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13 unusual facts about William Makepeace Thackeray


Edward Cardwell, 1st Viscount Cardwell

In 1858, he was defeated for the Oxford seat, but a second election for the seat was held shortly after, which he won (beating William Makepeace Thackeray).

Fitton Gerard, 3rd Earl of Macclesfield

On 15 November 1712, the two men fought a famous duel in Hyde Park, Westminster, described in Thackeray's The History of Henry Esmond and in Bernard Burke's Anecdotes of the Aristocracy.

Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford

Lord Hertford was the prototype for the characters of the Marquess of Monmouth in Benjamin Disraeli's 1844 novel, Coningsby and the Marquess of Steyne in William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel, Vanity Fair.

James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton

On 15 November 1712, Hamilton fought a celebrated duel with Charles, Lord Mohun, in Hyde Park, Westminster, in an episode narrated in Thackeray's The History of Henry Esmond.

John W. Anson

He played a part in establishing the Royal Dramatic College, a retirement home for actors: this ambitious project, which originated in 1858, was supported by Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Joseph Archer Crowe

He was the son of the expatriate Eyre Evans Crowe, and brother of Eyre Crowe, a painter of historical subjects and genre, the friend and amanuensis of William Makepeace Thackeray.

Julian P. Mitchell

Apart from his livelihood, he was interested only in serious literature, such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Magic ring

William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical novel The Rose and the Ring features a ring that has the power to make whoever owns it beautiful; its passage from person to person in the novel is an important element of the story.

Musical Fund Hall

1853 and 1856 William Makepeace Thackeray, lectures on the "English Humorists" (1853) and "Charity and Humor" (1856)

Oxbridge

In William Thackeray's novel Pendennis, published in 1849, the main character attends the fictional Boniface College, Oxbridge.

Roupell case

William Makepeace Thackeray satirised William's downfall as that of "Roupilius" in The Roundabout Papers.

Stourbridge fair

John Bunyan used the event as the inspiration for the Vanity Fair in Pilgrim's Progress, which in turn was used by William Makepeace Thackeray for his most celebrated novel.

Wilhelm Raabe

Later he shows evidences of having read Dickens and Thackeray.


Benjamin Ward Richardson

Richardson lived at Mortlake, and at about this time, became a member of "Our Club", where he met Douglas Jerrold, William Makepeace Thackeray, William Hepworth Dixon, Mark Lemon, John Doran and George Cruikshank, of whose will he became an executor.

Fairy godmother

In William Makepeace Thackeray's The Rose and the Ring, the fairy Blackstick concludes that her gifts have not done her godchildren good; in particular, she has given two of her goddaughters the title ring and the title rose, which have the power to make whoever owns them beautiful, which have ruined the character of those goddaughters; with the next prince and princess, she gives them "a little misfortune", which proves the best gift, as their difficulties form their characters.

Hugh Alexander Kennedy

In the story "Some Reminiscences of the Life of Augustus Fitzsnob, Esq." (inspired by Thackeray's The Book of Snobs), Kennedy gave the score of a chess game said to be played by Napoleon and Count Bertrand.

Joanna Hiffernan

Her father, Patrick Hiffernan, is described by Whistler's friends, Joseph Pennell and his wife Elizabeth, as being like "Captain Costigan," the drunken Irishman in Thackeray's novel Pendennis.

Johnstone Gallery

The theatre opened in February 1971 at the Bowen Hills site under the direction of Joan Whalley with two productions, A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau and The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray.

Men's Wives

Men's Wives (1852) is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray

Royal Literary Fund

Throughout the nineteenth century and until 1939 much of the charity's money came from an annual fund-raising dinner at which major public and literary figures (including Gladstone, Lord Palmerston, Dr Livingstone, Stanley Baldwin, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, Robert Browning, J. M. Barrie and Rudyard Kipling) exhorted guests to make generous donations.

The Adventures of Philip

The Adventures of Philip on his Way Through the World: Shewing Who Robbed Him, Who Helped Him, and Who Passed Him By (1861-62) is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.

The Virginians

The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century (1857-59) is a historical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray which forms a sequel to his Henry Esmond and is also loosely linked to Pendennis.

Vauxhall Gardens

They are the scene for a brief but pivotal turning point in the fortunes of anti-heroine Becky Sharp in William Makepeace Thackeray's 19th-century novel Vanity Fair, as well as a setting in his novel Pendennis.