Vanity Fair

The narrator for this book was born to give us the beauty of the spoken words of Thackeray. There is no better way to follow the escapades of the characters of Vanity Fair!

The characters who populate Thackery???s Vanity Fair (1848), set in England and Europe during and after the Napoleonic Wars, are a cast of decadent lords, pious snobs, pedantic teachers, sycophantic schemers, hedonistic spinsters, tyrannical fathers, imperious brats, philandering generals, gambling rakes, gossiping servants, false friends, faithful toadies, and many more. Unlike in Dickens, there is no perfect person. Thackery plays his ???puppets??? through scenes that are comical, appalling, suspenseful, moving, or revelatory. He keeps us alert, peering through layers of irony. And he has such empathy for humanity that he makes most of his characters, even the feckless or false or cruel ones, at least sometimes sympathetic.

Becky Sharp, the ???poor little friendless orphan??? who becomes a bohemian adventuress, who remains throughout her life selfish, scheming, heartless, and ???artful,??? who abominably neglects her son, alarmingly attracts the husbands, brothers, and sons of her friends, and comically mimics everyone behind their backs, and yet who is capable of genuine feeling, is one of the most fascinating anti-heroines in literature. Is she a plucky survivor or a wicked siren? Her foil, the seemingly pure, simple, loving, and good Amelia Sedley, is also compelling, for with selfish selflessness she indulges in her Angel in the House, submissive and dependent feminine saintliness to such a degree that she harms herself and her true lover.

The reader John Castle is great! With perfect pauses, emphases, wit, and emotion, he engagingly reads all the characters??? voices with their different accents, personalities, genders, and moods, whether a stingy hyena-faced old country baron, a drunken cockney footman, a boastful Irish officer???s wife, a mercenary French maid, or a foppish German diplomat--everyone.

Thackery???s ???historian??? narrator, who???s telling a ???true??? story based on the accounts of the principle characters he has met, satirizes early 19th century British and European culture (class, religion, education, business, war, tourism, etc.) so as to expose human vanity in general. We are all driven by vain desires and feel unfulfilled after getting what we want. We are all selfish, artful, and self- and other-deluding. The novel may seem misanthropic. But Thackery is so good at making us laugh, groan, cry, or think, that if the novel (???without a hero???) is not uplifting, it is entertaining, stimulating, and often moving.

The narrator of this story is quite easy to listen to and has a very engaging voice and tone. Highly recommended!

I have read Vanity Fair before, so there were no surprises here.
It is a well written and interesting novel.
My 5 star rating is as much for John Castle's narration, as it is for the novel. Superb!

In spite of the slow second half, Vanity Fair's Becky Sharpe still stands as a model for the anti-heroine.
Thackeray is a bit heavy handed in the latter part of the novel where he must have felt compelled to moralize and show a more degenerate side of Becky, done at the expense of sublimating the highly entertaining malice of her behavior. The "nice" folks grow rather boring in contrast to Becky.
But Vanity Fair was a shot heard round the world. Trollope and Mrs. Gaskell were friends and admirers of Thackeray and must have been influenced in some of their character depictions by his portrayal of the charming and ruthless Becky.

This classic is wonderfully written--insightful and extremely funny and entertaining. If all narrators could be as fabulous as John Castle, how happy I would be. He's a true actor who gives the characters their own voices, and his accents are spot on. I highly recommend this book.

I agree with the reviewer who said that John Castle was born to narrate this book. I don't think his performance can be bettered. I had no idea that Vanity Fair was so good, or that Thackeray was such an interesting writer. It's hard to be in Dicken's shadow, I suppose. This was a great buy.

Yes! Engrossing story, richly drawn characters and wonderful language.

The Colonel, for his growth of character through the narrative.

No, but I immediately searched him--he is absolutely the best narrator ever--his diction was lovely, his accent superb, and his enunciation and pronunciation perfect and that is including his excellent French and Latin phrase turns as well. Perfection! I wish he had a hundred books to his name in voice! First rate! Top notch! Sublime!

I laughed and cried, though more laughs out loud and just a little tearing up, nothing extreme for this was Vanity Fair...

This is a pleasingly long book--at first daunting, then eagerly appreciated for its length and depth of story. Fabulous.

Yes, becuase the quality of Castle's performance is so good.

Far too many to select one. He's very good at building a long story arc that culminates with some type of reconciliation between people who have long been apart or estranged.

No

10 X better than Downton Abbey

Of the many audio novels I have listened to, Castle's performance here is one of the most rewarding of all. Thackeray's narrative skill, characterizations, and plotting are at the very highest level. One of the very best.

This well known classic is captivating. A story of a world of social climbing and search for wealth, set amidst the background of the Napoleonic wars. The Narration is excellent, like listening to a play.