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Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

Discussion: Old School Classics, Pre-1915

Why we're reading this: 2025 2nd Quarter (April - June) Long Read
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Old School Classics, Pre-1915

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What Members Thought

Dec 14, 2018 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: british-literature, fiction-19th-century, film-only, read-2020

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3* Oliver Twist
4* Nicholas Nickleby
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About Charles Dic ...more

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Nov 27, 2008 Everyman rated it liked it · review of another edition

Yes, it's Dickens. But it's immature Dickens, a man still feeling his way from the genre of comedy and legal reporting (of Parliamentary debates) into the still developing world of fiction.

I won't talk about plot details, because I hate reviews that reveal too much to the first time reader. Suffice it to say that the full title of the book is "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby." And while at various times we stray from Nicholas's life, in the end he remains the central character.

Cent Yes, it's Dickens. But it's immature Dickens, a man still feeling his way from the genre of comedy and legal reporting (of Parliamentary debates) into the still developing world of fiction.

I won't talk about plot details, because I hate reviews that reveal too much to the first time reader. Suffice it to say that the full title of the book is "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby." And while at various times we stray from Nicholas's life, in the end he remains the central character.

Central among a large cast of characters all of which have a degree, and in most cases a very high degree, of unreality. Dickens in his mature writing was a master of character, creating complex and interesting characters. But that's not the case yet. Most of his characters are either very, very good or very, very bad. And with one minor possible exception, there is no mistaking which is which. The good are good throughout; the bad are bad throughout. There is no moral complexity in the book.

What there is is a plethora of coincidences. The first few one can overlook. But as the book proceeds and coincidence piles on coincidence (in several instances, a person wandering the streets of London or going at random into an establishment just happens to run into another character who also has no reasonable reason for being there) one can only shake one's head at the absurdity of it all.

There are also a few polemical intrusions which add little to the narrative. It's not a spoiler, I think, to say that Dickens savages the Yorkshire schools which were a blot on the education of English youth at the time. He also brings in a digression on the evils of publishers who steal an author's work without payment for it.

With all that said, why did I give the book even three stars? Because of the writing. Even at this point in his career, Dickens has the ability to create highly believable places and rich moods. Wandering the lanes of England or the streets of London with him is a genuine pleasure, irrespective of what his characters may be doing at the time. And while his characters are generally less than believable, he does have the ability to portray them in a few sentences which make them spring to life before the eye.

Unless one wants to tackle Dickens in the chronological order he wrote his books, I can't recommend starting a foray into Dickens with Nicholas Nickleby. There are much stronger novels (indeed, it is questionable whether it is fair to consider NN a true novel) with richer characters and the moral ambiguity which is present in all real people and all good fictional characters. When you have exhausted the great Dickens novels, you can consider whether you want to take a look at the path he took to get to that greatness.

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Mar 24, 2021 Kai Coates rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Maybe the best cast of characters Dickens ever created, which is saying a lot for the author who created some of the most well-known characters in literature. Nicholas himself is kind of boring (his one fault being a proclivity towards violence, but only towards those who deserve it so is that even a fault?), but the motley collection of people who come in and out of his life are pure gems.

This was published in installments, and sometime it felt like Dickens was trying to mash in other works to ...more

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