William Makepeace Thackeray ( July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. Thackeray, an only child, was born in Calcutta, India, where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 – 13 September 1815), held the high rank of secretary to the board of revenue in the British East India Company. Richmond Thackeray, born at South Mimms, went to India at the age of sixteen to assume his duties as writer. By 1804 he had fathered a daughter by a native mistress, the mother and daughter being named in his will. Such liaisons being common among gentlemen of the East India Company, it formed no bar to his courting and marrying Anne Becher. Anne Becher (1792–1864) was the second daughter of Harriet and John Harman Becher, also a writer for the East India Company. They sent Anne abroad in 1809, telling her that the man she loved, Henry Carmichael-Smyth, had died. This was not true, but her family wanted a better marriage for her than with Carmichael-Smyth, a military man. She married Richmond Thackeray on 13 October 1810. The truth was unexpectedly revealed in 1812, when Richmond Thackeray unwittingly invited to dinner the supposedly dead Carmichael-Smyth. After Richmond's death, Henry Carmichael-Smyth married Anne in 1818 and they returned to England the next year.
the mahogany tree
Christmas is here:
Winds whistle shrill,
Icy and chill,
Little care we:
Little w...[read poem]
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Winds whistle shrill,
Icy and chill,
Little care we:
Little w...
sorrows of werther
Werther had a love for Charlotte
Such as words could never utter;
Would you know how fir...[read poem]
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Such as words could never utter;
Would you know how fir...
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