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62-505: The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy (1848–50) is a novel by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray . It is set in 19th-century England, particularly in London. The main hero is a young English gentleman Arthur Pendennis, who is born in the country and sets out for London to seek his place in life and society. As such, it

124-460: A Bildungsroman depicting the coming of age of Arthur Pendennis, an alter ego of Thackeray, who also features as the narrator of two later novels, The Newcomes and The Adventures of Philip . The Newcomes is noteworthy for its critical portrayal of the "marriage market", while Philip is known for its semi-autobiographical depiction of Thackeray's early life, in which he partially regains some of his early satirical power. Also notable among

186-582: A Lady Rockminster. Pen does send a small amount of money to Fanny Bolton with his thanks; she eventually marries a Mr Huxter, the man who had started the gossip about her and Pen. Major Pendennis, still hoping to arrange a profitable marriage between Pen and Blanche Amory, meets Sir Francis and threatens to divulge his secret—that he is not really married to Lady Clavering—if Sir Francis will not retire and turn over his seat in Parliament to Pen. Sir Francis consents. Major Pendennis' shrewd valet Morgan overhears

248-633: A Mrs. Bakewell at Camberwell. Isabella outlived her husband by 30 years, in the end being cared for by a family named Thompson in Leigh-on-Sea at Southend, until her death in 1894. After his wife's illness, Thackeray became a de facto widower, never establishing another permanent relationship. He did pursue other women, however, in particular Mrs.  Jane Brookfield and Sally Baxter. In 1851, Mr. Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits or correspondence with Jane. Baxter, an American twenty years Thackeray's junior whom he met during

310-567: A better match for her granddaughter. Anne Becher and Richmond Thackeray were married in Calcutta on 13 October 1810. Their only child, William, was born on 18 July 1811. There is a fine miniature portrait of Anne Becher Thackeray and William Makepeace Thackeray, aged about two, done in Madras by George Chinnery c.  1813 . Anne's family's deception was unexpectedly revealed in 1812, when Richmond Thackeray unwittingly invited

372-522: A break with Thackeray's techniques. Indian popular Marathi politician Bal Thackeray 's father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was an admirer of William; Keshav later changed his surname from Panvelkar to "Thackeray". Charlotte Brontë dedicated the second edition of Jane Eyre to Thackeray. In 1887 the Royal Society of Arts unveiled a blue plaque to commemorate Thackeray at the house at 2 Palace Green, London, that had been built for him in

434-412: A celebrity, sought after by the very lords and ladies whom he satirised. They hailed him as the equal of Charles Dickens . He remained "at the top of the tree", as he put it, for the rest of his life, during which he produced several large novels, notably Pendennis , The Newcomes , and The History of Henry Esmond , despite various illnesses, including a near-fatal one that struck him in 1849 in

496-520: A colonel who had died after distinguished service, primarily in India. The Thackerays had three children, all daughters: Anne Isabella (1837–1919), Jane (who died at eight months old), and Harriet Marian (1840–1875), who married Sir  Leslie Stephen , editor, biographer and philosopher. Thackeray now began "writing for his life", as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. He primarily worked for Fraser's Magazine ,

558-535: A de facto widower. Thackeray gained fame with his novel Vanity Fair and produced several other notable works. He unsuccessfully ran for Parliament in 1857 and edited the Cornhill Magazine in 1860. Thackeray's health declined due to excessive eating, drinking, and lack of exercise. He died from a stroke at the age of fifty-two. Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, gaining popularity through works that showcased his fondness for roguish characters. He

620-484: A few exceptions (such as Egypt and Iran ), consent from a prior spouse makes no difference to the legality of the second marriage, which is usually considered void . Even before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire , Diocletian and Maximian passed strict anti-polygamy laws in 285 AD that mandated monogamy as the only form of legal marital relationship, as had traditionally been

682-559: A good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. Forced to consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue it, except in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings. Thackeray's years of semi-idleness ended on 20 August 1836, when he married Isabella Gethin Shawe (1816–1894), second daughter of Isabella Creagh Shawe and Matthew Shawe,

