Possible Clues:

• Self-absorption - just a result of worldly frivolity
• He appeared in lists at Ashby de la Zouche
• Sharp tale of futility, quite good
• Small volume — in any case, it's just a novel
• Where to buy dressing tables?
• Thackeray's "novel without a hero"
• Excessive pride without prejudice? That's novel!
• 1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Something touched on in Ecclesiastes — pretty good book
• Book, as the case may be, fine