William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811-1863, was born in Calcutta, and is one
of the most popular of English novelists, essayists, and humorists. While
a boy, he removed from India to England, where he was educated at the
Charterhouse in London, and at Cambridge. When twenty-one years of age, he
came into possession of about 20,000 pounds. He rapidly dissipated his
fortune, however, and was compelled to work for his living, first turning
his attention to law and then to art, but finally choosing literature as
his profession. He was for many years correspondent, under assumed names,
at the "London Times," "The New Monthly Magazine," "Punch," and "Fraser's
Magazine." His first novel under his own name, "Vanity Fair," appeared in
monthly numbers during 1846-8, and is generally considered his finest
production: although "Pendennis," "Henry Esmond," and "The Newcomes" are
also much admired. His lectures on "English Humorists of the Eighteenth
Century," from which the following selections are taken, were delivered in
England first in 1851, and afterwards in America, which he visited in 1852
and again in 1855-6. During the latter visit, he first delivered his
course of lectures on "The Four Georges," which were later repeated in
England. At the close of 1859, Thackeray became editor of the "Cornhill
Magazine," and made it one of the most successful serials ever published.
Thackeray has been charged with cynicism in his writings, but he was noted
for his happy temper and genial disposition towards all who came in
contact with him.
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