A third thread to fill this forum up a little. It's a shame that no-one actually posts on here, because you could have so many nice discussions.
First, I enjoyed it, although I was pretty slow in finishing it. Thackeray obviously observed quite a lot, because his portrayal of the Belgians and the Germans is very accurate. They still have the same traits. I loved the episode where they all went to Brussels for Waterloo and where Jos had found a Belgian servant called Isidoor, who 'didn't speak any language' (we should conclude he spoke Flemish, then, shouldn't we), but made himself indispensible because he bustled about doing everything and nothing. That's Belgians for you! And the great food and beer. Indeed, you cannot go to Belgium and not have good food. It's unheard of. In fact, for a Belgian, a holiday is always valued by the food. The first thing people answer when asked 'How was your holiday?' is 'Well, the food was good.'
I liked the description of Pumpernickel too. So true to today's Germany. Germans can be so local and so private (we have found out to our utter frustration).
I think the set-up was a quite satirical Les Misérables style of book. It's fragmentary and it jumps form character to character, from life to life, as the author sees fit and all characters somehow have their influence on each other, although they may not realise it. They also all come together in Waterloo which will determine how the whole thing carries on. Thus, the novel has no real clear protagonist as more or less all characters are pretty well sketched, including Miss Briggs and the landlord of Curzon Street.
I found the cosmopolitanness of it quite refreshing. As Thackeray says, English people establish a little England wherever they go, and so they do in books too: everything is always very English and focussed on English issues, even if it plays somewhere else, but this one was maybe focussed on English issues like reputation and things, but it was slightly more open.
There was a theme of travel, emphasised in Dobbin's docking scene where he finally arrives in the harbour of Ostend to carry Amelia off (frustrating character, Dobbin, but so sweet). He's paced up and down the Boompjes in Rotterdam, a quay lined with lime trees (the trees of lovers) and willows (treacherous trees who can put travellers off their track), then considers marrying Glorvina O'Dowd anyway (her pink satin and singing at him did their work in the end!), but then is summoned back to the right track by Amelia. Indeed, all through the novel there is a lot of travel Notably, Becky can't stay where she is. Whether that's because the people force her out or because she just hasn't found her purpose, is the question. Had Jos asked to marry her at Vauxhal, maybe she would have stayed where she was and he too...
On the whole very nice novel.
Any thoughts anyone?