I was an enormous fan of Sarra Manning in my teens. I devoured 'Guitar Girl', sighed through 'Diary of a Crush', and absolutely idolised the kids in 'Pretty Things'. When I saw she was doing a retelling of 'Vanity Fair', I thought this would be the perfect time to finally take on that huge (900 page!) classic that I've always meant to read, with a cool contemporary version to lighten things up. Let me say, the retelling is pitch perfect, but if you are looking at it as a stand-alone novel, you may be disappointed...

So, my master plan on this was to read the two novels in tandem - a section of 'Vanity Fair' first, then the corresponding events in 'The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp'. This worked well until the middle of the books, when a lot of subplots that had been cut from the retelling took centre stage in the original, so there was a large skip to the final scenes (which to be honest, was fine by me as I found 'Vanity Fair' overly long). 

'Vanity Fair' is a novel which relies heavily on social satire, so it was fascinating to me to see the correspondences that Manning created, and I thought that the translation to modern times was very well done. Of course, there's much less of a concept of 'nobility' now, so the fame and fortune of the characters is shown through the medium of celebrity, instead. Super clever. Becky and Amelia meet on Big Brother, not at school; Sir Pitt Crawley is an aging film star, not a peer; Rawdon Crawley is an up-and-coming movie hunk, not a noble dandy; George Osborne (renamed to George Wylie, presumably to avoid confusion with the real politician) is a media-courting MP in the vein of Boris Johnson, not a soldier. Becky, rather than becoming the darling of high society dinner parties, becomes an Instagram influencer. It's all very clever. 

'Becky Sharp' feels like an effortless translation of 'Vanity Fair'. The way that Manning sketches the world and tweaks the plot points of 'Vanity Fair' to make sense to modern audiences is pretty much flawless. The fact that so much of the story is played out in the press is a nice analogue for the gossip that fueled social standing, and helps Becky's rise and fall to play out with the same amount of weight that it would have done in the Regency. I was impressed that even without the background of the Napoleonic War, which looms large over the middle section of 'Vanity Fair' (since most of the men are in the army), Manning was still able to engineer the same meet-ups and events that I was expecting. Some spoilers below.

Of course, everything is a lot more overt than in the original. Everyone swears a lot, and the affairs that are hinted at are played out less subtly. Rawdon's vices are changed from gin to cocaine, and from gambling to fighting men in bars, and to be honest, it was at this point that I kind of checked out from enjoying 'Becky Sharp' in its own right. His coke-fuelled assault which serves as the reason he is arrested (rather than just being in debt) took this to a point where I actively didn't care. It was too obvious. Add to that the fact that Rawdon and Becky never have a child (the timing is condensed hugely), and Rawdon has nothing redeeming about him.

I also didn't like the divergence from the original plot-line of George not dying. Partly because I hated his character in both versions, and partly because we then got an extremely tedious new plot-line about George and Amelia's marriage going south, and Amelia becoming a much stronger woman and divorcing him. I can see why Manning felt the need to make Amelia a bit more exciting, since I have never seen a wetter or more pathetic character, but I felt that this diverged too far. 

I should probably mention that I've never actually gotten round to picking up any of Manning's adult books, so I can't judge this against her tone there, but comparing it to the sensitive, spot-on descriptions of being a teen that I remember from her work, 'The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp' feels like an entirely different beast. There's none of that heart that I loved about her writing - everyone is horrible all the time. This is true to the original 'Vanity Fair', don't get me wrong, but it's not what I was expecting from a Sarra Manning novel. Perhaps I just can't relate to the life of celebrity, but I found the satire more clever and damning in 'Vanity Fair' - in Manning's version, it felt like everyone was just mean and awful and there was no humour.

I'm also not sure if this stands on its own as a novel. Becky is the central character, and does not disappear off-page for ages as she does in 'Vanity Fair', and that keeps the narrative tighter, which is kind of a blessing and a curse. In a way, the various subplots of the original served to make her look less cut-throat and less ridiculous, whereas without all that motivation, Becky just comes off as unlikeable and bitchy. She comments towards the end that her only crime was being ambitious, female, and working-class, and I believe this of 'Vanity Fair''s Becky, but not of Manning's. 

On the whole, I'm really struggling for a star rating, because I think this works extremely well as a curiosity - a retelling of a social novel in an entirely different society. However, I find it a bit pointless when the original exists, and is funnier, and cleverer. I think it gets three stars, with the caveat that people with a higher tolerance for bitchy celeb tabloid gossip may enjoy it much more!

