New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-05
LIPE OF THACKERAY..

EVeryDOuy hHVWs . LachtIdy, anu Ho-
body knows anything about him We are therefore
glad 20 help ourselves and readers to little know
edge of him, derived from German authority. Hewas
born In Calcutta in the year lsll and Is now conse-
ouently Al years old His father high official OF
the East India Company, which secured him the
snsru of the best society, and large income. Oar
author was born gentleman" He went to school
in neutrality-suspicious. all the tyranny of brutal
MASTER and the misery of that system OF Tag
ging legalzed bullying of the little boys by the lar
GER which Is so repulsvs to every noble and decent
feeling and which the Engshmen 80 outy defend, as
process which "takes the starch out of pride" but
which altogether too unreasonable not to lose temper
about in discussing. Thackeray has revenged himself
upon this inhuman and disgusting system in bis Christ
mas story of Dr. Birch and his Young Friends and
he has general ding at Boarding Schools In the opening
of Vanity Fair" In which he exhorts the reader to
trust the promise of school prospectus no more than
he docs the praises of epitaph. He left school for
the University ct Cambridge, where he studied with
Kngake, the author Of E6then-Eiot Warburton, who
wrote The Crescent and the Cross, and was lost with
the Amazon, and Richard Monckton Mines we'll
known LonouS. HavateTr, poet and biograPher OF
Keats and an ornamental liberal momber OF Parliament
historian of Vanity Fair launched himself into its ndst
with an annual income Of about thousand pounds he
lived according to bis whms, drew sharp and clever
caricatures, smoked lounged, feased upon books of
every kind, and opened the oyster of the world at
leisure His mother, woman Of great beauty and full
of talent and tenderness whose memory is so ilialy
embalmed in the character of the mother Of Arthur
Pendennis, married again, about this time, and the
young man. always the object of the proudest maternal
sve came into possession Of his paterna inheritance. He
Immediately returned from the continent where he had
been staying little time and took up bis residence In the
Temple Nascent Jursts and budding Barrisers Law,
who have completed full course at Cambridge or Ok.
ford enjoy the privilege of paying high prices for COM
Portable quarters In the Temple and of eating splendid
dinners In its ancient dining room. Here Thackeray
entered himself student of Jurisprudence, and 10
the character OF Warrington in "Pendennis' he has
developed the career of the students and the varied
life Of the Temple In of the best passages he has
ever written Henry Taylor, the Dramsrs, author OF
Philip Van Artcvelde 10 among the residents of the
Temple, and is mentioned by the German Commentator
the original Of character in Thackerays Romance.
We are at loss to determine which, for If Warrington
be intended he seems to to lose the point War
rington is a man Of power without a career-Tsylora
quite equal to his just claims However, the Temple
not only furnished author characters but also the
necessity of drawing them for while there, and when
scarcely more than 20 years old, the young man had
fooled away" bis property, and was poor The days
ofmoking, loungng, and loafng" were evidently end
Ing and he betook himself to Paris conceiyng from his
facility in sketching, that he born for artist
brief time among the Partisan ateliers suficed to
remove this Idea But his sepfather at this period
established Journal In London, called The Constu.
tona the artist naturally became its Paris correspon.
dent Thuslike Dickens, he commencing his literary
reer journalist In Paris, Thsckeray met his pre-.
sent wife, an Irish lady Of goodifamy and married her.
From this tmedstes his first purely literary effort
the Yellowplush Papers," afterward published as
" Jeames Dary"-in which his characteristic tendency
is clearly indicated. The stepfathers CONSTITUTIONAL
absorbed most Of his property of course and failed
The obliged to return TO England and to begin
work in earnest for himself He wrote for Fra
z1s Magazine and literary reviews for "TAe Times
in which he ridicued the early Bulwer style of
interesting burglars and romantic muir.
derers But the public, resolved upon enjoying
the fascination Of crime sentmentally described,
received his structures coldly The struggling au
thor turned to the humorous, sketchy style, to win
fairly favored than he opened their purses TO him but
his wife became insane and is at this day. the inmate
OF an asylum He worked industriously with his pen
he wrote the " Great Hoggary Diamond" The snob
Papers" the " Irish Sketch Book" Journey from
Cornhill to Cairo" "Our Street." "Rebecca and Row
ena,' 1.-THE kickeburies on the Rhine" and smaller
papers, under the name of Michael Angelo Titmarsh.
and Chambers Cyclopedia commended him, before he
was so universally known, "a quiet observer" In
all these sketches his characteristic power shows itself
The two last were written after the great fame and
success Of Vanity Fair" but they are only studies for
nis large pictures-and it may be noted as proof
81 his genuine genius, that the completed figures are
INFINITELY superior to the designs and it is in completing
he picture from the speech that shall gain in mean
ng as well as In elaboration and size that the true ar
list is shown. Mr. Thackeray offered the MS of
. Vanity Fair" to magazin e. The editor declined il
The author published it, and made his name immortal.
t was followed by " Pendennis," mellower. riDer
rut to our fancy, but have thought OF entering
lpon criticism Of the author His latest public literary
work is the of lectures upon the wits of Queen
innes times, which has been read before literary and
fashionable London and received with the greatest an
9lause. COpous abstracts were published in the lead.
journals and there is little doubt that thew are oute
worthy their author Mr.. Thackeray Is now under. |
TODD to be engaged in completing novel of which the
Gene is laid among the persons and the times treata in
lis lectures.
OF Mr. Thackeray's intention 10 visit the rr,,oa |
States, we hear nothing said We think that there co,d
DC little doubt of the success of his lectures bsrs
NEW CANDIDATEs.-Ash rewd corresnon- |
lent at washington writes Us that the chiefs of the