Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon, historical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in Fraser’s Magazine in 1844 as The Luck of Barry Lyndon: A Romance of the Last Century. The book was published in two volumes in 1852–53, and it was revised (“with admissions”) as The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. in 1856.

The novel concerns the life and times of the title character and narrator, a roguish Irishman. The fast-flowing satirical narrative reveals a man dedicated to success and good fortune. Born Redmond Barry, he leaves his homeland after shooting a man in a duel. He becomes a soldier of fortune in both the English and Prussian armies and later works as a professional gambler. Remade as a man of fashion, he courts a wealthy widow, marries her, and assumes her aristocratic name of Lyndon. He mistreats both her and her son and spends and gambles away her money, and eventually she extricates herself from the alliance. By the novel’s end he is in jail, cared for by his mother.