Vanity Fair

Posted by James Briggs on June 11, 2003

In Reply to: Vanity Fair posted by ESC on June 11, 2003

: : Does this expression have a special meaning or is it just the name of a magazine? Thanks.

: It's not just the name of a magazine.

: VANITY FAIR -- It's a literary reference to Vanity Fair in Pilgrim's Progress.

: John Bunyan, British preacher/author, 1628-1688. The Pilgrim's Progress (online at www.johnbunyan.org/ ).

: "Vanity Fair -- A fair established by Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, for the sale of all sorts of vanities. It was held in the town of Vanity, and lasted all the year round. Here were sold houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts.? "Faithful, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, is seized at Vanity Fair, burnt to death, and taken to heaven in a chariot of fire ..." From E. Cobham Brewer 1810-1897. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.

: Pilgrim's Progress, "The most well-known allegory ever written, this journey of the protaganist, Christian, is simultaneously filled with vivid and full human portraits of its characters. With over 100,000 copies sold in Bunyan's lifetime, this 'most perfect and complex of fairy tales' succeeded in attracting audiences from every Christian sect."

: Also, "Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), British author.

Currently being filmed in Bath, much to the annoyance of some of the traders - streets have been shut off, access to shops blocked etc. A link to today's Times article is below.

• Vanity Fair in Bath Lewis 06/12/03