Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray that satirizes society in early 19th-century England. Like many novels of the time, Vanity Fair was published as a serial before being sold in book form; it was printed in 20 monthly parts between January 1847 and July 1848.
Thackeray meant the book to be not only entertaining but also instructive; this is shown both by the narrator of the book and in Thackeray's private correspondence. The novel is now remembered as a classic of English literature, though some critics claim that it has structural problems; Thackeray sometimes lost track of the huge scope of his work, mixing up characters' names and minor plot details. The number of allusions and references it contains can make it difficult for modern readers to follow.
It's interesting to note that Vanity Fair was one of the first examples of what's called the "multi-plot" novel, which became hugely popular between the late 1840s and the mid 1870s. This is a type of novel in which two or more entirely separate groups of characters have their stories told, with the author eventually bringing everything together to form a conclusion in which everyone "participates".