William Makepeace Thackeray's VANITY FAIR, "a Novel Without a Hero" is a satiric masterpiece that encapsulates all the layers of British society in a microcosm while conveying the spirit and atmosphere of an epoch, and introduces literature's most charming picaresque anti-heroine, Becky Sharp. The reader cannot help but observe with wicked glee Becky's effervescently amoral exploits as she rises through the ranks of society in an insiduous and subtle attempt to better her situation, and possibly learns a bittersweet lesson of her own about tenderness and scorn. A classic of nineteenth century English literature.