Note 15 to Chapter 1 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
In recent years, Robert Colby has described at least one source for that position, which he calls eclecticism, in the French philosopher Victor Cousin [Colby, pp. 18-53]. Catherine Peters, too, in her perceptive and appreciative discussion of Vanity Fair, explores Thackeray's detached, suspended judgment as a strength [Peters, pp. 143-70].
Last modified: 4 April 2001