William Makepeace Thackeray (/ ˈθækəri / THAK-ər-ee; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of British society, and the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, which was adapted for a 1975 film by Stanley Kubrick.

2025年2月22日 · William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist whose reputation rests chiefly on Vanity Fair (1847–48), a novel of the Napoleonic period in England, and The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852), set in the early 18th century.

After leaving Cambridge, Thackeray traveled on the Continent, spending a winter at Weimar, which included an introduction to the aged Goethe. Thackeray took away from Weimar a command of the language, a knowledge of German Romantic literature, and an increasing skepticism about religious doctrine.

The English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray created unrivaled panoramas (thorough and complete studies of subjects) of English upper-middle-class life, crowded with memorable characters displaying the realistic mixture of virtue, vanity, and vice.

William Makepeace Thackeray (July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863) was an English novelist of the nineteenth century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. Its heroine, Becky Sharp, is one of the stronger female characters to emerge from the nineteenth century.

Perhaps best known as a novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in 1811. His father died when he was five, and Thackeray was sent to England to be educated. He eventually attended the Charterhouse School—infamous for its discipline—and Trinity College, Cambridge, which he left after two years.

William Makepeace Thackeray, (born July 18, 1811, Calcutta, India—died Dec. 24, 1863, London, Eng.), English novelist. He studied law and art but soon became a prolific writer for periodicals, using a variety of pen names.