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Review of The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

August 20, 2011 by Nathaniel

A romp through the late 1700’s which takes in a young Irish rogue who ends up in the British Army in Germany for the Seven Years War and then in the pay of the Prussians. He’s adventures keep him away from the UK for eleven years until he finally returns to win the heart of “my Lady Lyndon”. He forces the Countess to marry him on the death of her first husband. In the process he becomes a step-father and develops a relationship of mutual hatred to her first son, the young Lord Bullingdon. As the new head of this noble family, Barry raises an English army to fight the Americans during the 1776 revolution, which his step-son joins. Debts abound, not least through gambling, and even his wife seeks to be rid of Barry Lyndon. The anti-hero ends his days in Fleet prison dying of alcohol related illness.

One of the best of Thackeray, although others prefer Vanity Fair, the story of Barry Lyndon is a true representation of the madness of Europe during the 18th Century, and the inherent fall of the aristocracy. It was also one of the first Novels to be written with a real antihero as the main character, probably the reason why film Directors such as Kubrick found the story so appealing for his major feature film Barry Lyndon. This Novel has had many titles, the most accurate being the 1856 version: “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. Of The Kingdom Of Ireland Containing An Account of His Extraordinary Adventures; Misfortunes; His Sufferings In The Service Of His Late Prussian Majesty; His Visits To Many Courts of Europe; His Marriage and Splendid Establishments in England And Ireland; And The Many Cruel Persecutions, Conspiracies And Slanders Of Which He Has Been A Victim”.

Posted in The List | Tagged Film Adaptation, Review, Thackeray | Leave a Comment

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