Nicholas Nickleby (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

What can you say? Dickens writes brilliantly.
This entertaining saga follows the handsome eponymous hero through the slings and arrows that follow him into adulthood.
All I had heard about before was Wackford Squeers and Dotheboys Hall, but that is mostly over by the end of the first quarter.
As usual, the plot is a bit pointless but the characters are fantastic, and I thought the cameo role for the villain Mulberry Hawk led to some of the best bits of writing in the book, in particular the description of a drunken argument that leads to a duel. Dickens is such a good writer that he can toss off sensational bits of writing like this on bits of the plot that are far from crucial. His talent just can't be contained.
This, though, is the ignore the main part of the drama as Nickleby fights to overcome the injustices that assail his family. The book certainly has some powerful moments, as well as genuinely funny comic interludes.
Of the characters, Smike is the most tragically drawn and perhaps the most famous: I am not sure that authors today would treat mental impairment the same way, but that is perhaps a failure of today's readers and writers.
I suppose I don't think this novel has the depth of later work like "David Copperfield", which covers similar material, but it is still leagues ahead of most things you will read.
Thoroughly enjoyable and full of humanity.

A handsome young man who finds himself the sole support of his mother and sister after his father's death, Nicholas Nickleby is hopeful that his uncle, Ralph Nickleby, a weathy speculator in London, will assist the unfortunate family in its hour of need. Ralph's cruel response, however, is to make Nicholas the assistant headmaster at a notoriously abusive school in northern England and to make his beautiful sister a seamstress and part-time hostess at his own parties. There she is subjected to innuendo and to the drunken intentions of men whose accounts help keep Ralph a wealthy man.

This early novel is pure melodrama, with the good characters being unbelievably good, and the evil being unbelievably bad. The multiple adventures of Nicholas through a variety of settings, both in the city and in the countryside, create a broad picture of life in England in the 1830s. Nicholas's job as assistant headmaster exposes him to the horrors of so-called boarding schools for young boys, which were essentially warehouses for young children where they were forced into physical labor, kept malnourished, and beaten regularly. These abuses, based on Dickens's personal observations, so horrified his readers that major reforms of these schools eventually resulted. When Nicholas, in frustration, finally beats headmaster Wackford Squeers for his abuse of the children, Nicholas and Smike, a crippled boy who has been the headmaster's slave, escape together.

Their interlude with a traveling theatrical company, led by friendly Vincent Crummles, gives Nicholas much needed emotional support and provides Smike with a temporary home--until Nicholas is called to return to England to rescue his sister from unwanted attentions fostered by her uncle. Eventually Nicholas works in London for the saintly Cheeryble brothers and meets Madeline Bray, the love of his life.

Long recognized as one of Dickens's best novels for its wide assortment of characters, the novel mixes delightful humor with the pathos. The complex plot employs coincidence and miraculous interventions to save the day for the good characters while well-deserved disasters befall the evil ones. Dickens's vibrant descriptions bring people, places, and scenes fully to life, and the realistically described social conditions provide a clear vision of life's travails.

Despite its great length, the novel is a fast read--and fun--but it is soap opera-like in its ups and downs, and the main characters are not fully developed. One knows little about Nicholas except what one "sees"--that he has a kind heart and acts on it--but we know little about his inner life. (David Copperfield and Pip in Great Expectations are still ten and twenty years away.) Sentimental and occasionally bathetic, the novel involves the reader in the social abuses, some of which were improved as a direct result of this book's publication. Mary Whipple

Nicholas Nickleby follows the fortunes and misfortunes of the titular character. There have been other tales in a similar vein but none tell a tale quite the way Dickens does. His characters are larger than life. Wackford Squeers and Uncle Ralph Nickleby are antagonists you love to hate, one can't help pitying Smike and Noggs and the well-meaning Mrs Nickleby torments the reader whenever she opens her mouth.

Dickens rarely abandons his satirical style. I particularly enjoyed his depictions of the Crummles' drama troupe. The scene in which Nicholas gives Squeers a bit of his own medicine is one of the best in literature. There are moments of tragedy in the tale and these are told skillfully.

Some complain of his detailed descriptive style but I find the way he sets a scene pure genius. This is epitomised in his description of the house of Arthur Gride. His furniture tells more about him than any personal description ever could.

This is a book I will read again and again.

One of the difficulties I have had with Dickens' longer novels is finding a well-made edition that didn't look like I was carrying a dictionary around with me. Like the other books in the Collector's Library this book features clear type on high quality blue-white paper and an excellent sewn binding. The charming small size brings to mind the 'pocket editions' from various publishers before the advent of the cheap pulp paperback. Nicholas Nickleby is an amazing two and a half inches thick so it won't go in my coat pocket but it still is a very handy size that is very easy to carry around. The gold edging to the pages, red cloth covered boards and silky ribbon marker are deluxe features of the Collector's library editions. I like the sturdy laminated dustwrappers as well.

Definitely my favourite editon of Nicholas Nickleby.