Content area
Full Text
THOMAS, DEBORAH. Thackeray and Slavery (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1993). xvii + 245 pp. $45.00.
Thackeray and Slavery fills a large gap in Thackeray studies and suggests the value in historicizing this novelist. As his abundant topical reference in novels such as Vanity Fair and The Newcomes indicates, Thackeray was acutely aware of and deeply embedded within his culture. But surprisingly few book-length studies explore his cultural contexts. Thomas is the first to concentrate on his use of slavery in his texts and illustrations, and she unearths a wealth of material. She analyzes "Thackeray's seven principal full-length novels--from Barry Lyndon to The Adventures of Philip--"in terms of the idea of slavery (or in the case of Philip, the related topic of racism)." contextualizing her analysis within "Thackeray's own remarks about and reactions to slavery (demonstrated in his letters and some of his other writings outside these seven novels) as well as the changing Victorian climate of opinion regarding slavery" (pp. xv-xvi). As this thesis suggests, Thomas's care in covering the bulk of Thackeray's writing presents a dependable guide to his developing attitudes towards slavery as a phenomenon and a metaphor.
Thomas follows current thinking in dividing "slavery" into three forms: galley (penal) slavery, "Oriental" (female) slavery, and New World (black) slavery. Her discussion of Thackeray's use of these forms is couched within a thorough examination of British attitudes toward slavery from the 1830s to the 1860s. While Thackeray had little direct involvement with abolitionist activities, he could not but be aware of British anti-slavery sympathies and the force of individuals such as William Wilberforce. His own attitudes were more complicated than a simple abolitionist stance. Thackeray's Anglo-Indian upbringing and...