The Luck of Barry Lyndon is a picaresque novel by English author William Makepeace Thackeray, first published as a serial in Fraser's Magazine in 1844, about a member of the Irish gentry trying to become a member of the English aristocracy. Thackeray, who based the novel on the life and exploits of the Anglo-Irish rake and fortune-hunter Andrew Robinson Stoney, later reissued it under the title The Memoires of Barry Lyndon, Esq. The novel is narrated by Lyndon himself, who functions as a quintessentially unreliable narrator.
Redmond Barry of Ballybarry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family, fancies himself a gentleman. At the prompting of his mother, he learns what he can of courtly manners and swordplay but fails at more scholarly subjects like Latin. He is a passionate, hot-tempered young man who develops a deep love for Nora, his cousin, who is a few years older than Redmond. However, even though Nora enjoys flirting with Redmond, she is only interested in a man with money.
Redmond becomes angered when Nora is courted by John Quin, who is not only wealthy but also a respected officer and nobleman. A dueling challenge is issued, but Nora's family sees an opportunity to drive him off and secretly load his pistol with tow, a dummy load of heavy, knotted fibres.
Quin fakes his death, and Redmond is convinced by Nora's parents that he will be charged with murder. As expected, he flees to Dublin and falls in with swindlers who take advantage of his naivety. Left penniless and with creditors at his heels, Redmond enlists as a common private in a British Army infantry regiment headed for service in Germany during the Seven Years' War.
The novel was adapted by Stanley Kubrick into his 1975 film Barry Lyndon.
