Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, set in early 19th-century England, was first released in monthly sections in 1847 and 1848, and as a complete book the following year. Vanity Fair was the first work published by Thackeray under his own name; his other works had been published anonymously or under pseudonyms. The work is named after the location in John Bunyan's 17th-century allegory Pilgrim's Progress that is described as the epicenter of human wickedness. Vanity Fair is a metaphor for the human condition since it is a densely inhabited, multidimensional tapestry of manners and human frailties.