Essay: Reader, Writer, and Character Entanglement in Vanity Fair
Chapter Six of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair opens with a direct address to the serial novel's readers. "I know that the tune I am piping is a very mild one", the narrator apologizes, "and must beg the good-natured reader to remember that we are only discoursing at present about a stockbroker's family in Russell Square" (60). In an era in which the extent of the readership determined a serial novel's continued existence, the reader-writer relationship was of paramount importance. Thackeray appeases his readers, defends his artistic choices, and refutes their implied concerns about his craft. By examining the dialogue into which Thackeray enters with his readers in the context of the novel, we can gain insight into the role of the reader in the Victorian serial, and the manner in which Thackeray harnesses the reader-writer relationship to engage the readers and enhance the effectiveness of his social critique. The dependence of the serial...