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| Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray, Literatura, Książki po angielsku |
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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] //-->Vanity FairWilliam Makepeace ThackerayThis eBook was designed and published by Planet PDF. For more freeeBooks visit our Web site atTo hearabout our latest releases subscribe to thePlanet PDF Newsletter.Vanity FairBEFORE THE CURTAINAs the manager of the Performance sits before thecurtain on the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling ofprofound melancholy comes over him in his survey of thebustling place. There is a great quantity of eating anddrinking, making love and jilting, laughing and thecontrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing andfiddling; there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling thewomen, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look-out, quacks (OTHER quacks, plague take them!) bawlingin front of their booths, and yokels looking up at thetinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while thelight-fingered folk are operating upon their pocketsbehind. Yes, this is VANITY FAIR; not a moral placecertainly; nor a merry one, though very noisy. Look at thefaces of the actors and buffoons when they come off fromtheir business; and Tom Fool washing the paint off hischeeks before he sits down to dinner with his wife and thelittle Jack Puddings behind the canvas. The curtain will beup presently, and he will be turning over head and heels,and crying, ‘How are you?’2of1396Vanity FairA man with a reflective turn of mind, walking throughan exhibition of this sort, will not be oppressed, I take it,by his own or other people’s hilarity. An episode ofhumour or kindness touches and amuses him here andthere—a pretty child looking at a gingerbread stall; apretty girl blushing whilst her lover talks to her andchooses her fairing; poor Tom Fool, yonder behind thewaggon, mumbling his bone with the honest family whichlives by his tumbling; but the general impression is onemore melancholy than mirthful. When you come homeyou sit down in a sober, contemplative, not uncharitableframe of mind, and apply yourself to your books or yourbusiness.I have no other moral than this to tag to the presentstory of ‘Vanity Fair.’ Some people consider Fairs immoralaltogether, and eschew such, with their servants andfamilies: very likely they are right. But persons who thinkotherwise, and are of a lazy, or a benevolent, or a sarcasticmood, may perhaps like to step in for half an hour, andlook at the performances. There are scenes of all sorts;some dreadful combats, some grand and lofty horse-riding,some scenes of high life, and some of very middlingindeed; some love-making for the sentimental, and somelight comic business; the whole accompanied by3of1396Vanity Fairappropriate scenery and brilliantly illuminated with theAuthor’s own candles.What more has the Manager of the Performance tosay?—To acknowledge the kindness with which it hasbeen received in all the principal towns of Englandthrough which the Show has passed, and where it hasbeen most favourably noticed by the respected conductorsof the public Press, and by the Nobility and Gentry. He isproud to think that his Puppets have given satisfaction tothe very best company in this empire. The famous littleBecky Puppet has been pronounced to be uncommonlyflexible in the joints, and lively on the wire; the AmeliaDoll, though it has had a smaller circle of admirers, has yetbeen carved and dressed with the greatest care by theartist; the Dobbin Figure, though apparently clumsy, yetdances in a very amusing and natural manner; the LittleBoys’ Dance has been liked by some; and please to remarkthe richly dressed figure of the Wicked Nobleman, onwhich no expense has been spared, and which Old Nickwill fetch away at the end of this singular performance.And with this, and a profound bow to his patrons, theManager retires, and the curtain rises.LONDON, June 28, 18484of1396Vanity FairCHAPTER I Chiswick MallWhile the present century was in its teens, and on onesunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great irongate of Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies, onChiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses inblazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. Ablack servant, who reposed on the box beside the fatcoachman, uncurled his bandy legs as soon as the equipagedrew up opposite Miss Pinkerton’s shining brass plate, andas he pulled the bell at least a score of young heads wereseen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately oldbrick house. Nay, the acute observer might haverecognized the little red nose of good-natured MissJemima Pinkerton herself, rising over some geranium potsin the window of that lady’s own drawing-room.‘It is Mrs. Sedley’s coach, sister,’ said Miss Jemima.‘Sambo, the black servant, has just rung the bell; and thecoachman has a new red waistcoat.’‘Have you completed all the necessary preparationsincident to Miss Sedley’s departure, Miss Jemima?’ askedMiss Pinkerton herself, that majestic lady; the Semiramis of5of1396 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |