First published in the 1920s, the author attempts to provide the reader with a guide to living. He lets his protagonist, called simply the prophet, deliver homilies on a variety of topics central to daily life: love marriage and children, work and play, possessions, beauty, truth, joy and sorrow and death.
William Makepeace Thackeray has always been an author for discriminating literary palettes. Few would deny that he is the finest literary stylist of his time. Thackeray was at his most Thackerayan in what he called `small beer chronicles': the little things in life. His style reached its highest pitch in essays, his cutting wit in journalism.