Even Sherman McCoy, the central character of the novel, changed-originally a writer, in the book version he is cast as a bond salesman. Wolfe was not happy with his 'very public first draft,' and thoroughly revised his work. The deadline pressure gave him the motivation he had hoped for, and from July 1984 to August 1985 each biweekly issue of Rolling Stone contained a new installment. Wenner offered Wolfe around $200,000 to serialize his work. These Victorian writers, whom Wolfe viewed as his models, had often written their novels in serial installments. To overcome a case of writer's block, Wolfe wrote to Jann Wenner, editor of Rolling Stone, to propose an idea drawn from Charles Dickens and Thackeray. Wolfe began researching the novel by observing cases at the Manhattan Criminal Court and shadowing members of the Bronx homicide squad. Roberts, a Bronx judge known for his no-nonsense, imperious handling of cases in his courtroom, was the model for the character of Myron Kovitsky in the book. In another episode that received much attention from the news media, Bernhard Goetz became something of a folk-hero in the city for shooting a group of young black men who tried to rob him in the subway in 1984. The city was polarized by several high-profile incidents of racism, particularly the murders-in white neighborhoods-of two black men: Willie Turks, who was murdered in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn in 1982, and Michael Griffith who was killed in Howard Beach, Queens, in 1986. īeneath Wall Street's success, the city was a hotbed of racial and cultural tension.

Wolfe intended his novel to capture the essence of New York City in the 1980s. The title is a reference to the historical Bonfire of the Vanities, which happened in 1497 in Florence, Italy, when the city was under the sway of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, who ordered the burning of objects that church authorities considered sinful, such as cosmetics, mirrors, books, and art.

It has often been called the quintessential novel of the 1980s, and in 1990 was adapted into a critically maligned film of the same name by Brian De Palma. The novel was a bestseller and a phenomenal success, even in comparison with Wolfe's other books. Wolfe heavily revised it before it was published in book form. The novel was originally conceived as a serial in the style of Charles Dickens' writings: it ran in 27 installments in Rolling Stone starting in 1984. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow. The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe.

Of the vanities