Vanity Fair

　　《浮華世界》（Vanity Fair）是薩克萊的代表作，生動刻劃一個折衝當時社交界名花，揭露滑鐵盧戰役前後英國中上階層社會腐敗、偽善、敗德的現狀，表現出犀利的嘲諷與深厚的厭世觀。
　　
　　薩克萊用一種揶揄的態度揭露社會的現實，故事中心圍繞著貝琪和艾蜜莉亞兩個好朋友，這兩位女子離開學校後，進入社會，此後在人生路上的浮浮沉沉。艾蜜莉亞是心地善良的富家女，從小在呵護中成長，對世事的險惡全然不知，她將芳心默許給了英俊的軍人奧斯朋，卻不知道意中人其實是個浪蕩子。貝琪的出身不佳，但她是意志堅強的女人，既然沒有人能替她鋪路，她決心用自己的方式晉升上流社會……貝琪是十九世紀英國文學中絕無僅有的角色，她為了達到目的有時不擇手段，時值英國發生戰爭，國內外陷入混亂，貝琪靠著自己的力量一步步往上爬，雖然她的某些行為讓人不齒，但她強烈的生存意志和充沛的精力，卻讓讀者不由得原諒她。
　　
　　薩克萊曾說：「小說藝術的目的是在反映現實，也就是盡可能將人生的真相表現出來。」浮華世界不啻是這個宣言下最真實的一面鏡子。

　　本書中譯本<<浮華世界>>由商周出版

　　Brilliant anti-heroine Becky Sharp will do anything to climb to society’s loftiest heights and couldn’t be more different from her rich, sweet-natured schoolmate, Amelia Sedley. Their parallel lives are marked by love, lust, marriage, fortune and loss, in all their different guises, as they navigate the corrupt circus of upper-class Regency England.

　　Hailed as a literary masterpiece upon first publication, William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair has never waned in popularity and remains a highly entertaining satire of early nineteenth-century high society. This gorgeous edition includes an afterword by the prizewinning author and critic, Henry Hitchings.

　　Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector’s Library are books to love and treasure.

作者簡介

薩克萊（William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811~1863）

　　與狄更斯是英國維多利亞時代最重要的小說家。他出生於印度的加爾各答，五歲時父親過世，他的母親就帶他返回英國。一八二九年考上英國劍橋大學，只讀了一年就退學，決心當一位職業藝術家，到德、法四處遊歷，過著流離顛沛的生活，礙於經濟壓力，便寫一些雜文以賺取稿費。由於個性、環境與經歷，薩克萊傾向貴族風格，以上流社會的階級觀點去看待世間的人事物，因此難免優越以致冷漠。他在寫作方面的才能，直到一八四八年發表《浮華世界》之後才受到重視與肯定，之後就一直活躍於文壇，先後發表了許多暢銷作品，如《亨利．伊斯蒙》、《紐康氏傳》、《玫瑰與指環》等。

　　William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta in 1811. He was sent to England in 1817 and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Following a period of gambling, unsuccessful investments and a brief career as a lawyer, he turned to writing and drawing. In 1836 he married Isabella Shawe; following the birth of their second daughter, her mental health deteriorated and she had to be permanently supervised by a private nurse. Thackeray's first novel, Catherine, was published in 1839–40. Following the success of Vanity Fair (1847–8) he was able to devote himself to fiction, and his other notable works include Pendennis (1849), The History of Henry Esmond (1852) and The Newcomes (1855). He also edited the commercially successful Cornhill Magazine, which published writers such as Tennyson, George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Thackeray died suddenly on Christmas Eve, 1863.