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744-528: A lecture tour in New York City in 1852, married another man in 1855. In the early 1840s, Thackeray had some success with two travel books, The Paris Sketch Book and The Irish Sketch Book , the latter marked by its hostility towards Irish Catholics . However, as the book appealed to anti-Irish sentiment in Britain at the time, Thackeray was given the job of being Punch 's Irish expert, often under

806-585: A mellowing in his tone, focusing on the coming of age of characters and critical portrayals of society. During the Victorian era, Thackeray was ranked second to Charles Dickens but is now primarily known for Vanity Fair . Thackeray, an only child, was born in Calcutta , British India , where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 – 13 September 1815), was secretary to the Board of Revenue in

868-450: A monument after his death. Illness in his last year there, during which he reportedly grew to his full height of six-foot three, postponed his matriculation at Trinity College, Cambridge , until February 1829. Never very keen on academic studies, Thackeray left Cambridge in 1830, but some of his earliest published writing appeared in two university periodicals, The Snob and The Gownsman . Thackeray then travelled for some time on

930-568: A polygamous lifestyle. This is the case with the United States where the criminalisation of a polygamous lifestyle originated as anti-Mormon laws, although they are rarely enforced. De facto polygamy is illegal under US federal law, the Edmunds Act . In diplomatic law , consular spouses from polygamous countries are sometimes exempt from a general prohibition on polygamy in host countries. In some such countries, only one spouse of

992-483: A satirist and parodist, writing works that displayed a sneaking fondness for roguish upstarts, such as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair and the title characters of The Luck of Barry Lyndon and Catherine . In his earliest works, written under such pseudonyms as Charles James Yellowplush, Michael Angelo Titmarsh and George Savage Fitz-Boodle, he tended towards savagery in his attacks on high society, military prowess,

1054-401: A sharp-witted and sharp-tongued conservative publication for which he produced art criticism, short fictional sketches, and two longer fictional works, Catherine and The Luck of Barry Lyndon . Between 1837 and 1840, he also reviewed books for The Times . He was also a regular contributor to The Morning Chronicle and The Foreign Quarterly Review . Later, through his connection to

1116-594: A short stopover at Saint Helena , where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. Once in England, he was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick , and then at Charterhouse School , where he became a close friend of John Leech . Thackeray disliked Charterhouse, and parodied it in his fiction as "Slaughterhouse". Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with

1178-475: A stroke. He was found dead in his bed the following morning. His death at the age of fifty-two was unexpected and shocked his family, his friends and the reading public. An estimated 7,000 people attended his funeral at Kensington Gardens . He was buried on 29 December at Kensal Green Cemetery , and a memorial bust sculpted by Marochetti can be found in Westminster Abbey . Thackeray began as

1240-885: Is about ten years his senior. Emily's father, Captain Costigan, believes Pen is rich and wants Pen to marry his daughter, but Pen's mother is horrified. She summons Major Pendennis from London, and the Major derails the marriage simply by telling Costigan his nephew is not rich. Emily jilts Pen. Pen, heartbroken, leaves home to study at St Boniface's college in Oxbridge . There he lives extravagantly, unwittingly causing his mother and Laura to live in near poverty. After two years, Pen fails his final examination and remorsefully returns home where, unfortunately, his mother and Laura easily forgive him and Laura sacrifices her small personal fortune to pay Pen's debts. He soon returns to Oxbridge, retakes

1302-469: Is an ancestor of the British financier Ryan Williams, and is the great-great-great-grandfather of the British comedian Al Murray and author Joanna Nadin . During the Victorian era Thackeray was ranked second only to Charles Dickens , but he is now much less widely read and is known almost exclusively for Vanity Fair , which has become a fixture in university courses, and has been repeatedly adapted for

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1364-401: Is best known for Vanity Fair , featuring Becky Sharp, and The Luck of Barry Lyndon . Thackeray's early works were marked by savage attacks on high society, military prowess, marriage, and hypocrisy, often written under various pseudonyms. His writing career began with satirical sketches like The Yellowplush Papers . Thackeray's later novels, such as Pendennis and The Newcomes , reflected

