after a four-week battle with her mother. From November 1840 to February 1842 Isabella was in and out of professional care and she eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality. Isabella outlived her husband by 30 years, in the end being cared for by a family named Thompson in Leigh-on-Sea at Southend until her death in 1894, after his wifes illness Thackeray became a de facto widower, never establishing another permanent relationship. He did pursue other women, however, in particular Mrs Jane Brookfield, in 1851 Mr Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits to or correspondence with Jane. Baxter, an American twenty years Thackerays junior whom he met during a tour in New York City in 1852
3.
Ivan Goncharov
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Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov was a Russian novelist best known for his novels A Common Story, Oblomov, and The Precipice. He also served in official capacities, including the position of censor. Goncharov was born in Simbirsk into the family of a merchant, as a reward for his grandfathers military service. He was educated at a school, then the Moscow College of Commerce. Goncharovs first novel, A Common Story, was published in Sovremennik in 1847, Goncharovs second and best-known novel Oblomov was published in 1859 in Otechestvennye zapiski. His third and final novel The Precipice was published in Vestnik Evropy in 1869 and he also worked as a literary and theatre critic. The memoir was published in 1924, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, among others, considered Goncharov an author of high stature. Anton Chekhov is quoted as stating that Goncharov was. ten heads above me in talent, Ivan Goncharov was born in Simbirsk. His father Alexander Ivanovich Goncharov was a grain merchant and a state official who served several terms as mayor of Simbirsk. The familys big stone manor in the center occupied a large area and had all the characteristics of a rural manor, with huge barns. Alexander Ivanovich died when Ivan was seven years old and he was educated first by his mother, Avdotya Matveevna, and then his godfather Nikolay Nikolayevich Tregubov, a nobleman and a former Russian Navy officer. With Tregubov around, Goncharovs mother could focus on domestic affairs and his servants, cabmen, the whole household merged with ours, it was a single family. All the practical issues were now mothers, and she proved to be an excellent housewife, all the duties were his. In 1820–1822 Goncharov studied at a private boarding-school owned by Rev. Fyodor S. Troitsky and it was here that he learned the French and German languages and started reading European writers, borrowing books from Troitskys vast library. In August 1822 Ivan was sent to Moscow and entered the College of Commerce, there he spent eight unhappy years, detesting the low quality of education and the severe discipline, taking solace in self-education. My first humanitarian and moral teacher was Nikolai Karamzin, he remembered, then Pushkin came as a revelation, the serial publication of his poem Evgeny Onegin captured the young mans imagination. In 1830, Goncharov decided to quit the college and in 1831 he enrolled in Moscow State Universitys Philology Faculty to study literature, arts, at the University, with its atmosphere of intellectual freedom and lively debate, Goncharovs spirit thrived. It was as if sunlight lit up the auditorium, reading and translating were his main occupations
4.
Sovremennik
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Sovremennik was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836-1866. It came out four times a year in 1836-1843 and once a month after that, the magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic and other material. Sovremennik originated as an enterprise of Alexander Pushkin who was running out of money to support his growing family. To assist him with the magazine, the poet asked Nikolai Gogol, Pyotr Vyazemsky and it was there that the first substantial assortment of Fyodor Tyutchevs poems was published. Soon it became clear that Pushkins establishment could not compete with Faddey Bulgarins journal, Sovremennik was out of date and could not command a paying audience. When Pushkin died, his friend Pyotr Pletnyov took over the editorship in 1838, a few years later the magazine fell into decline, and Pletnyov handed it over to Nikolay Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev in 1847. It was Nekrasov who really made the magazine profitable and he enlisted the services of Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov. Sovremennik was the first to publish translated works by Charles Dickens, George Sand, although the magazine was owned and run by Nekrasov, its official editor-in-chief was Alexander Nikitenko. The virulent realist critic Vissarion Belinsky was responsible for its ideology and his criticism of present-day reality and propaganda of democratic ideas made the journal very popular among the Russian intelligentsia. Sovremenniks circulation was 3,100 copies in 1848, during the reactionary reign of Nicholas I, the journal had to struggle against censorship and complaints of disgruntled aristocracy. Its position grew more complicated after Herzens emigration and Belinskys death, despite these hardships, Sovremennik published works by best Russian authors of the day, Leo Tolstoy, Turgenev and Nekrasov. Timofey Granovsky, Sergey Solovyov and other leading historians were published as well, the period between 1852 and 1862 is considered to be the most brilliant in the history of the journal. Nekrasov managed to strike a deal with its contributors, whereby their new works were to be published exclusively by him. As regards ideology, Sovremennik grew more radical together with its audience, Belinsky was succeeded by Nikolai Chernyshevsky in 1853 and by Nikolai Dobrolyubov. All their principal articles were published in Sovremennik, in 1861, it published materials, dedicated to the emancipation of the serfs and advocated the interests of serfs in the strongest terms possible. In 1859-1861, Sovremennik argued with Herzens Kolokol about the aims of the Russian democracy, such a radical stance alienated those writers who were indifferent to politics or personally disliked revolutionary intelligentsia. Although Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dmitry Grigorovich eventually left the magazine, the death of Dobrolyubov in 1861, an 8-month suspension of publishing activities, and Chernyshevskys arrest caused irreparable damage to the magazine. Its ideological stance became less clear and consistent, in 1863, Nekrasov managed to resume publishing Sovremennik
5.
