1.	Charles Dickens

2.	Charlotte Brontë

3.	Emily Brontë

4.	George Elliot

5.	Oscar Wilde

6.	Thomas Hardy

7.	William Makepeace Thackeray

8.	Alfred Tennyson

9.	Rudyard Kipling

"William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was an English journalist and novelist, famous for his novel Vanity Fair (1847-48), a tale of two middle-class London families. Most of Thackeray's major novels were published as monthly serials.

Thackeray studied in a satirical and moralistic light upper- and middle-class English life - he was once seen as the equal of his contemporary Dickens, or even as his superior.

William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India. His father worked as a Collector in the East Indian Company. After his father died he was sent to home to England. He was educated at Cambridge. Thackeray abandoned his studies without taking a degree. Because of gambling he lost some of his inheritance. In the beginning of the 1830s he visited Germany, where he met Goethe.

During 1831-33 Thackeray studied law in London, but had little enthusiasm to continued his studies. After art studies in Paris, Thackeray returned in 1837 to London. His extravagant style of life brought him into debt. Later he was forced to earn his living and started his career as a hard working journalist. Often he used absurd pen names. In 1836 he married a poor Irish girl; they had three daughters. Their first child, Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837-1919), became a writer - her impressionistic texts impressed Virginia Woolf, who drew a portrait of her in Night and Day as 'Mrs Hilbery'.

Thackeray began to contribute regularly to various newspapers- The Times for example. He satirized English snobbery. In 1840 Isabella Thackeray suffered a mental breakdown, from which she never recovered. The author was forced to send his children to France to his mother. The children returned to England in 1846 to live with him.

In the 1840s Thackeray started to gain name as a writer. In Vanity Fair he gave a widepicture of high life in England, and created one of the most fascinating immoral female characters, Becky Sharp. One can find there his antipathy towards snobbery and hypocrisy. He describes the career of two completely different characters: Amelia Sedley, the gentle daughter of a rich businessman, and Becky Sharp, an unscrupulous and foxy woman. Thackeray doesn´t want to suggest any moral solution but wants to present the true picture of life. Lords, ministers, servants, businessmen- all these characters are described and analyzed. Thackeray´s ironical narrative is full of entertaining characters and scenes. The book brought him prosperity and made him established writer and popular lecturer in Europe and in the United States. "

Tato práce je kompilačního charakteru. Čerpá ze zdroje: http://www.dickens-literature.com/.