BARRY LYNDON


A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Barry Lyndon--far from the best known, but by some critics acclaimed
as the finest, of Thackeray's works--appeared originally as a serial
a few years before VANITY FAIR was written; yet it was not published
in book form, and then not by itself, until after the publication of
VANITY FAIR, PENDENNIS, ESMOND and THE NEWCOMES had placed its
author in the forefront of the literary men of the day. So many
years after the event we cannot help wondering why the story was not
earlier put in book form; for in its delineation of the character of
an adventurer it is as great as VANITY FAIR, while for the local
colour of history, if I may put it so, it is no undistinguished
precursor of ESMOND.

In the number of FRASER'S MAGAZINE for January 1844 appeared the
first instalment of 'THE LUCK OF BARRY LYNDON, ESQ., A ROMANCE OF
THE LAST CENTURY, by FitzBoodle,' and the story continued to appear
month by month--with the exception of October--up to the end of the
year, when the concluding portion was signed 'G. S. FitzBoodle.'
FITZBOODLE'S CONFESSIONS, it should be added, had appeared
occasionally in the magazine during the years immediately precedent,
so that the pseudonym was familiar to FRASER'S readers. The story