Roundabout Papers

Roundabout Papers gathers the literary essays William Makepeace Thackeray contributed to The Cornhill Magazine between 1860 and 1863, published in full shortly after his death. These are not the satirical polemics that made him famous with Vanity Fair, but something more intimate: a mature writer at ease with himself, wandering through memories of reading, reflections on the absurdities of society, and the peculiar creatures who populate the literary world. He writes about being a boy absorbed in novels, about the pretensions of critics, about the small hypocrisies that make daily life both ridiculous and bearable. The autumnal setting in Chur, Switzerland, establishes the contemplative mood: a man of fifty looking back with affection, amusement, and a clear-eyed awareness that the game is nearly over. The wit here is quieter than his novels, more forgiving, but no less sharp. For readers who love the essay form, or who want to hear one of Victorian England's great voices in a more private register, these papers offer particular pleasures.