William Makepeace Thackeray as Illustrator
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) is today mostly known for his writing, yet he was a pretty talented illustrator as well. He worked for numerous papers, established two by himself, achieved world fame through his novels, and died of a stroke as a consequence of excessive eating, drinking, and lack of physical activity.
Today he is best remembered as the author of Vanity Fair (with a subtitle: A Novel without a Hero), a satirical novel about 19th-century English society where the main character (Rebecca 'Becky' Sharp) tries to climb up the ladder of society despite her poor status. The novel is a classic work of world literature that started as a serial, illustrated by Thackeray and made Thackeray almost as popular as Charles Dickens. Vanity Fair was adapted to numerous audio and video works. It also inspired the name of a popular British magazine, established in 1868.
Here is an example of Thackeray's illustration, made for his niece Mary Augusta Thackerey and kept private until the pictured work was found in 1924.
Illustration from The Awful History of Bluebeard, illustrated by Thackeray
We will also present a few interesting facts about W. M. Thackeray's private life which on a large scale determined his work, life habits, and early death.
- William was a son of Richmond and Anne (born Becher). Anne was an orphan, strictly guarded by her grandmother who destroyed her relationship with Henry Carmichael-Smyth by lying to him that Anne doesn't like him anymore and sending her to India after lying that Henry died. Anne married Richmond who was a civil servant in Calcutta, where William was born. There Anne eventually found out Henry is still alive and when Richmond died with his son being only four years old, little William was sent to England. A year and a half later Anne married Henry. The early loss of his father and the alienation of his mother deeply influenced his early years which were also marked with depression.
Self-caricature by Thackeray
- He traveled a lot from his early years. Young William moved from India to England with a short but influential stop at St. Helena with imprisoned Napoleon. He was educated in several schools in Great Britain, including Cambridge, but liked none of them (this was used in some of his works as well). Then, for some time traveled to Europe (he studied art in Paris and met Goethe in Weimar) but returned home to start studying law (dropped it soon) and get his inheritance at 21 years of age. The money didn't last thanks to his investments in two new papers, a few banks, and gambling. Anyway, he met a lot of interesting people (especially John Leech who later helped him to get a column in Punch, where he persisted for over a decade) and wrote two moderately successful travel books. When he became famous, he also traveled to give lectures or simply to enjoy life.
- His wife Isabella made a huge impact on the rest of William's life. They had three daughters, so he was somehow forced to get a steady income. His writings multiplied. Unfortunately, Isabella started suffering from depression after the third childbirth and after many ups and downs with at least one attempt of suicide, her mental health deteriorated to the point where she permanently lost sense of reality. She was institutionalized and William never achieved a successful relationship with another woman. He spent a lot of time eating and drinking until at only 52 years of age suffered from a terminal heart-attack. His wife outlived him for almost three decades and his work for at least two centuries.
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