The story flows easily, it's well written and follows the tale of 2 stars of big brother, whilst I followed the story I unfortunately didn't find it gripped me. Maybe it is because the celebrity lifestyle doesn't really interest me. Which is a shame because the book was very well written and had a great story throughout.

If you like following celebrities on social media and avidly read magazines to catch up with what they're up to then this is the book for you.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this for an honest review.

An enjoyable modern pastiche of Vanity Fair. The simplistic, slightly naive narrative style adopted by the author is well executed and suits the plot and style of the book well. A pithy, contemporary and highly entertaining read!

A very modern retelling of a classic - The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp is a fun, frothy racy read. Becky is determined in her mission - at absolutely any cost. A quick, fun read which guarantees escapism if only for a short while.

If you're looking for a juicy chick-lit, this is it! The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp is such a fun read. It's a retelling of Vanity Fair, but I've never read it, so I cannot judge how well the retelling is done. I can just judge the story by what it is.

Following the story of Becky Sharp and people around her is great entertainment. We're starting in a Big Brother house and we're ending the story in a place far away form it, not just geographically. All the characters go though quite a journey, but no one rises and falls like Becky does. It's impossible to judge Becky on a white and black scale, even though at beginning I was trying to fight my fondness towards her because of how horrible her actions and motivations behind them seemed. But I couldn't fight it, I just liked Becky and how confident and determined she is. I'd like to have a bit of her cunning abilities, her poise and boldness. I don't think I'd like to meet someone like Becky or by any chance anger anyone like Becky, but I wouldn't mind acquiring a bit of her qualities. 

The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp is overall enjoyable read, but if after reading a few pages you detest Becky, don't torture yourself in reading the whole book. It will get worse... But if you love gossip, rich people cunning among themselves, and rags to riches story with cast of unlikable characters, this is just for you!

This book is so much fun! A modern day satire, that doesn't take itself to seriously, and would make the perfect holiday read. It's a labyrinth of unpredictable twists and turns, manipulation and secrets and I loved every little detail. It starts with Becky in the final of Big Brother and while there are lots of awesome character parts, this book is ALL Becky. Becky comes from nothing and her sole mission is to become "something". She is endlessly ambitious and the world is her oyster. I would hate to give away too much. Just take the Becky journey and enjoy the ride. Suffice to say, as soon as I put the book down, I searched for other books by this author.

A very timely novel. Becky Sharp is perfectly written into The 21st century, from selling diet lollipops on Instagram to hosting boujie, ironic 'bangers and mash' salons on a Sunday evening. I raced through this fun, smart read.

Such fun! Becky Sharp is an upward-climbing status-seeker in this 21st-century retelling of Vanity Fair. She's pretty much exactly like the original, but she has a much wider audience these days due to her TV and social media presence.

I enjoy retellings, and I loved the imaginative way this classic was brought up-to-date. Right from the start we find that Becky and Amelia (who in the original met at school, where Becky was an impoverished scholarship pupil) now meet on a reality TV show. I love those and I can totally see it being a major opportunity for the Becky Sharp type. Becky clings on like a leech and soon overtakes Amelia, although the reader can see her downfall coming (no spoiler, as it's in the title!)

I think this book will appeal most to people who have read the original or who at least like the kind of books where the humor comes from having a whole cast of unlikable characters who stab each other in the back all of the time.

I loved this!
My hazy recollections of a BBC drama adaptation of the original Vanity Fair novel are somewhere there in my distant memory, but that is as far as my knowledge of the original “Becky Sharp” went. However any knowledge of the original, the inspiration for this modern retelling is irrelevant as this is a stand alone joy. A rip roaring rollicking read. Truly contemporary in all its social and cultural references and a great gutsy heroine that people will love!

What a gem of a book! The hilarious tale of the rise and fall and rise of Becky, with acute observations, and characters we love to hate. A league above your average chick lit. This would make a great holiday read, but will equally entertain you at home.

I wasn't at all sure of what this would be like - I've never read the original Vanity Fair. It was brilliant! Yes, Becky Sharp is a conniving little madam, but you want her to succeed. I also enjoyed seeing Amelia get a backbone as the story went on. Social media, reality TV, the nature of celebrity were all very neatly worked in as part of Becky's rise, and it's a good commentary on that as much as it is an entertaining story. And it is really entertaining - I'd definitely recommend this.

