Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Vanity Fair cover art

Vanity Fair

By: William Makepeace Thackeray
Narrated by: Georgina Sutton
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £35.99

Buy Now for £35.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Middlemarch cover art
The History of Henry Esmond cover art
Jane Eyre cover art
Bleak House cover art
Sketches by Boz cover art
War and Peace cover art
Emma [Naxos Edition] cover art
Wuthering Heights cover art
Great Expectations cover art
David Copperfield cover art
Classic Romance cover art
Persuasion cover art
Pride and Prejudice cover art
North and South cover art
Our Mutual Friend cover art
Anna Karenina cover art

Summary

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 £5,000 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks

What listeners say about Vanity Fair

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    104
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    119
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    98
  • 4 Stars
    29
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A surprisingly modern novel.

If you could sum up Vanity Fair in three words, what would they be?

Incisive, funny, moving.

What did you like best about this story?

Becky Sharp is a wonderful creation. She's a shameless survivor and improviser in an era of modesty, blushes and bonnets.

Which character – as performed by Georgina Sutton – was your favourite?

Georgina Sutton is brilliant as all the characters- both men and women. Her Joss Sedley is particularly funny.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh, cry and gasp.

Any additional comments?

I've listened to a number of Audible books but Georgina Sutton's performance in this thirty-two hour listen is the most impressive that I've come across so far.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Try it!

If you could sum up Vanity Fair in three words, what would they be?

I had read Vanity Fair and had watched the film and television series, but until I listened to this reading, I had never really understood, how funny & 'tongue in cheek' it was!

Just be careful to choose the right reader. I chose one & within minutes couldn't cope with the voice although I had heard them reading other things. It just didn't feel right. Glad that Audible swapped it & that I persevered!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Brilliant performance

It was quite tricky at first to find a foothold in the story given the nature of its heroin. Georgina Sutton brought life to the innumerable characters however and made sure you couldn't get lost in the crowd!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A gem

Narration lifts this book from the pages. A tale full of irony, conceit, hypocrisy and love.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Recording of a first rate classic

This wonderful tale is enhanced by the narrator who never fails to deliver vocally Thackeray's inimitable characters. Changing seamlessly from narrator to character, Ms Sutton has created a masterpiece of her own. Could not be bettered.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

“Vanity Fair” and still it goes on!

An old favourite, very well read.
200 years have gone by and we’re still as foolish, worldly, gullible as Thackeray’s characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A satire that's actually funny...

Thackeray's satire of the English gentility during and after the Napoleonic Wars is a rare beast - a satire that is actually funny. His warmth towards his deeply flawed and often ridiculous characters makes them enjoyable to spend time with even when they're behaving at their worst. Becky Sharp is one of the best, if most immoral, heroines in Victorian fiction, putting to shame all those drooping angelic women trotted out by so many authors of the time, especially male authors. And Georgina Sutton's narration is excellent - she creates individual and believable voices for each of the huge cast of characters and brings out all Thackeray's humour, making it as pleasurable to listen to as to read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining!

This whole book and reading could be thought of as a commentary of today's UK. Just good, if uneasy, entertainment.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Simply brilliant reading

Well written and brilliantly read. The range of voices is extraordinary! You can SEE the characters esp Joss Sedley.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A marathon.

I have never read Vanity Fair so I downloaded this out of curiosity to see what the original was like. I found it overlong, some of Thackeray’s writing Is too moralistic for our age. I imagine that some of his oddly named characters were caricatures of real people.Some of his comments hold as true today as they did then, however, and parts of it made me smile
The narrator was very good, differentiated between the characters believably, I especially liked the lisp she used for Major Dobbin. I don’t regret listening to this book but once will be enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!