This was achieved by a longer production, the novel of Vanity Fair, which appeared in nineteen monthly numbers, and was at last completed in 1848. He now became suddenly a "lion" in society, and he attempted to lighten the load of daily composition But for these he was not

by soliciting places in the Civil Service and in diplomacy.

found to be eligible, and it is fortunate that his genius was not dissipated upon work

16 Young Street, Kensington, where Thackeray lived from 1846 to
1853, and where "Vanity Fair," "Pendennis," and "Esmond"
were written

not truly suitable to its exercise. He was, however, called to the Bar in the summer of 1848. At this time "his face and figure, his six feet four in height, with his flowing hair, already nearly grey, and his broken nose, his broad forehead and ample chest, encountered everywhere either love or respect; and his daughters to him were all the world." He was now famous and a favourite in the society he loved; and he sat down in high hopes to write another long novel, Pendennis; but in 1849 a severe illness gave to his health a shock from which it never perfectly recovered. Yet these