Home : The Bonfire of the Vanities : Study Guide

The Bonfire of the Vanities Study Guide

by Tom Wolfe

The Bonfire of the Vanities study guide contains a biography of Tom Wolfe, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

The Bonfire of the Vanities, set in New York City in the nineteen eighties, has as its protagonist Sherman McCoy, a self-dubbed "Master of the Universe." McCoy makes a million dollars per annum on Wall Street. He is married to Judy McCoy, and they live with their six-year-old daughter on Park Avenue while maintaining a weekend house in Southampton, Long Island. Much of the action of the story takes place in the extremely decadent world of Park Avenue in the 1980s. Sherman and Judy McCoy's life of elegant apartments, profligate spending, and shallow friendship plays out amid Sheraton furnishings, marble floors, and $2000 suits.

Behind his wife's back, McCoy is conducting an affair with a younger woman, Maria, the socialite wife of another…

Read the full The Bonfire of the Vanities Summary

• The Bonfire of the Vanities Summary
• About The Bonfire of the Vanities
• Character List
• Glossary of Terms
• Major Themes
• Summary and Analysis of Prologue - "Mutt on Fire" and Chapter 1 - "The Master of the Universe"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 2 - "Gibraltar" and Chapter 3 - "From the Fiftieth Floor"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 4 - "King of the Jungle" and Chapter 5 - "The Girl with Brown Lipstick"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 6 - "A Leader of the People" and Chapter 7 - "Catching the Fish"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 8 - "The Case" and Chapter 9 - "Some Brit Named Fallow"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 10 - "Saturday's Saturnine Lunchtime" and Chapter 11 - "The Words on the Floor"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 12 - "The Last of the Great Smokers" and Chapter 13 - "The Day-Glo Eel"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 14 - "I Don't Know How to Lie" and Chapter 15 - "The Masque of the Red Death"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 16 - "Tawkin Irish" and Chapter 17 - "The Favor Bank"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 18 - "Shuhmun" and Chapter 19 - "Donkey Loyalty"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 20 - "Calls from Above" and Chapter 21 - "The Fabulous Koala"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 22 - "Styrofoam Peanuts" and Chapter 23 - "Inside the Cavity"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 24 - "The Informants" and Chapter 25 - "We the Jury"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 26 - "Death New York Style" and Chapter 27 - "Hero of the Hive"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 28 - "Off to a Better Place" and Chapter 29 - "The Rendezvous"
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter 30 - "An Able Pupil"; Chapter 31 - "Into the Solar Plexus" and Epilogue - "Financier Is Arraigned"
• Controversy over the making of the film The Bonfire of the Vanities
• Related Links on The Bonfire of the Vanities
• Suggested Essay Questions
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 3
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 4
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources

• The Bonfire of the Vanities: Major Themes
• The Bonfire of the Vanities: Essays
• The Bonfire of the Vanities: Questions
• The Bonfire of the Vanities: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
• Tom Wolfe: Biography