Chapter 6


Photograph

Cover of the first number of Thackeray’s The Virginians, 1857-9. *EC85.T3255.858v (A).

The Virginians (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1857-9).

While travelling through America, Thackeray gathered material for a novel he wished to write on the American Revolution. The first of 24 parts of Thackeray’s novel The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century first appeared in November 1857. A sequel to his novel Henry Esmond (1852), The Virginians chronicles the lives of twin brothers during the Revolution. George Washington, whom Thackeray greatly admired, was a prominent character; Thackeray’s American readers were offended by his portrayal of Washington in comic and everyday situations, preferring that Washington be portrayed more reverently.
*EC85.T3255.858v (A). Gift of Charles Eliot Norton, 1905.