The Fatal Boots
1861
The fatal mistake is a pair of boots. Bob Stubbs, born to modest circumstances with an unpromising name, decides he must be a gentleman. The problem: he has neither the money nor the manners, but he does have an overwhelming desire for fashionable footwear. What follows is a cascade of schemes, humiliations, and ill-conceived ventures as Bob tries to climb above his station. Thackeray, the sharp mind behind Vanity Fair, turns his satirical gaze on the absurdity of class pretension. Bob's attempts to reinvent himself through clothes, credit, and sheer audacious chutzpah are both heartbreaking and hilarious. He trades his mother's goods for worthless investments, dupes his schoolmates, and embarks on get-rich-quick schemes with the optimism of a man who has never met a bad deal he didn't like. The boots become both literal obsession and metaphor for the unreachable heights of the English class system.
