"No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth than the alluring, resourceful Becky Sharp, who ruthlessly clambers up the social ladder while her sweet, sentimental friend Amelia longs for her worthless soldier lover. As fortunes change, and battles are fought at home and abroad, who will survive?" -- Book cover.

Vanity Fair is a story of two heroines---one humble, the other a scheming social climber---who meet in boarding school and embark on markedly different lives. Amid the swirl of London's posh ballrooms and affairs of love and war, their fortunes rise and fall. Through it all, Thackeray lampoons the shallow values of his society, reserving the most pointed barbs for the upper crust. What results is a prescient look at the dogged pursuit of wealth and...

"On June 17, 1815, the Duke of Wellington amassed his troops at Hougoumont, an ancient farmstead not far from Waterloo. The next day, the French attacked--the first shots of the Battle of Waterloo--sparking a brutal, day-long skirmish that left six thousand men either dead or wounded. William is a white rabbit living at Hougoumont today. Under the tutelage of his mysterious and wise grandmother Old Lavender, William attunes himself to the echoes and...