William Makepeace Thackeray

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Redmond (Barry) Lyndon recounts how he rose from a penniless Irish soldier and professional gambler to win the wealthy Countess of Lyndon and immense social and material advancement by daring, intrigue, and courtship.
He revels in continental and English high society, rebuilds estates and assumes grandeur, but squanders money, alienates peers, quarrels with his stepson Lord Bullingdon and endures the crushing loss of his little son Bryan.
Harried by debts, lawsuits and family conspiracies, his hopes of a peerage collapse and, betrayed and outlawed, he ends ruined and imprisoned while the Lyndon inheritance passes to rival kin.

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Satirical compendium diagnosing "snobbery" as a pervasive social malady: the writer classifies and lampoons its many species—royal, aristocratic, clerical, military, university, commercial, continental, country, club and domestic—by means of brisk anecdotes and caricatures. He concludes that snobbishness pervades all ranks, corrupts manners and morals, and deserves exposure and reform.

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Colonel Henry Esmond narrates his hopeless passion for his kinswoman Beatrix—her beauty, coquetry and ambition, and the tragedy of her broken engagement when the Duke of Hamilton is slain. He then describes a secret Jacobite scheme by which he brings the Chevalier (the Pretender) into England under the name of Lord Castlewood, the Prince’s stay at Kensington, and how timidity, betrayals and ill‑timing frustrate the enterprise. The plot’s collapse—followed by George’s proclamation—ruins hopes, estranges Beatrix, and ushers in the narrator’s later exile and domestic consolation.

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Two letters recount John “Jack Alias” Armstrong’s flight and refuge and convey warm congratulations to Arthur and Laura. Arthur and Laura marry at Clavering; the epilogue sketches outcomes for others (Harry Foker abroad, Blanche married in Paris, Cos’s ignominious end, Morgan respectable, Bows politically successful, Pendennis as borough representative). The closing notes Major Pendennis’s domestic contentment, George’s modest life, and a moral reflection on human fallibility that asks charity for Arthur, an ordinary but lovable man.

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Ethel finds a paper of the late Mrs. Newcome bequeathing £6,000 to Clive; Mr. Luce verifies the handwriting and arranges for the sum to be placed at Clive’s disposal.
The legacy settles the household debts and prompts temporary reconciliation, but Rosa dies following a stillbirth and the weakened Colonel Newcome soon after dies at Grey Friars, murmuring “Adsum.”
Pendennis closes the narrative with a reflective coda, hinting at a probable happy union for Ethel and Clive and treating the events as a moralised “Fable‑land” of restorative justice.

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An episode of the Conway Cabal and Colonel Warrington’s jealousy over Lafayette that showcases Washington’s patience, wounded pride, and conciliatory moral authority.
Washington’s dignified farewell to his officers is presented as the exemplar of endurance and self‑sacrifice for the republic.
A secondary arc follows Sir George’s contest with Lord Castlewood over a Virginian estate—amid Loyalist intrigues (Arnold, Van den Bosch, Will Esmond)—resolved by the recovery of the assignment and closing domestic reflection.

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After the Curzon Street scandal Rebecca (Mrs. Rawdon Crawley) descends into despair and a restless, disreputable continental life of gambling, drinking and flirtation.
By artifice and charm she ingratiates herself with Joseph Sedley and Mrs. Osborne, foments the rupture between Amelia and Major Dobbin, and eventually benefits from Sedley’s ruined affairs and life‑insurance.
She never regains her family’s favour, maintains a public air of piety and charity, while the other principal characters marry or settle and life at Queen’s Crawley resumes its course.