Robert Browning
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Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, Brownings early career began promisingly, but was not a success. His reputation took more than a decade to recover, during which time he moved away from the Shelleyan forms of his early period, in 1846 Browning married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett, who at the time was considerably better known than himself. So started one of historys most famous literary marriages and they went to live in Italy, a country he called my university, and which features frequently in his work. By the time of her death in 1861, he had published the crucial collection Men and Women, the collection Dramatis Personae and the book-length epic poem The Ring and the Book followed, and made him a leading British poet. He continued to write prolifically, but his reputation rests largely on the poetry he wrote in this middle period. Unusually for a poet, societies for the study of his work were founded while he was still alive, such Browning Societies remained common in Britain and the United States until the early 20th century. Brownings admirers have tended to temper their praise with reservations about the length and difficulty of his most ambitious poems, particularly The Ring and the Book. Nevertheless, they have included such eminent writers as Henry James, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, Ezra Pound, Jorge Luis Borges, among living writers, Stephen Kings The Dark Tower series and A. S. Byatts Possession refer directly to Brownings work, today Brownings critically most esteemed poems include the monologues Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea Del Sarto, and My Last Duchess. Robert Browning was born in Walworth in the parish of Camberwell, Surrey and he was baptized on 14 June 1812, at Locks Fields Independent Chapel, York Street, Walworth, the only son of Sarah Anna and Robert Browning. His father was a clerk for the Bank of England. Brownings paternal grandfather was an owner in Saint Kitts, West Indies. Brownings father had sent to the West Indies to work on a sugar plantation. Brownings mother was the daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in Dundee in Scotland, the evidence, however, is inconclusive either way. Roberts father, a collector, amassed a library of around 6,000 books. As such, Robert was raised in a household of significant literary resources and his mother, to whom he was very close, was a devout nonconformist and a talented musician. His younger sister, Sarianna, also gifted, became her brothers companion in his later years and his father encouraged his childrens interest in literature and the arts
6.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabeth Barrett wrote poetry from about the age of six and her mothers collection of her poems forms one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 she became ill, suffering intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life, later in life she also developed lung problems, possibly tuberculosis. She took laudanum for the pain from an age, which is likely to have contributed to her frail health. In the 1830s Elizabeth was introduced to society through her cousin. Her first adult collection of poems was published in 1838 and she wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844, producing poetry, translation and prose and she campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in the child labour legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth, Elizabeths volume Poems brought her great success, attracting the admiration of the writer Robert Browning. Their correspondence, courtship and marriage were carried out in secret, following the wedding she was indeed disinherited by her father. The couple moved to Italy in 1846, where she would live for the rest of her life and they had one son, Robert Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. She died in Florence in 1861, a collection of her last poems was published by her husband shortly after her death. Elizabeths work had a influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe. She is remembered for such poems as How Do I Love Thee. some of Elizabeth Barretts family had lived in Jamaica since 1655. Their wealth derived mainly from Edward Barrett, owner of 10,000 acres in the estates of Cinnamon Hill, Cornwall, Cambridge, Elizabeths maternal grandfather owned sugar plantations, mills, glassworks and ships that traded between Jamaica and Newcastle. What the family believed to be their genealogy in relation to Jamaica is unclear, the family wished to hand down their name, stipulating that Barrett should always be held as a surname. In some cases inheritance was given on condition that the name was used by the beneficiary, given this strong tradition, Elizabeth used Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett on legal documents and before she was married often signed herself Elizabeth Barrett Barrett or EBB. Elizabeths father chose to raise his family in England while his business enterprises remained in Jamaica, the fortune of Elizabeths mothers line, the Graham Clarke family, also derived in part from slave labour, and was considerable. Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe Hall and her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke, Elizabeth was the eldest of 12 children. All lived to adulthood except for one girl, who died at the age of three, when Elizabeth was eight, the children all had nicknames, Elizabeth was Ba
