This was achieved by a longer production, the novel of Vanity Fair, which appeared in nineteen monthly numbers, and was at last completed in 1848. He now became suddenly a "lion" in society, and he attempted to lighten the load of daily composition by soliciting places in the Civil Service and in diplomacy. But for these he was not found to be eligible, and it is fortunate that his genius was not dissipated upon work 16 Young Street, Kensington, where Thackeray lived from 1846 to not truly suitable to its exercise. He was, however, called to the Bar in the summer of 1848. At this time "his face and figure, his six feet four in height, with his flowing hair, already nearly grey, and his broken nose, his broad forehead and ample chest, encountered everywhere either love or respect; and his daughters to him were all the world." He was now famous and a favourite in the society he loved; and he sat down in high hopes to write another long novel, Pendennis; but in 1849 a severe illness gave to his health a shock from which it never perfectly recovered. Yet these years were full of literary activity. To Pendennis (1849-50) followed Rebecca and Rowena (1849-50), and The Kickieburys on the Rhine (1850-1). In the latter year he began. to lecture in London, with very marked success, and he repeated the experiment in the provinces, and on successive occasions in America. The two principal courses of lectures which Thackeray delivered so widely were The English Humourists of the Mr. Michael Angelo Titmarsh, as he appeared at Willis's Rooms in his Celebrated Character of Mr. Thackeray From a Caricature by John Leech Eighteenth Century, which he published in 1853, and The Four Georges, which he kept in MS. until 1861. He was in the United States upon this lucrative and interesting errand in the winters of 1852 and 1855, and there is no doubt that those public appearances as a lecturer, with his noble appearance and frank manner, greatly increased his popularity, which was at this time second to that of no one but Dickens. Meanwhile Thackeray was engaged in the composition of his great historical novel of Henry Esmond, which appeared in 1852. This was printed in the usual form, but in The Newcomes (1853-55), and in The Virginians (1858-59), Thackeray reverted to the custom of publication in twenty-four periodical numbers. In the last-named year he became editor of The Cornhill Magazine, which he continued to guide until April 1862, and in which he at once began to issue his Roundabout Papers. It was ever in Thackeray's mind that he might escape, by some other employment, from the burden of incessant literary work. He was now prosperous, and he thought that it would amuse him to take part in the debates of the House of Commons. In 1857 he stood for the city of Oxford, but he was not elected. In 1863 he built himself a house on Palace Green, Kensington, for he had by this time more than recovered the fortune which had slipped through his fingers in his youth. He was not, however, long to enjoy it; for ten years he had been suffering, although few suspected it, from heart disease. On Christmas Eve, 1862, very early in the morning, the spasms came on as he lay in bed, and he died before they could be relieved. He was buried in Kensal Green, and a bust was afterwards placed in Westminster Abbey. His latest novels were Lovel the Widower (1861), and The Adventures of Philip (1863). The fragment of another, Denis Duval, was published after his death. The character of Thackeray, so lovable and companionable, with something W. M. Thackeray From a Sketch by Sir John Millais in the possession of Mrs. Richmond Ritchie. (Reproduced by permission of Mrs. Richmond Ritchie and of Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co.) pathetic even in the humour of it, was inexpressibly |