Excerpt from Thackeray the Humourist and the Man of Letters: The Story of His Life and Literary Labours, Including a Selection From His Characteristic Speeches, Now for the First Time Gathered Together The following memoir of the late Mr. Thackeray may, perhaps, be acceptable as filling an intermediate place between the newspaper or review article and the more elaborate biography which may be expected in due course. The writer had some peculiar means of acquiring information for the purpose of his sketch, and to this he has added such particulars as have been already made public in English and foreign publications and other scattered sources. The common complaints against memoirs of this necessary haste and incomplete character will not be repeated by those who are accustomed to test questions in morals by the principles which underlie them. That there is nothing necessarily indelicate or improper, in the desire of the public to obtain some personal knowledge of the great and good who have just passed away, is assumed by every daily, weekly, and quarterly journal which on occasions of this kind furnish their readers with such details as they are able to obtain, and which, in no case, confine themselves strictly to the public career of the deceased. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.

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