work sometimes considered Thackeray's first novel,Catherine originally intended as a satire ofthe Newgate school of crime fiction but endingup moreas a rollickingpicaresque tale in its own right In The Luck of Barry Lyndon,a novel serialised in Fraser's in 1844,Thackeray explored thesituation ofan outsider tryingto achieve status in high society,a theme which he developed more successfully in Vanity Fair with the character of Becky Sharp,the artist's daughter who rises nearly to the heights by manipulating the other characters. He is best knownnow for Vanity Fair,with its deft skewerings ofhuman foibles and its roguishly attractiveheroine.His large novels from the period after this,once described unflatteringly by Henry James as examples of"loose baggy monsters,"have faded from view,perhaps because they reflect a mellowing in the author,who became so successful with his satires on society that heseemed to lose his zest for attacking it. The later works include Pendennis,a sort ofbildungsroman depictingthe coming of age of Arthur Pendennis,a kind of alter ego of Thackeray's who also featuresas the narrator ofwork sometimes considered Thackeray's first novel, Catherine, originally intended as a satire of the Newgate school of crime fiction but ending up more as a rollicking picaresque tale in its own right. In The Luck of Barry Lyndon, a novel serialised in Fraser's in 1844, Thackeray explored the situation of an outsider trying to achieve status in high society, a theme which he developed more successfully in Vanity Fair with the character of Becky Sharp, the artist's daughter who rises nearly to the heights by manipulating the other characters. He is best known now for Vanity Fair, with its deft skewerings of human foibles and its roguishly attractive heroine. His large novels from the period after this, once described unflatteringly by Henry James as examples of "loose baggy monsters," have faded from view, perhaps because they reflect a mellowing in the author, who became so successful with his satires on society that he seemed to lose his zest for attacking it. The later works include Pendennis, a sort of bildungsroman depicting the coming of age of Arthur Pendennis, a kind of alter ego of Thackeray's who also features as the narrator of 5’