At the age of 35, he described himself as a "snobographer": "A quiet young man, wearing a white light coat, a crimson satin tie, a pair of light blue trousers, a pair of boots with decorative tops on his feet, an emerald brooch, a black crepe wrapped around his white hat, and a handle plated quite gold. He set the age of this charming and handsome constantly chauffeured at 22. At the age of 22, it was really the most prosperous day in his life. Just the year before, he inherited his father's inheritance. His father is a senior secretary in the finance department of the board of directors of the British East India Company, and his mother is a famous beauty in the British Indian colony. Unfortunately, when he was 4 years old, his father died of illness. According to colonial tradition, at the age of six, he was sent back from India to study in Britain. At the age of 9, his mother remarried to his first lover, and they returned to England from India together, but he didn't enjoy family happiness. Boarding schools in England are always cold and cruel, and his nose is broken because of weakness, only in sketching and writing. Those years in Cambridge were not satisfactory either. He actually lost the poetry contest. /kloc-at the age of 0/9, he gave up his diploma and left the university to travel to Europe. Like a young man in his position, he inevitably got into some vanity habits. Then I reached the happy age of 2 1 and finally got the right to dispose of the property. At this time, he is a playboy, spending money like water, indulging in gambling, investing in two newspapers and enjoying the double happiness of money and power. There is no doubt that this 22-year-old man wearing a white hat and an emerald brooch is the object of his ridicule after more than ten years: an S-B William 6 1 Macbeth 6 1 Thackeray (william makepeace thackeray,181-Kloc. But by the 2 1 century, there were not many people reading him, probably because the theme of his works-mocking aristocratic snobs-was out of date. Thackeray's transformation from a "snob" to a "snob cynic" occurred when he was 23-25 years old. Due to the collapse of two banks in India, his property with his mother and stepfather vanished in a blink of an eye, and the newspaper he invested in went bankrupt completely. He is going to get married! According to the vulgar social customs at that time, he wrote sadly and angrily: "If you don't have a close-fitting waitress, don't fall in love, don't get married without chariots and horses, waiters and French maids who don't wear clothes don't want wives in their hearts, and there will be no children under their knees; You must have a flashy carriage, or get out; If you marry the poor, society will abandon you; Relatives will treat you as a criminal to avoid, aunts and uncles will despise you and lament that your behavior is very bad. "In short, the time of wandering years is over, and the pressure to support the family comes instantly. When a person falls from the peak of money to the bottom and tries to maintain his position in a hierarchical society, this moment is probably the best time to experience the coldness of the world. Desperate Thackeray tried his best to write various articles and then put them in various newspapers and periodicals. Fortunately, he soon got two posts as columnists and began his life of treating hunger with words. From 65438 to 0842, he contributed to the newly founded Clumsy magazine. Starting from 1846, he serialized "Snobbish" in the "Clumsy" column, with 45 articles, which was very popular. 1848, in the stormy year of the European Revolution, he became famous with two works, one is the novel Vanity Fair, and the other is a collection of columns with the same effect: The Book of Snobbers. The face of a snob is a rather vicious prose work, full of serious English cold humor. In order to achieve the effect, Thackeray lowered his posture and first admitted that he was a member of the army of snobs. He coined the word "snobographer" and pointed out in his inscription that "it was made by a snob. "In the book, he lists the categories of royal snobs, aristocratic snobs, urban snobs, military snobs, document snobs, university snobs, literary snobs, continental snobs, British continental snobs, rural snobs, club snobs, snobs who eat out, and snobs who invite people to eat. And painted a cartoon-like portrait of a snob. The word "snob" became all the rage from this book, and its abbreviation "S-B" was also mentioned on various occasions, often accompanied by a knowing smile. Thackeray said that when he wrote The Face of a Snobber, the English word "snob" was only 50 years old. So what is its etymology? It has been pointed out that this is the abbreviation of Latin sine nobilitate, which means "non-noble". This word once appeared on the list of students in famous British middle schools, and was marked before the surnames of those students who were not noble. Others say it comes from the Latin phrase "quasi-noble", which means "almost noble". Frederick 6 1 Ruweilova, a contemporary French scholar, points out that Thackeray refers to the slang of Cambridge University students ending in 18, and what they call "snobs" refers to the citizens and bourgeoisie who are opposed to university research institutes and intellectuals. In fact, when Thackeray was studying in Cambridge, he and his friends started a small publication, Snobbies and Gausman. In addition to the citizen class and the bourgeoisie, they also included the clergy class in the scope of ridicule. So who is a snob? It is difficult to have an accurate definition, but everyone knows what it is. Thackeray said: "If you look down on your neighbor, you are a snob;" "If you forget your friends and follow those friends with higher status meanly, then you are a snob; If you are ashamed of poverty and career, you are a snob. Just as you brag about your origins or are proud of your wealth, you will be a snob. " There are relative and absolute snobbery. Absolute snobs are snobs from youth to death, and relative snobs only become snobs under certain circumstances in life, but there is no doubt that everyone is a snob. Thackeray, who has insight into the world, said: "The poor snobs imitate the rich snobs, the humble snobs fall at the feet of the proud snobs, and the great snobs give orders to the humble snobs ..." The world is full of the tragicomedy of snobs every day. In Thackeray's time, nobles still existed, and the rich were more powerful. On the hierarchical social ladder, countless middle classes are eager to climb up. A snob is a person who longs for a higher social status than the existing one. He is an ambitious man, an imitator and a usurper. He dreams of climbing the upper class and sharing the inherent advantages and privileges of that class. As long as his purpose is achieved, he will suddenly look down on his original class. The theme of this era is quite concentrated in the works of European writers in the19th century, such as Julien of Stendhal, Rasty Nie of Balzac, Madame Bovary of Flaubert and Mathilde of Mo Bosang. In short, the top is condescending, and the bottom is clinging to the top. The fake is to pretend to be true. It is really the way to prevent fake ... You and I are all mortals, so you and I are both S-B, and everyone's heart is a separate room in Vanity Fair. "God created the world and snobs at the same time. Adam and Eve imitate God and angels wearing leaves, which may be the beginning of snobbery. Until the 20th century, Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory told us that besides physical and security needs, human beings also have social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. It was not until the 20th century that people got a deeper understanding of the universal "role-playing" from gofman's performance theory and Huizinga's game theory. In today's society, Thackeray's "class snobbery" which he hated in the past has been greatly diluted. At present, the public practices "fashion snobbery". If Thackeray is reincarnated, the Hermes bags of Meimei's baby will probably be written into a wonderful article by him. As a snob, I was still thinking about a jade pendant I just saw when I saved this note. The water head is good and green, but expensive. I specially copied a passage from mandeville's Fable of Bees and told S-Bs: "Greed, the root of evil, is a damn problem, which encourages harmful bad habits and provides conditions for profligacy. Luxury, the evil of nobility, can make countless poor people make a living, and hateful arrogance can make more poor people live. Vanity and jealousy themselves determine the development of industry. Food, furniture and clothes show their stupidity and frivolity, and this strange and ridiculous habit is the driving force of business. " Thackeray also sighed: "What can secularism be except snobbery? "