“Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.”

This quote speaks the universal truth and is a part of the magnificent 1847 novel Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero. William Makepeace Thackeray’s story centers around the interwoven fortunes of two lifelong friends, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. The two women represent the opposite ends of the moral spectrum: Becky is ambitious and manipulative while Amelia is kind-hearted but passive. True to its title, the excellent satire of English society exposes the many forms of vanity and hypocrisies which mask them.