Thackeray at Work

The study of Thackeray’s major fiction reconstructs the novelist’s working methods with the help of manuscript material, much of it previously unpublished. The book’s main argument is directed against the commonplace view that Thackeray was in some way a ‘careless’ artist. Much that appears casual or unpremeditated in his work can in fact be explained by the mode of composition which he developed in response both to the publishing conditions of his age and to his own artistic temperament. An appreciation of Thackeray’s writing habits helps clear up much of the critical confusion which has surrounded his reputation in the last hundred years. A particular feature of interest in the book is the use made of Thackeray’s preparatory working materials. These were widely dispersed after the writer’s death and have never been comprehensively examined.

Dr. Sutherland is Reader in English at University College London. He previously lectured at Edinburgh University and has held visiting academic posts in the United States. As well as contributing to many academic journals he has reviewed fiction and literary studies for the Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman and published articles on the booktrade in The New Review and New Society. His previous books are Thackeray at Work (1974) and Victorian Novelists and Publishers (1976) and he has edited novels boy Trollope and Thackeray for the Penguin English Library.