An absolute riot! I galloped through it, hooting all the way. Brilliant, super smart writing by Sarra Manning.

It had been a while since I last read a book by Sarra Manning but this book has certainly reminded my why I enjoy her books - even when I wasn't reading it my mind was on the characters and wondering just what they would get up to next.

I'm not sure how much I can say I particularly liked the characters or Becky herself but I was intrigued by them and with the authors clever writing, I certainly wanted to continue seeing how the story would play out. I love books where there is scandal, rich people behaving badly, at least one person out for revenge, and a large cast of storylines and character. I was never sure exactly how this story would end and i'm grateful as it made it so much more enjoyable.

I am under the impression this is a modern re-telling of Vanity Fair, having never read it I have no idea how it matches up and was judging this as a book on its own merits.

Despite my feelings towards some of the characters what they are though is memorable, and right from the first few pages I was enthralled by what was happening and the so called friendship between Becky and Emmy in the Big Brother house.

Becky Sharp is a master of disguising her true self, depending who she is with depends just how she will treat a situation, and what level of sincerity she exhibits. What you do get the impression of is the only person she cares about is herself and is using all of her wiles to improve her situation in all walks of life.

To me this is a perfect poolside read, and worked just as well as an entertainingly gripping story to be read in my garden over two hot sunny afternoons. A delightful way to spend some time and I'm really glad I read this.

Thanks to Harper and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

An extremely enjoyable retelling of Vanity Fair that retains the spirit of the original.

Becky Sharp, almost admirably calculating, comes second in Big Brother and uses it as a catalyst to change her life - extreme social climbing ensues! Sarra Manning has created a funny contemporary update to a classic tale and, while the characters are not exactly likable, they are interesting. A perfect update for the age of Love Island & Instagram that, while not quite the literary classic of the original, is a creative and fun update. I have read Sarra Manning’s work for years and this has not diminished my enthusiasm for her as an author. Well worth picking up, although I prefer her teen novels.

Shamefully (as an English Lit teacher) I had never read Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and though I started reading this reboot blind, after an hour or so, I decided to look up the plot of the original online, and afterwards I better appreciated the ways in which the story has been re-imagined. If you don't know Vanity Fair at all, then this is just a mildly-entertaining, contemporary story of a modern young woman. But if you acquire even the most basic idea of the original novel, you start to realise how drastically life has changed over the last 160 or so years, but how little women's roles have . It's still really easy to dislike Becky for what seems to be an uppity attitude but is really just her refusal to accept her pre-ordained social status. What I liked about this (sometimes-silly!) tale was the insistence that we learn to admire 'pushy' women, despite their chippiness, the same way we admire 'pushy' men, though we are far more likely to use descriptors like 'confident' or 'dominant' than 'pushy' for males. I found myself rooting for the avaricious, shallow Becky and was pleasantly suprised by that.

I recieved this e-arc in return for an honest review.

This book is about a young woman called Becky Sharp and her life and the lives of those around her. Most of the book is written from Becky's perspective but there are parts from the other people in her life.

Hoenstly I don't know how I feel about this book. I mean it's really good and I just had to know what happened but I really didn't like any of the characters here was nothing reddening about any of them, so I found it hard to read. I think the only person I really liked was Matilda and she wasn't really a big part of book :(

Becky was such a scheming cow, amelai was such sap, dobbin lacks guts, George scheming, conniving piece of **it, Jos was a pointless character he was simply there as filler... Briggs was annoying and the fact that every guy (apart from Dobbin) falls for a pretty face is rediculous. Especially when they how bitch y and scheming Becky is... Seems unrelatable.

I mean I get it, Becky is her own hero, she relies on herself unless someone with money comes along at which point she grabs on like a leech and doesn't let go... Until the money has gone or she has to give something up.

I did like the fact that Becky was the main villain... Although I'm assuming to Becky everyone was a villain and she was just a innocent of everything... I really don't like her... I wanted to punch her throughout the book.

The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp, Sarra Manning

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Romance.

I hadn't read Vanity Fair, but I'm a sucker for romance and this sounded a fun read – plus I've loved some of Sarra's past stories.
I'd not class it as romance though...there is some romance via secondary characters but that's just a tiny fraction of the story, and for me sitting it in the romance genre was wrong, and I was disappointed at that part of the story.

