Barry Lyndon
1844
Thackeray's masterpiece of social satire follows Redmond Barry, an Irish rogue whose talent for fabrication and calculated charm propels him from provincial gentry to the heights of English society, and then unceremoniously back down. Narrated by Barry himself with triumphant self-regard, the novel watches in horrified amusement as its protagonist cheats, duels, and marries his way toward respectability, only to discover that the game was always rigged against him. Thackeray constructs a brilliantly unreliable narrator: Barry presents himself as a gentleman wronged by fortune, while the reader perceives a cad of staggering optimism and modest principles. The result is both hilarious and melancholy, a portrait of social ambition that anticipates the hollow triumphs of modern life with unsettling precision. Set against the backdrop of 18th-century Europe at war and at play, Barry Lyndon moves from Irish country houses to London gaming dens to Prussian battlefields with the ease of a born storyteller who happens to be writing about a born liar.
Editions
X-Ray
“It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb.””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life will be but a sad one.””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“But it's a changeable world! When we consider how great our sorrow , and how small they ; how we think we shall die of grief, and how quickly we forget, I think we ought to be ashamed of ourselves and our fickle-heartedness. For, after all, what business has Time to bring us consolation?””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“And by these wonderful circumstances I was once more free again: and I kept my resolution then made, never to fall more into the hands of any recruiter, and henceforth and for ever to be a gentleman.””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“Aún hubiera sucedido que, tras aposentarme en la ciudadela, fuera repentinamente presa del pánico y tuviera que salir huyendo, como los británicos huyeron de Cartagena.””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“But it's a changeable world! When we consider how great our sorrows SEEM, and how small they ARE; how we think we shall die of grief, and how quickly we forget, I think we ought to be ashamed of ourselves and our fickle-heartedness.””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“His Scotch bear-leader, Mr Boswell, was a butt of the first quality.””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
“Blifil's failure as a character in "Tom Jones" is ultimately due to the fact that he has absolutely no redeeming characteristics and once his base nature has been discovered by the reader there is nothing further to know about hi,””
— William Makepeace Thackeray