1426-400: Is generally categorized as a bildungsroman . The novel took two years for Thackeray to write and, in line with other Thackeray works, most notably Vanity Fair , it offers an insightful and satiric picture of human character and aristocratic society. The characters include the snobbish social hanger-on Major Pendennis and the tipsy Captain Costigan. Arthur Pendennis ("Pen" to his friends) is

1488-732: Is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel Vanity Fair , a panoramic portrait of British society, and the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon , which was adapted for a 1975 film by Stanley Kubrick . Thackeray was born in Calcutta , British India , and was sent to England after his father's death in 1815. He studied at various schools and briefly attended Trinity College, Cambridge , before leaving to travel Europe. Thackeray squandered much of his inheritance on gambling and unsuccessful newspapers. He turned to journalism to support his family, primarily working for Fraser's Magazine , The Times , and Punch . His wife Isabella suffered from mental illness, leaving Thackeray

1550-580: Is one final surprise: Altamont/Amory, although he is Blanche's father, was bigamously married to several women before he "married" Blanche's mother, so the Clavering marriage is legal after all, but Blanche is illegitimate. Blanche leaves for Paris, where she apparently marries a confidence trickster . Foker remains unmarried. Pen and Laura marry; soon their income increases, and he enters Parliament through his own honest efforts. Thackeray started working on Pendennis as soon as he finished Vanity Fair . It

1612-491: Is pretty and young, but ignorant and lower-class. They fall in love a little, but after a very short and innocent relationship, Pen decides not to see her any more for the good of both. Brooding and keeping to his comfortless room to avoid seeing Fanny, Pen falls very ill. When malicious gossip reaches Helen and Laura that Pen is "entangled" with a girl of low station, they rush to his side: they find Fanny in his room, where she has just arrived to nurse him, but Helen and Laura think

1674-439: Is richer than Pen. On learning that Blanche has broken their engagement, Pen proposes to Laura, whom he has come to love, and is accepted, because she has long loved him—even when she refused his first marriage proposal. The secret of the Clavering family finally becomes known to everybody and Harry Foker breaks his engagement to Blanche—not because of her disreputable father, but because she deceived him and doesn't love him. There

1736-402: Is very angry at his mother and tells her he and Fanny are innocent. She is overjoyed to hear it, and soon mother and son forgive each other. Helen's health is nevertheless too much shaken and she dies soon afterward. Pen thus comes into possession of the family property of 500 pounds a year. He leases his house at Fairoaks to tenants and returns to London, while Laura goes to live as companion to

1798-468: The Capitol , they were delighted with the pleasing voice and easy manner of the burly, gray-haired, rosy-cheeked Briton, who made no gestures, but stood most of the time with his hands in his pockets, as if he were talking with friends at a cozy fireside. Thackeray also gave lectures in London on the English humorists of the eighteenth century, and on the first four Hanoverian monarchs. The latter series

1860-657: The Earl Howe . Anne's grandmother had told her that the man she loved, Henry Carmichael-Smyth, an ensign in the Bengal Engineers whom she met at an Assembly Ball in 1807 in Bath , had died, while he was told that Anne was no longer interested in him. Neither of these assertions was true. Though Carmichael-Smyth was from a distinguished Scottish military family, Anne's grandmother went to extreme lengths to prevent their marriage. Surviving family letters state that she wanted

1922-572: The East India Company . His mother, Anne Becher (1792–1864), was the second daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher, who was also a secretary (writer) for the East India Company. His father was a grandson of Thomas Thackeray (1693–1760), headmaster of Harrow School . Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England that same year, while she remained in India. The ship on which he travelled made

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1984-467: The "Ambrosiana" library, The History of Henry Esmond was available, just published. Not only Esmond but also Barry Lyndon and Catherine are set in that period, as is the sequel to Esmond , The Virginians , which is set partially in North America and includes George Washington as a character who nearly kills one of the protagonists in a duel. Thackeray's father, Richmond Thackeray,

2046-680: The 1860s. It is now the location of the Israeli Embassy . Thackeray's former home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, is now a restaurant named after the author. Thackeray was also a member of the Albion Lodge of the Ancient Order of Druids at Oxford. Arthur Pendennis The Christmas Books of Mr M. A. Titmarsh Thackeray wrote and illustrated five Christmas books as "by Mr M. A. Titmarsh". They were collected under

