The Bonfire of the Vanities Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 1 Summary

In a Park Avenue co-op in the Mayor's White New York, Sherman McCoy struggles to put a leash on his dachshund, Marshall. Sherman is a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant (a WASP) with an aristocratic chin that he has inherited from his father, the Lion of Dunning Sponget. The dog avoids Sherman's attempts to leash him, sliding on the slippery marble of the apartment's imposing entryway. The dog riles Sherman into a state of resentment, resentment against the dog and against his wife, who decorated the apartment with such an ostentatious display of marble flooring in the first place. Just then, Sherman's wife, Judy, appears in the entryway and offers to walk the dog herself, so that Sherman can read a bedtime story to his daughter, Campbell, before she goes to sleep. Sherman is incensed by his wife's thoughtful consideration. She has no idea that he is only walking the dog as...
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