7.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
8.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer. Her novels offer a portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848, Gaskells The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Brontë. Some of Gaskells best known novels are Cranford, North and South, Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, at the house which is now 93 Cheyne Walk. She was the youngest of eight children, only she and her brother John survived infancy and that position did not materialise, however, and instead Stevenson was nominated Keeper of the Treasury Records. While she was growing up, Elizabeths future was uncertain, as she had no wealth and no firm home, though she was a permanent guest at her aunt. Her father married Catherine Thomson in 1814 and they had a son, William, although Elizabeth spent several years without seeing her father, to whom she was devoted, her older brother John often visited her in Knutsford. John was destined for the Royal Navy from an age, like his grandfathers and uncles. John went missing in 1827 during an expedition to India, a beautiful young woman, Elizabeth was well-groomed, tidily dressed, kind, gentle and considerate of others. Her temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life, much of Elizabeths childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, the town she immortalised as Cranford. They lived in a large house called Sandlebridge that overlooked the township of Alderley Edge. Her aunts gave her the classics to read, and she was encouraged by her father in her studies and her brother John sent her modern books, and descriptions of his life at sea and his experiences abroad. Seeking new experiences she opened her mind to the solace of nature, on other occasions when her cousins came to play she found consolation in young friendships. Exploring the green hollows, old shady glades of ruined cottages, she collected wild flowers and her favourite plant the Saxifrage is now extinct, but the pleasure natural things brought reflected clearly in her literary observations. Sandlebridge was demolished before 1900, only its chimney remained, there among the visitors and cousinage she played shuffleboard on the kitchen table. A young Elizabeth would go shopping to a woman in Knutsford, church House was directly accessible in Cranford with its high walls and garden walks. She generated confidence and self-respect from the country life and her family regularly visited the Royal George Hotel, which impressed upon her a sensibility for the subtler points of architecture. Led by an interpreter Gaskell later told Anne Thackeray Ritchie how like Cranford it was and she learnt from Lord Clive that his mother was a Gaskell and a friend of the whiggish Holland set
9.
Hans Christian Andersen
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Hans Christian Andersen (/ˈhɑːnz ˈkrɪstʃən ˈændərsən/, Danish, often referred to in Scandinavia as H. C. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersens popularity is not limited to children, his stories, called eventyr in Danish, express themes that transcend age and nationality. Some of his most famous fairy tales include The Emperors New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina and his stories have inspired ballets, animated and live-action films and plays. Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Denmark, Andersens father, also Hans, considered himself related to nobility. His paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had in the past belonged to a social class. A persistent theory suggests that Andersen was a son of King Christian VIII. Andersens father, who had received an education, introduced Andersen to literature. Andersens mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was uneducated and worked as a washerwoman following his fathers death in 1816, she remarried in 1818. Andersen was sent to a school for poor children where he received a basic education and was forced to support himself, working as an apprentice for a weaver and, later. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor, having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet, taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing. Jonas Collin, director of the Royal Danish Theatre, felt a great affection for Andersen and sent him to a school in Slagelse. Andersen had already published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatokes Grave, though not a keen pupil, he also attended school at Elsinore until 1827. He later said his years in school were the darkest and most bitter of his life, at one school, he lived at his schoolmasters home. There he was abused and was told that it was to improve his character and he later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general, causing him to enter a state of depression. A very early fairy tale by Andersen, called The Tallow Candle, was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012, the story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle who did not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to a benefactor, in 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with the short story A Journey on Foot from Holmens Canal to the East Point of Amager. Its protagonist meets characters ranging from Saint Peter to a talking cat, Andersen followed this success with a theatrical piece, Love on St. Nicholas Church Tower, and a short volume of poems