2108-983: The Claverings and Pen becomes infatuated with Blanche, but the flirtation doesn't last long. To please his mother, Pen at this point languidly proposes to Laura but she turns him down essentially because she thinks he's not mature enough. Pen then sets out for London, where he meets George Warrington, a journalist, with whom Pen takes cheap lodgings and who helps Pen get started as a writer. Pen achieves some success and starts to support himself, swearing he'll take no more of his mother's or Laura's money. The Clavering family also comes up to London, where they live very well, and Blanche continues to flirt with Pen and many other men. One of them, Pen's college friend Harry Foker, falls in love with Blanche but cannot propose to her as his father will disinherit him unless he marries his cousin Ann. Pen—by now rather cynical about love and life—toys with

2170-587: The East India Company, and it formed no bar to his later courting and marrying William's mother. Thackeray's mother, Anne Becher (born 1792), was "one of the reigning beauties of the day" and a daughter of John Harmon Becher, Collector of the South 24 Parganas district (d. Calcutta, 1800), of an old Bengal civilian family "noted for the tenderness of its women". Anne Becher, her sister Harriet and their widowed mother, also Harriet, had been sent back to India by her authoritarian guardian grandmother, Ann Becher, in 1809 on

2232-509: The baronet. Major Pendennis meets Colonel Altamont, recognises him from his Army service in India, and knows that Altamont is really Lady Clavering's supposedly dead first husband Mr Amory. He is an escaped convict and a murderer as well. Major Pendennis, however, doesn't act on his knowledge. In addition to being blackmailed, Sir Francis Clavering loses a tremendous sum of money at the races and hides from his wife and creditors in an obscure part of London. Meanwhile, Pen meets Fanny Bolton, who

2294-590: The case in classical Greece and Rome . In 393, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued an imperial edict to extend the ban on polygamy to Jewish communities. In 1000, Rabbi Gershom ben Judah ruled polygamy inadmissible within Ashkenazi Jewish communities living in a Christian environment. Most western countries do not recognise polygamous marriages, and consider bigamy a crime. Several countries also prohibit people from living

2356-419: The cinema and television. In Thackeray's own day some commentators, such as Anthony Trollope , ranked his History of Henry Esmond as his greatest work, perhaps because it expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, as did some of his other later novels. It is perhaps for this reason that they have not survived as well as Vanity Fair , which satirises those values. Thackeray saw himself as writing in

2418-493: The continent, visiting Paris and Weimar , where he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . He returned to England and began to study law at the Middle Temple , but soon gave that up. On reaching age 21, he came into his inheritance from his father, but he squandered much of it on gambling and on funding two unsuccessful newspapers, The National Standard and The Constitutional , for which he had hoped to write. He also lost

2480-411: The conversation and makes plans to extort everyone—the Major, Pen, Altamont, Sir Francis, and Lady Clavering. When Morgan tries this on Major Pendennis, however, the Major won't stand for it, as he has as much to threaten Morgan with (theft) as Morgan has to threaten others with. At this point Pen has finally become engaged to Blanche, though they do not love each other. Then he learns, through Morgan, of

2542-583: The crossing, she threw herself from a water-closet into the sea, but she was pulled from the waters. They fled back home after a four-week battle with her mother. From November 1840 to February 1842, Isabella was in and out of professional care, as her condition waxed and waned. She eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality. Thackeray desperately sought cures for her, but nothing worked, and she ended up in two different asylums in or near Paris until 1845, after which Thackeray took her back to England, where he installed her with

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2604-559: The exam, and obtains a degree, but returns to Fairoaks as his mother thinks earning a living is both beneath her son and harmful to his health. Soon a large house in the neighbourhood that has stood empty for years is reoccupied by its owners, the Clavering family, consisting of Sir Francis, a baronet and Member of Parliament addicted to gambling; his rich and kindly but low-born wife, whose father earned his fortune in India; their young son; and Lady Clavering's daughter from her first marriage, Blanche Amory. The Pendennises become friendly with

