There he lives extravagantly, unwittingly causing his mother and Laura to live in near poverty.

Pen, heartbroken, leaves home to study at St Boniface's college in Oxbridge. She summons Major Pendennis from London, and the Major derails the marriage simply by telling Costigan his nephew is not rich. Emily's father, Captain Costigan, believes Pen is rich and wants Pen to marry his daughter, but Pen's mother is horrified. As Pen and Laura grow up, Mrs Pendennis tells them she hopes they will marry someday.Īt age 18, however, Pen falls in love with an actress, Emily Fotheringay (a stage name), who is about ten years his senior.

The Pendennises, however, claim descent from an ancient family, and Arthur's uncle Major Pendennis, though he has only his retired Army pay, associates with wealthy and titled people. The family has risen to gentility in the past generation or two but is not wealthy: the late Mr Pendennis left only a house and investments producing about 500 pounds a year. He and his foster sister Laura are raised in the village of Fairoaks by his indulgent mother, Mrs Pendennis. Plot summary Īrthur Pendennis ('Pen' to his friends) is the only child of a prosperous physician and former apothecary now deceased. Miss Amory and Sir Francis Clavering are somewhat reminiscent of Becky Sharp and Sir Pitt from Vanity Fair. The characters include the snobbish social hanger-on Major Pendennis and the tipsy Captain Costigan. The novel took two years for Thackeray to write and, in line with other Thackeray works, most notably Vanity Fair, it offers an insightful and satiric picture of human character and aristocratic society. The main hero is a young English gentleman Arthur Pendennis, who is born in the country and sets out for London to seek his place in life and society. It is set in 19th-century England, particularly in London. The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy (1848–50) is a novel by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray. First edition title-page with an illustration drawn by Thackeray himself (1850)

Wm thackeray novels