Thackeray initially adopted several pen names to remain anonymous, including the pseudonyms: Théophole Wagstaff, Charles Yelowplush, Major George Fitz-Boodle, Michael Angelo Titmarsh, and Ikey Solomons, Miss Tickletoby, Manager of the Performance, Arthur Pendennis, Timothy Titcomb, and Solomon Pacifico.

The book took a critical view of the various groups of England and abroad, particularly France, and highlighted the human tendency to give importance to trivial matters or to admire things of low value.

While the book received a defence from Anthony Trollope, other prolific writers of the time were critical of its often harsh, satirical and iconoclastic commentary on English and French societies.

The book has been translated into French several times, with notable versions by Georges Guiffrey in c.1857, by Maurice Constantic-Weyer, and by Raymond Las Vergnas in 1945.

[4] In the Dictionnaire du snobisme by Philippe Jullian, the term 'snob' is referenced: "the very sound of the word 'snob', which begins as a whistle and ends as a soap bubble, destined it for a great career in the realm of contempt and frivolity".