Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: 'Attacking' is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields; or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb…

Barry Lyndon is the classic novel about Redmond Barry, (later Barry Lyndon), and his rise from a poor country boy to the astral heights of polite English society from 1750-1820. At its core it is a dazzling psychological study of a true sociopath.

Always Machiavellian, Barry Lyndon is Don Juan, Odysseus, Holden Caulfield, and Nabokov's Humbert Humbert rolled into one: a hot-tempered, passionate young man, quick with his sword, mercurial with women, and quick to danger and folly at war and the gambling table.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863) was an 19th century English novelist famous for his brilliant satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a sardonic portrait of English society, and Barry Lyndon, a novel about a rascal’s rise and fall. Today he is esteemed by many as second only to Charles Dickens in his mastery of the modern novel.