ABSTRACT

‘The History of Pendennis,’ the work that immediately succeeded ‘Vanity Fair,’ both from its importance and from its unlikeness to anything Thackeray had done before, demands a close inspection. In his shorter efforts, whatever we may think of them, however good or bad they individually may be, the story was always constructed with care, and led for the most part naturally enough to the conclusion. Even in ‘Vanity Fair’ it was essential that Becky should rise before she could fall. Her rise might have been brought about by other means, no doubt, and much of the embroidery of the novel is unnecessary to the plot. There is little that must have happened or that is inevitable in ‘Vanity Fair,’ but at least it has a central idea. ‘Pendennis,’ on the other hand, 100may be said with safety to have no story at all. It is so carelessly constructed that the incidents of Fanny and Miss Costigan are practically identical, and the opening scene is so abrupt that it requires, and receives, seventy pages of elucidation. ‘Pendennis,’ besides, is a satirical work. It is satire all through, and serious satire, and whenever before Thackeray had written satire seriously, his accent had been harsh. But it would be difficult to imagine an urbanity more undisturbed than belongs to the satirist of ‘Pendennis,’ and there is no kindlier combination of observation and wit in the language, than is contained in the first volume of the novel.