Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon William Makepeace Thackeray - 'Barry Lyndon' is the fictional autobiography of an adventurer and rogue. Born into the petty Irish gentry, and outmaneuvered in his first love affair, a ruined Barry volunteers for the British army. After seeing service in Germany he deserts and pursues the career of a gambler in the dissolute clubs and courts of Europe. In a determined effort to enter fashionable society, he marries a titled heiress but only to find himself easily outwitted.

Thackeray, an only child, was born in Calcutta, India, where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 13 September 1815), held the high rank of secretary to the board of revenue in the British East India Company. His mother, Anne Becher (17921864) was the second daughter of Harriet and John Harman Becher and was also a secretary (writer) for the East India Company.William had been sent to England earlier, at the age of five, with a short stopover at St. Helena where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. He was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick and then at Charterhouse School.