William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair, a novel without a hero — or rather, with two heroines: the good Amelia and the bad Becky Sharp. Readers love Becky, because she is alive.

He was born in Calcutta in 1811. His father died early and his mother remarried. He went to Cambridge and left without a degree. He lost his inheritance at cards and in bad investments, and became a journalist.

Vanity Fair (1847–48) is the Napoleonic Wars, English society, snobbery and money. Becky Sharp is a poor, clever girl determined to get everything, and not particular about the means.

Pendennis, Henry Esmond, The Virginians — historical novels. He died in 1863.