ABSTRACT
Thackeray's injunction to his daughters, “Mind, no biography!” was prompted not by fear of discreditable disclosures but by distrust of cant and insincerity. In default of an “official” Life, scholars have ransacked his writings for autobiographical allusions. Something has been detected and more has been surmised; there are few untouched transcripts from actuality but many portraits of real people “worked up” into imaginative creations. This search for “originals” has, however, been carried too far.
