Kuorick, Thackeray and the memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.

13 Kubrick had already used the technique of the voice-over in The Killing, Lolita, and A Clockwork Orange and later would use it again in Full Metal Jacket.

14 Falsetto has calculated that Barry Lyndon contains 780 shots, 128 of which are being accompanied by the narrator; 87 in the first, 41 in the second part of the film.

15 Thackeray, who lost his father Richmond Makepeace Thackeray at an early age, was also raised by a stepfather, Major Henry Carmichael-Smyth, the second husband of his mother Anne Becher.

16 Cf. G. Alexander & B. Ebiri, "Barry Lyndon: 'Passion's epitaph,"' see: The Kubrick site (http:// www.alta.demon.co.uk/amk/index.html).

17 The most enigmatic father-son couple in the film is represented by Captain Feeney and his son Seamus. The flawless collaboration between these two highwaymen, on a moment that Barry has only just left his parental home, seems to refer ironically to the "benefits" of a good father-son relationship.

18 In Thackeray's novel Balibari appears to be the elder brother of Barry's father.

19 Ile father-son relationships are being mirrored by several mother-son relationships. The female characters that dominate the (second part of the) film are the passive Lady Lyndon and the scheming Mrs. Barry. The way in which at the end of the film Barry becomes completely dependent on his mother, resembles the way in which Lady Lyndon has fallen under the patronage of her son.

20 In Thackeray's novel Barry's flexible personality is stressed by quite a few other names: Barry Redmond, Barry of Barryogue, Captain Barry, and Redmond de Balibari.

21 Contrary to Kubrick, Thackeray portrays Bullingdon as a very brave young man (cf. Thackeray 225-26). At the very end of the novel, when Lady Lyndon, who deep into her heart has always remained in love with Barry, wants to reunite with him, Bullingdon-who as a result of his conflicts with Barry has joined the English army fighting the American rebels-suddenly surfaces in Bath where he administers his worn-out stepfather a severe castigation in public.

22 In his younger years Thackeray was a compulsive gambler regularly running up very high debts. Later he experienced the way in which fate can drastically change the course of life. Early on in his marriage he lost a daughter, only to see his wife subsequently plunge into madness.

23 With Lischen Barry finds the domestic happiness that could have been permanently his if he hadn't been obliged to leave Ireland. In practically every picaresque story such an idyllic alternative can be found. In Thackeray's novel a passage can even be found in which Barry literally ponders how smooth his life could have worked out if he had stayed in Ireland and waited for the right woman with a little bit more patience.

Works Cited

Baxter, John. Stanley Kubrick. A Biography, London: Harper, 1997.

Bindman, David. Hogarth and His Times. Serious Comedy. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1997.

Climent, Michel. Kubrick. Munchen: Bahia Verlag, 1982.

Falsetto, Mario. Stanley Kubrick. A Narrative and Stylistic Analysis. Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 1994.