William Makepeace Thackeray 
The History of Henry Esmond (Annotated) 

• This edition includes the following editor’s introduction: The parallel lives of two of the great masters of British literature: Dickens and Thackeray

Originally published in 1852, “The History of Henry Esmond” is a historical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray which was followed by the successful sequel “The Virginians” (1859). Both novels were composed in the author’s mature period and are considered his purest works and his artistic triumph.




Henry Esmond relates his own history in memoir fashion, mainly in the third person but occasionally dropping into the first person. Orphaned in the England of the later Stuarts, Henry Esmond is raised by his aristocratic, Jacobite relatives the Castlewoods. As a young man he falls in love with both Lady Castlewood and Beatrix, her beautiful, headstrong daughter, and is inspired to join the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to reinstate James Stuart to the throne…



When “The History of Henry Esmond” appeared, noted writers and critics of the time acclaimed it as the best historical novel ever written. Thackeray valued it more than any of his other novels and it displays many of his own memories and emotions.