List $34.98

Written by W.M. Thackeray - Audio book performed by Jane Lapotaire with music by Feeney, Kalinnikov, Salter/Dessau - Abridged Fiction - 5 COMPACT DISCS - 6.5 hours

Publisher, Naxos Audiobooks (June 1997)

Vanity Fair, with its rich cast of characters, takes place on the snakes-and-ladders board of life. Amelia Sedley, daughter of a wealthy merchant, has a loving mother to supervise her courtship. Becky Sharp, an orphan, has to use her wit, charm, and resourcefulness to escape from her destiny as a governess. This she does ruthlessly, musing: "I think I could become a good woman, if I had £5000 a year." Thackeray's story is set at the time of the battle of Waterloo, in which the Sedley fortunes are lost - and Amelia is back to square one - while Becky rises with contemptuous ease.