Chapter 5


Photograph

Thackeray’s inscription to the Brookfields in Rebecca and Rowena, London: Chapman & Hall, 1850. *EC85.T3255.B855c

Rebecca and Rowena, inscribed to the Brookfields (London: Chapman & Hall, 1850).

Thackeray’s Christmas book for 1849, Rebecca and Rowena, was a humorous continuation of Scott’s Ivanhoe. Thackeray presented this copy to the Jane and William Brookfield (whose initials appear at the bottom of the page), adding his own illustrations to the half-title. Thackeray drew himself as Wamba the Gaby, the jester in the story, at the top of the page. This self-portrait is reminiscent of his famous self-portrait as a melancholy jester that first appeared in Vanity Fair.


*EC85.T3255.B855c. Gift of Herbert L. Carlebach, 1950.