Becky Sharp Becky Sharp Rebecca Sharp is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel "Vanity Fair". She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate and seduce upper-class men. This is in contrast with the clinging, dependent Amelia Sedley, her friend whom she befriends at school. Becky then uses Amelia as a stepping stone to gain social position. Sharp functions as a "picara"—a picaresque heroine—or by being a social outsider who is able to expose the manners of the upper gentry to ridicule. The book—and Sharp's career—begins in a traditional manner of Victorian fiction, that
The Hidden Hand (novel) The Hidden Hand (novel) The Hidden Hand (or Capitola the Madcap) is a serial novel by E. D. E. N. Southworth first published in the "New York Ledger" in 1859, and was Emma Southworth's most popular novel. It was serialized twice more, first in 1868-69 and then again 1883 (in slightly revised form), before first appearing in book form in 1888. The novel was also serialized in the London "Guide to Literature, Science, Art, and General Information" simultaneous to its first publication in the New York Ledger. The name of the novel was changed to "The Masked Mother" for the