False conceit: why is Vanity Fair's scheming heroine misread on screen?

In William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel she’s an amoral social climber – yet in adaptions Becky Sharp is warm and relatableThough usually seen as an amoral, repellent schemer, William Makepeace Thackeray’s Becky Sharp has become warmer and more “relatable” in 21st-century portrayals. Produced by the makers of Poldark, ITV’s new version of Vanity Fair (starting on Sunday) similarly shows a likable low-born woman winning the heart of a toff – several