History of Pendennis
History of Pendennis
Arthur Pendennis is born into genteel poverty in the English provinces, and his initiation into the world's ways makes for Thackeray's most bitingly funny portrait of social climbing. Sent first to Cambridge, then to London, young Pen discovers that reputation in society is a game where the rules are never quite stated and the stakes are never quite clear. His uncle, the magnificent Major Pendennis, teaches him the art of self-advancement with a cynicism that is almost philosophical: kindness is strategy, morality is performance, and everyone is playing a part. As Pen stumbles through journalism, literature, and several disastrous love affairs, Thackeray strips away the romance of 'society' to reveal its machinery of pretension, borrowed money, and carefully maintained illusions. This is not a sentimental education: it is a merciless one, and all the sharper for being so damnably entertaining.
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