 Thackeray mentions poets, painters, novelists (some of the characters are reading "Oliver Twist)", politics, and other people, events and things both familiar and obscure to the 21st-century reader — and does so in a natural way that enhances the story.There are also plenty of Latin, French language, and even Italian language and ancient-Greek phrases — all untranslated.Colonel Newcome came to be an emblem of virtue for a period, often referred to at the turn of the 20th century.