Vanity fair, paperback/william makepeace thackery

I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.

 Becky Sharp is a poor orphan when she first makes friends with the lovely Amelia Sedley at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies.

She may not have the natural advantages of her companion but she more than makes up for it with her wit, charm, deviousness, and determination to make a success of herself whatever the cost.

The story of Becky’s spectacular rise and fall sees her gamble, manipulate, and seduce her way through high society and the Napoleonic wars.