I struggled at first, maybe if I'd read Vanity Fair I'd have found the start easier. I almost gave up at one point, the characters all seemed irredeemably dislike-able, but persevered and once into the story found myself hooked on Becky's actions.
Was she right in what she did? Was she fair? Was she treated fairly by others? So many questions this book threw up and its easy to judge Becky as amoral and avaricious, but with a past that gave her nothing was she just making her way in the world as best she knew? Would be have felt better about her if she accepted her lot and lived on the street begging? Pretty much sure that's a No from what gets said in current news. Or maybe if she took a zero hours contract and lived day to day on min wage sharing a room with someone else. Why should she just accept that as the best she can hope for though?
Some of the other characters didn't act any better but their actions – as happens so often in the real world – get excused under work pressures, family issues, social obligations etc. Its only accident of birth that placed George, Amelia, Dobbin etc where they were and not where Becky was in life.

I didn't like Becky but in way by the end I did admire her. She was tough, grabbed life's opportunities when they came and worked the to her best advantage. Its would be easy to say she took advantage of others and yet weren't they doing that to her? Did Amelia and her family treat Becky fairly? What about the Pitts? What about George's actions, the way he treated Amelia? I think the only person I liked was Dobbin...and Amelia by the end. The section with the news magnate had me thinking “News of the World anyone? Murdoch and the scandals there...”

Its easy to sit in judgment if you've never known homelessness, never gone hungry, never had to shop in jumble sales and charity shops. I have. Would I act like Becky if the chance arose? I'd really, really like to think my moral compass points in a different direction but until it happens who knows what we'd do.
Marie Antoinette's apocryphal “quote” of “Let them eat cake” when told the peasants had no bread sums up so many governing figures attitude to those in need now. They genuinely have no idea of the issues facing so many people, and yet sit in positions making judgments that affect the lives of those people.

Stars: Four, a slow start for me, that may have been better had I read VF, an annoyance that its not what I'd call romance, but a story that was a fun read.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and Publishers.

I would like to thank Harper Collins Uk and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The RIse and Fail of Becky Sharpe’ in exchange for my honest unbiased review.

This is a perfect summer , girlie read. It’s the story of modern day Vanity Fair-modern upto date.
It’s an ok book not my normal choice of book.

Becky Sharp is a wonderful anti-hero - I'm not sure if I love her or hate her, but I certainly want to know what she gets up to next! A resourceful minx, she is out only for herself, yet occasionally endears herself to the reader by helping someone else along the way. This was a deliciously frothy tale that kept me entertained right to the end.

Brilliant! A perfect weekend read and positively unputdownable!

I read Vanity Fair some years ago and have but hazy memories of the storyline, so i can't claim any knowledge of just how clever a re-working this is, but it's somewhat irrelevant, as this is a brilliant read in its own right. A standalone story easy to enjoy regardless of any prior knowledge of the central themes.

To summarise: Becky Sharp had a very, very tough start in life, but she's beautiful, bold, clever and hard as the diamonds she so craves so it only takes one crack in the doorway to fame and fortune and she's through it, and lord help anyone who gets in her way. Through various ups and downs she claws her way to the top, but her position is precarious...and the fall precipitous...and can she really hang on to her position of Global It Girl when all around her want to see her plunge?

Peppered with characters both loathsome and lovely, this story will take you from rooting for the plucky Ms Sharp to plotting her demise yourself. She's everything we're supposed to dislike - self-centred, merciless, uncaring and even cruel - but she's also brilliantly smart and has a laser-like focus on the end goal, which she pursues with a dedication we could wish to see in all our daughters.

As in the original, Becky Sharp must make her way in a world owned by men and with nothing more than a pretty face, a hot bod and a sharp mind to offer, her options look somewhat limited. But you'd be a fool to underestimate our Becky...and many, many men do, to their own downfall and to our delight.

While she's pretty unpleasant in many respects, it's hard to dislike a woman who plays hard in a man's world, and wins, against seemingly overwhelming odds and by the close of the novel it's quite clear exactly who's side you choose to be on...

Author Sarra Manning has created a whole collection of brilliantly drawn characters, taking inspiration from Vanity Fair, but delivering an entirely twenty-first century cast fully rounded out, just waiting to be met and liked, or disliked, by the reader.

My best book so far this summer!