Mrs. Osborne's carriage stopping the way

William Makepeace Thackeray

Wood engraving

c.1861

Illustration for Thackeray's own Vanity Fair

"Dobbin, who was a friend of a General comanding the division in which their regiment was, came laughing one day to Mrs. Osborne, and displayed a similar invitation, which made Jos envious, and George wonder how the deuce he should be getting into society" (Chapter 29).

(The author in the earlier paragraph also commented that ladies of that period used to employ various intrigues to get tickets into a prestigious ball. From these, we can see that having the right connections is of paramount neccessity if one wishes to climb up the social ladder.)

Image scanned by Gerald Ajam and captions by Tiaw Kay Siang and Sabrina Lim.