Thackeray's fame rests mainly on two great books--_Vanity Fair_ and _Henry Esmond_. The first has been made very real to thousands of readers by the brilliant acting of Mrs. Fiske in Becky Sharp. The other is one of the finest historical novels in the language and the greatest exploit in bringing over into our century the style, the mode of thought, the very essence of a previous age. Thackeray was saturated with the literature of the eighteenth century, and in _Esmond_ he reproduced the time of Addison and Steele as perfectly as he made an imitation of a number of the SPECTATOR. This literary _tour de force_ was made the more noteworthy by the absolute lack of all effort on the novelist's part. The style of Queen Anne's age seemed a part of the man, not an assumed garment. While in the heroine of _Vanity Fair_ Thackeray gave the world one of the coldest and most selfish of women, he atoned for this by creating in _Esmond_ the finest gentleman in all English literature, with the single exception of his own Colonel Newcome. Strict injunctions Thackeray left against any regulation biography, and the result is that the world knows less of his life before fame came to him than it does of any other celebrated author of his age. The scanty facts show that he was born in Calcutta in 1811; that he was left a fortune of $100,000 by his father, who died when he was five years old; that, like most children of Anglo-Indians, he was sent to school in England; that he was prepared for college at the old Charter House School; that he was graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and that while in college he showed much ability as a writer of verse and prose, although he took no honors and gained no prizes. After reading law he was moved to become an artist and spent some time in travel on the Continent. [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE TO "VANITY FAIR" DRAWN BY THACKERAY, WHO FURNISHED THE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR MANY OF HIS EARLIER EDITIONS] But this delightful life was rudely cut short by the loss of his fortune and he was forced to earn his living by literature and journalism. Under various pseudonyms he soon gained a reputation as a satirist and humorist, his first success being _The Great Hoggarty Diamond_. Then years of work for PUNCH and other papers followed before he won enduring fame by _Vanity Fair_, which he styled "a novel without a hero." Charlotte Bronte, who gained a great reputation by _Jane Eyre_, added to Thackeray's vogue by dedicating to him in rarely eloquent words the second edition of her novel, against which preachers fulminated because of what they called its immoral tendencies. Then in rapid succession Thackeray wrote _Pendennis_, _Henry Esmond_, _The Newcomes_, _The Virginians_, _Lovel the Widower_ and _The Adventures of Philip_. All these are masterpieces of wit, satire and humor, cast in a perfect style that never offends the most fastidious taste, yet they are neglected to-day mainly because they do not furnish exciting incidents.