The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp

Our Review

Having never read Vanity Fair I cannot tell you if The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp stays true to it or not. One thing I can tell you if that this retelling of the classic book was both witty and interesting to read.

Let me start by saying that Becky Sharp is most definitely an unlikeable character. However, she is a character whose motivations are clear. I don’t agree with the way she goes about it sometimes but wanting to attain social mobility is not enough to condemn her in and of itself.

What I like about The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp is that whilst Becky is clearly condemned the author makes it clear several times that she is using the only weapon available to her – her sexuality. She also makes it clear that the behaviour of the men in Becky’s life is often as reprehensible, or more so, than hers.

Becky Sharp’s childhood was characterised by dire poverty and the lack of a parental figure so when Becky ends up on Big Brother, she used the chance to try to improve her situation. She befriends naïve Amelia whilst in the house and plays on her background to get Amelia to feel sorry for her and invite her into her home.

Once she is in Amelia’s home, she gets a glimpse of the life she thinks she should be leading and determines to get it by any means.

The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp contains a lot of annoying characters. Becky is shallow, greedy and untrustworthy but so is George. George is Amelia’s boyfriend and I detested him. He is entitled, shallow and only looks after number one but because of the family he was born into nobody bats an eyelid at his behaviour.

Amelia is a cloying character throughout much of the novel, but I did like her more towards the end of the book.

My favourite character was Matilda and I could easily picture her. In my head she looked a lot like Dame Judy Dench.

As I said earlier, I can’t say if this is a true retelling of Vanity Fair, but I can say that I enjoyed reading it.

 

Our Final Rating...

Wed, 16th January 2019