Page Fourteen

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE

Sunday, March 2, 1958

HACKiERaY
eThe Age of Wisdom' Paints Portrait of 19th Century Novelist

THACKER AY: THE AGE OF-
WISDOM, 847 - 1863. By
Gordon N. Ray. 523 pp. Il-
lustrated. New York: McGraw-
Hill Book Co. $8.
By VERNON NAHRGANGs
Daily City Editor
THE PUBLICATION in month-
ly numbers throughout 1847
and 1848 of Vanity Fair brought
the beginnings of literary famed
and fortune to the tall, bespec-
tacled William Makepeace Thack-v
eray, then in his late thirties.
Of the two, fame was most im-
portant in mid-century London
society; s literary reputstion was
an assuirance of frequent invita-
tions to the many events of the
spring "season," where one met
all the important people, heard
and said all that was important,4
and often furthered the position3
of one's income.
This, with the appearance of
Vanity Fair, became Thackeray's
world. As a frequent contributor
to the then important Punch
magazine, he livened his socialy
stature with satire, wit and mild
attacks against the pompous aris- PORTRAITS OF A NOVELIST-"Thackeray About 1860" is the title of the study at left showing
tocracy. the writer a few years before his death. At right, one of Thaekeray's own drawings of himself and
In turn he drew criticism from his daughter Anny in 1848 illustrates the author's versatility at sketching as well as writing.
those who disliked his essays and
novels as well as from those to could be set aside. There were Mrs. Brookfield held strong at- mond, Thackeray finds solace i
whom he had been unkind. Once Carlyle and Macaulay. both sound traction. reversing actuality and makin
an enemy, forever alienated-and critics and friends; Charlotte For several years, the triangu- his hero the object of the woman
some, like the Times, never made lar relationship was a difficult unreturned affection.
a favorable comment on anything ronte, who dedicated the second one for all. Thackeray never felt
Thackerayean. edition of Jane Eyre to Thacker- that Jane sufficiently returned BUT PROF. Ray's fine biogra
Dickens was another of them; ay; Henry Hallam, the historian his love, Jane insisted upon re- phy begins with the success o
having once disagreed with (the death of whose son, Arthur, maining completely faithful to Vanity Fair in 1847 - as the con
Thackeray, he became finally caused Tennyson to write In Me- her husband, whom Thackeray eluding volume of a two-pa
anything but a friend. Although moriam); and Henry James, Sr., didn't want to hurt either, and series that began a few years bar
the social paths of the two novel- whom Thackeray visited on one William grew more and more up- with Thackeray: The Uses of Ad
ists crossed often, their relations of his trips koAmerica. set with the situation until final- versity - and then traces the la
remained strained. ly he brought about a complete ter career of the "major novelist
But Thackeray's acquaintances MORE intimate acquaintance, separation between Thackeray Advertised as the only wor
among men of letters were many A we- and the Brookfields.authorized by the Thackeray fam
and his quarrel with Dickens however, had the strongest ~andtefr-kil
nd h uare w n feet on Thackeray's personal life The memories remained with ily, Prof. Ray's biography mak
and writings of the time, the novelist, however, throughout use of many letters and papei
He had known William Brook- the remainder of his life as lec- made available to him by th
field since his school days, but turer, traveller and author. Thackerays. Included are p0r
q Jane Brookfield, William's wife, The later writings, as Gordon traits of and drawings by Thack
for only a short time. To Thack- N. Ray shows in Thackeray: The eray, one of those writers w
eray, who lived as a widower with Age of Wisdom, reflect the novel- often illustrated his own work
I Lignter,_tue cioiess 4--i.V..unrequi-ets.-rntuy ic- r.Ray,-in ss-emiing.5M

unfavorable brought to bear pro-
portionally on his reincarnatiot,
TIODAY, however, Thackeray's
position in literature had
slipped from that of a few years
back. Prof. Ray concedes that
Vanity Fair and Henry Esmond
remain the only really popular
works, while Pendennis, the mos-
popular of Thackeray's time and
the work that assured him of his
place in society, has lost its att
traction.
The reasons for this seem clear
to Prof. Ray. For one, Thackeray
novels, like his Punch writings,
are closely allied with the con.
temporai English social setting.
The satire and mock characters
tend to lose meaning as tim
jmoves on.
For another, the author's habit
of stepping out of his role as nari
rator to deliver some exhortation
or erstwhile comment on any-
thing in particular seems to in-
explicably irritate modern read-
ers. Prof. Ray suggests:
The reflective passages in
Thackeray's later fiction, how-
ever excellent in themselves,
are often deplored as irrelevant;
but when one regards them a.
imitations in "the other bar-
n mony of prose" of those Hora-
g tion odes in which a general
's proposition is illustrated by ex-
amples, they seen not merely
acceptable but delightful.
f F POSTERITY is hard on
Thackeray, it must at least be
rsaid that the emminent Victorian
rt tried and tried hard for success.
k Motivated in part to provide fol'
- the future of his daughters, he
worked at writing and even lec
turing to raise his income annual-
rkly. 4
- His lectures, a collection titled
es English Humorists of the Eight-
rs eenth Century, were presented
e throughout England and in many
r- cities, in America. They drew
k- mixed audiences as they drew
1o mixed criticism, but the finl
s. judgement in Prof. Ray's mind
is at least is that Thackeray cer-
y, tainly arranged the facts to fit
k- his presentation. -
a Henry Esmond naturally fot-
a lowed the lectures as an histori-
l- cal novel set in the eighteenth
he century. The success of Esmond,
an however, is laid by Prof. Ray to
th the living characters in the old
setting.
m, Thus Thackeray: The Age o
of Wisdom becomes a handbook for
a the study of Thackeray and his
to writings, a very readable, authens-
n- tic handbook that has much to
he say about a major novelist.

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liis two daughters, the childless I fist's unrequited love. In Henry Es-

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Prof. Ray, In assembling hi
profusely annotated biograph!
has quoted fluently-from Thack
eray, his contemporaries, and
few moderns. This is, indeed,
critical biography of the nove
ist and his works, although tb
criticism is less Prof. Ray's tha
it is the critics' of the nineteent
century.
Thackeray: The Age of Wisdom
like its predecessor, is onet
those careful studies in which
man is made to live again andt
walk the tightrope of public opii
ion with the favorable and tI

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