William Makepeace Thackeray was a prominent English writer during the Victorian era. Thackeray was best known for his novels which greatly satirized English society. Thackeray's most famous novels are The Luck of Barry Lyndon and Vanity Fair, the latter of which is considered a classic in English literature and has been adapted into many films. The Luck of Barry Lyndon is a picaresque historical novel that is based on the life of the fortune-hunter Andrew Robinson Stoney. The action centers around the adventures of a young and passionate Irish boy named Redmond Barry.