Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume set presents a collection of materials relating to the novelist and to his gifted family.

Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume set presents a collection of materials relating to the novelist and to his gifted family.

Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume set presents a collection of materials relating to the novelist and to his gifted family.

Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume set presents a collection of materials relating to the novelist and to his gifted family.

Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume set presents a collection of materials relating to the novelist and to his gifted family.

Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume set presents a collection of materials relating to the novelist and to his gifted family.

This book, the first of two volumes anticipating the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, details not only the author's life, but also the cosmopolitan and literary worlds inhabited by his two daughters, Minny and Annie. When Thackeray died in 1863, the two sisters were forced to find their own way forward. Minny would marry Leslie Stephen, later father of Virginia Woolf, and die at only thirty-five; Annie, encouraged in early years by her father, would herself emerge as a successful novelist, though one always living, albeit willingly, within her father's shadow. Drawing continuously on the letters, diaries, journals and notebooks of the Thackerays and their circle, Aplin sheds light on this remarkable man's family, and the effect that his life, death and legacy had on those closest to him. The book will appeal not just to those interested in Thackeray and the Victorians, but also to readers of biography, womenis studies and memoirs, and to followers of Viriginia Woolf and Bloomsbury.

This is a domestic biography of the Thackeray family, placing the writer in the context of his home life. The story continues long after his death, to trace the later lives of his two daughters, Anne Isabella and Harriet Marian, and their marriages.His elder daughter Annie, in particular, took responsibility for guarding and shaping her father's legacy. The source material is not Thackeray's books so much as his own more intimate papers - his letters - and the correspondence and journals of his mother and daughters. The book will appeal not just to those interested in Thackeray and the Victorians, but to the general reader of biography, to those interested in womenis studies, life writing and to followers of the family of Virginia Woolf.

Marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811, this five-volume critical edition represents the most substantial collection of unpublished material relating to the novelist and his gifted family. Drawing on just over 1,300 letters in public collections, as well as on privately-owned documents, this project presents a wealth of unknown or underused sources that demand scholarly attention. Whilst complementing the already published volumes of Thackeray’s letters, this important work opens up research on the complex and often troubled dynamics within the family, providing evidence for a narrative that suggests elements of psychological disorder, less than orthodox relationships and transgenerational marriage.Of particular importance in revealing Thackeray’s professional life are the substantial collection of rediscovered letters sent by George Smith to the novelist relating to The Cornhill Magazine, of which Smith was founder-publisher and Thackeray the first editor. They throw new light upon the working relationship between the two men in their day-to-day planning for the magazine, and represent the largest surviving series of letters to Thackeray from a single correspondent. As well as many intimate family letters, including those between Thackeray’s daughters, also represented are the extensive communications between his elder daughter Anne – herself an author – and many key artistic and literary figures of the time, including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, George Frederic Watts, John Ruskin, Robert Browning, George Smith, Leslie Stephen, Kate Perugini, Julia Margaret Cameron, John Everett Millais, Lord Frederic Leighton, Fanny Kemble, Henry James, J M Barrie, Margaret Oliphant, Algernon Charles Swinburne, George Meredith, Rhoda Broughton, George du Maurier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Andrew Lang, Augustine Birrell and Virginia Woolf.