2666-447: The heroine of Vanity Fair Rebecca Sharp is a satirical presentation of the striving for profit, power, and social recognition of the new middle class. Old and new members of the middle class strive to emulate the lifestyle of the higher class (noblemen and landowners), and thereby to increase their material possessions and to own luxury objects. In Vanity Fair , one can observe a greater degree of violation of moral values among members of

2728-412: The idea of a marriage of convenience to Blanche, and his uncle encourages him in this, but—partly because he knows that Harry Foker loves Blanche—Pen doesn't propose. Foker leaves England for a year or two, unable to marry Blanche but unwilling to marry his cousin. A new character, Colonel Altamont, is introduced at this point: he knows a secret about the Clavering family and uses it to extort money from

2790-656: The illustrator John Leech , he began writing for the newly created magazine Punch , in which he published The Snob Papers , later collected as The Book of Snobs . This work popularised the modern meaning of the word "snob". Thackeray was a regular contributor to Punch between 1843 and 1854. In Thackeray's personal life, his wife Isabella sadly succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child in 1840. Finding that he could get no work done at home, he spent more and more time away, until September 1840, when he realised how grave his wife's condition was. Struck by guilt, he set out with his wife to Ireland. During

2852-727: The institution of marriage and hypocrisy. One of his earliest works, "Timbuctoo" (1829), contains a burlesque upon the subject set for the Cambridge Chancellor's Medal for English Verse. (The contest was won by Tennyson with a poem of the same title, "Timbuctoo"). Thackeray's writing career really began with a series of satirical sketches now usually known as The Yellowplush Papers , which appeared in Fraser's Magazine beginning in 1837. These were adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 2009, with Adam Buxton playing Charles Yellowplush. Between May 1839 and February 1840 Fraser's published

2914-539: The later novels is The History of Henry Esmond , in which Thackeray tried to write a novel in the style of the eighteenth century, a period that held great appeal for him. About this novel, there have been found evident analogies—in the fundamental structure of the plot; in the psychological outlines of the main characters; in frequent episodes; and in the use of metaphors—to Ippolito Nievo 's Confessions of an Italian . Nievo wrote his novel during his stay in Milan where, in

2976-426: The middle of writing Pendennis . He twice visited the United States on lecture tours during this period. Longtime Washington journalist B.P. Poore described Thackeray on one of those tours: The citizens of Washington enjoyed a rare treat when Thackeray came to deliver his lectures on the English essayists, wits, and humorists of the eighteenth century. Accustomed to the spread-eagle style of oratory too prevalent at

3038-580: The new middle class, for the decline of morality is proportionate to the degree of closeness of the individual to the market and its laws." In contrast, his large novels from the period after Vanity Fair , which were once described by Henry James as examples of "loose baggy monsters", have largely faded from view, perhaps because they reflect a mellowing in Thackeray, who had become so successful with his satires on society that he seemed to lose his zest for attacking it. These later works include Pendennis ,

3100-735: The only child of a prosperous physician and former apothecary now deceased. He and his foster sister Laura are raised in the village of Fairoaks by his indulgent mother, Mrs Helen Pendennis. The family has risen to gentility in the past generation or two but is not wealthy: the late Mr Pendennis left only a house and investments producing about 500 pounds a year. The Pendennises, however, claim descent from an ancient family, and Arthur's uncle Major Pendennis, though he has only his retired Army pay, associates with wealthy and titled people. As Pen and Laura grow up, Mrs Pendennis tells them she hopes they will marry someday. At age 18, however, Pen falls in love with an actress, Emily Fotheringay (a stage name), who

3162-745: The pseudonym Hibernis Hibernior ("more Irish than the Irish"). Thackeray became responsible for creating Punch 's notoriously hostile and negative depictions of the Irish during the Great Irish Famine of 1845 to 1851. Thackeray achieved more recognition with his Snob Papers (serialised 1846/7, published in book form in 1848), but the work that really established his fame was the novel Vanity Fair , which first appeared in serialised instalments beginning in January ;1847. Even before Vanity Fair completed its serial run, Thackeray had become

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3224-464: The pseudonymous title and his real name no later than 1868 by Smith, Elder & Co. The Rose and the Ring was dated 1855 in its first edition, published for Christmas 1854. Bigamy Bigamy is a crime in most countries that recognise only monogamous marriages. When it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other. In countries that have bigamy laws, with

3286-487: The realistic tradition, and distinguished his work from the exaggerations and sentimentality of Dickens. Some later commentators have accepted this self-evaluation and seen him as a realist, but others note his inclination to use eighteenth-century narrative techniques, such as digressions and direct addresses to the reader, and argue that through them he frequently disrupts the illusion of reality. The school of Henry James , with its emphasis on maintaining that illusion, marked

3348-440: The scandal concerning the Claverings. Pen does what he considers the honourable thing: he maintains his engagement with Blanche but refuses her family money and the seat in Parliament. Now Harry Foker comes back into the picture: his father has died and his fiancee-cousin Ann has eloped with another man, leaving Harry rich and free to marry as he likes. He returns to England and immediately proposes to Blanche. She accepts because he

3410-542: The supposedly dead Carmichael-Smyth to dinner. Five years later, after Richmond had died of a fever on 13 September 1815, Anne married Henry Carmichael-Smyth, on 13 March 1817. The couple moved to England in 1820, after having sent William off to school there more than three years earlier. The separation from his mother had a traumatic effect on the young Thackeray, which he discussed in his essay "On Letts's Diary" in The Roundabout Papers . Thackeray

3472-545: The urethra that laid him up for days at a time. He also felt that he had lost much of his creative impetus. He worsened matters by excessive eating and drinking and avoiding exercise, though he enjoyed riding (he kept a horse). He has been described as "the greatest literary glutton who ever lived". His main activity apart from writing was "gutting and gorging". He could not break his addiction to spicy peppers, further ruining his digestion. On 23 December 1863, after returning from dining out and before dressing for bed, he suffered

3534-503: The work sometimes considered Thackeray's first novel, Catherine . Originally intended as a satire of the Newgate school of crime fiction, it ended up being more of a picaresque tale. He also began work, never finished, on the novel later published as A Shabby Genteel Story . Along with The Luck of Barry Lyndon , Thackeray is probably best known now for Vanity Fair . Literary theorist Kornelije Kvas wrote that "the meteoric rise of

3596-718: The worst and treat Fanny very rudely. Pen, unconscious, is unable to defend Fanny and himself. Recovering after several weeks of illness, Pen takes a journey with his mother, Laura, and Warrington, who falls in love with Laura but cannot marry her because of his own catastrophic early marriage. He is separated from his venal wife and her children of whom he is only legally, not biologically, the father. He supports them but does not see them, and he has no ambition because if he earns more money, his wife will demand it. Helen's health deteriorates because of her belief in Pen's immoral connection with Fanny. Pen finally discovers how Helen treated Fanny; he

3658-401: Was born at South Mimms and went to India in 1798 at age sixteen as a writer (civil servant) with the East India Company . Richmond's father's name was also William Makepeace Thackeray. Richmond fathered a daughter, Sarah Redfield, in 1804 with Charlotte Sophia Rudd, his possibly Eurasian mistress, and both mother and daughter were named in his will. Such liaisons were common among gentlemen of

3720-421: Was narrowly beaten by Cardwell , who received 1,070 votes, as against 1,005 for Thackeray. In 1860, Thackeray became editor of the newly established Cornhill Magazine , but he was never comfortable in the role, preferring to contribute to the magazine as the writer of a column called "Roundabout Papers". Thackeray's health worsened during the 1850s, and he was plagued by a recurring stricture of

3782-473: Was published as a serial and later sold in book form. It was printed in 24 monthly parts between November 1848 and December 1850 by Bradbury & Evans in London. The publication was paused for 3 months following the author’s illness after the September 1849 part. William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He

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3844-429: Was published in book form in 1861 as The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, Court, and Town Life . In July 1857, Thackeray stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal for the city of Oxford in Parliament. Although not the most fiery agitator, Thackeray was always a decided liberal in his politics, and he promised to vote for the ballot in extension of the suffrage and was ready to accept triennial parliaments. He

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