William Makepeace Thackeray, born in 1811, was an English writer and journalist. Thackeray’s early childhood was spent in India before the family moved back to England after his father’s death. He displayed a strong interest in painting and many of his early pieces were accompanied by drawings and illustrations by Thackeray himself. The later part of Thackeray’s personal life was characterized by the estrangement from his mentally ill wife and a doomed romance with a married woman. He died in 1863.
His first critical acclaim and financial success came with the publication of the novel Vanity Fair in 1848 and following this experience Thackeray went on to write several more works of historical fiction, often set within London’s society, which were praised for their authentic atmosphere of past eras.
The majority of Thackeray’s shorter writings were published in various magazines, often under a different name and consisted of articles, short stories or essays. Many of Thackeray’s later novels were first serialized in literary magazines or inspired by his shorter writings. During his lifetime, Thackeray, who came from a privileged background, and his representation of authentic English middle-class life in his contemporary writing were compared to the way Charles Dickens had accurately represented the lives of lower-class people.
