A History of Pendennis, Volume 1

At a London club breakfast, Major Arthur Pendennis displays the polished clothes, influential acquaintances and confident manners that make him an authority on society. This opening establishes the social world of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel, while the contents trace young Pen's progress through first love, university life and encounters in London. The first volume brings together family concerns, personal ambition and the pressures of fashionable company.

A later passage finds Pen attending the theater and reconsidering an actress he once admired. His changed feelings sit alongside embarrassment, careless spending and mounting financial difficulties at Oxbridge. The narrator also notices his kindness to friends, giving the young man's failings a more complicated setting. Thackeray's preface describes the book as a continuing conversation with the reader, and that candid, observant voice shapes its humor. It offers readers a study of growing up among appearances, social expectations and mistakes whose costs become increasingly clear.