“The Vanity Fair” is Thackeray’s main work. At the center of the writer’s attention are dishonest and corrupt people. The author believed that there’s nothing surprising about kindness—yet evil is very curious and interesting to study. Paradoxically, it is against the backdrop of the pettiness and egoism of Thackeray’s characters that his ideals of virtue look the most vivid and prominent. Thackeray’s contemporaries considered the novel scandalous beyond decency, but that didn’t prevent the author from becoming famous instantly after its publication. The writer said that his novel was “without a hero,” and that the narrative is based on the story of Becky Sharp—a girl ready for anything to climb out of poverty and become a wealthy, respectable society lady. All the schemes that this cunning Becky uses to achieve her goal are still very much in use today. No wonder “Vanity Fair” has been—and remains—one of the most popular works in the world.