ABSTRACT
Thackeray lightest sketches, even his airy criticisms, have a ring about them that shows he knew his powers, and in Barry Lyndon there cannot be detected a trace of mistrust in his capabilities. Through-out the whole romance one feels the hand of the artist working at his first great masterpiece, with absolute confidence in ultimate success of his labours. Dickens was almost entirely self-educated, and was probably a reporter while Thackeray was still at Cambridge or on his travels. Then, be it remembered, Thackeray was entered at the Middle Temple when he came of age; and though he may not have studied hard, yet, as he was a man of means, he had no need to turn to Literature for bread. Apart from high intellectual level of Thackeray’s writings, nothing would induce him to abate one jot of his prejudices to suit the taste of public, though no one knew better than he what would suit the majority of novel-readers.
