William Makepeace Thackeray — Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero

London, Bradbury and Evans , 1848. First edition. Leather. A smart morocco-bound first issue of this major Victorian novel from William Makepeace Thackeray, complete with his illustrations. The first edition, first issue of Thackeray's critically acclaimed Victorian novel, a satire of early 19th-century Britain.First issue with the suppressed woodcut of the Marquis of Steyne on page 336, with "Mr. Pitt" for "Sir Pitt" on page 453, and the rustic heading on page one. With an engraved frontispiece, additional illustrated title and thirty-eight plates after the author. Collated, complete. Bound in half burgundy morocco with matching pebbled cloth boards. Retaining original blanks, though lacking front endpaper. With advertisement leaf preceding frontispiece for 'The Great Hoggarty Diamond&apos. Following the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley during and after the Napoleonic Wars, the story is framed as a puppet play with a somewhat unreliable narrator. Reflecting Thackeray's interest in deconstructing his era's conventions regarding literary heroism, it is sometimes considered the "principal founder" of the Victorian domestic novel. Bound in half burgundy morocco with matching pebbled cloth boards. Externally, very smart, with slight rubbing to the extremities. Bookplate of W. B. Tristram to the front paste down. Internally, firmly bound. With toning and scattered spots throughout, though heaviest to the plates and facing pages. Contemporary ownership inscription of W. B. Tristram to blank recto of advert leaf preceding frontispiece. Minor loss to upper corner of plate facing p. 327. Very Good . Ill.: William Makepeace Thackeray. Very Good .