The Old Curiosity Club discussion
Nicholas Nickleby
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NN, Chp. 31-35
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"There was that one hint of one in the gentlewoman with the maid in the employment office..."
I ..."
Dickens has introduced so many characters already in this novel, and some of them so late, that I would not wonder if some others were to make their appearance sooner or later. Dei ex machinae are not a very palatable plot device, but I am afraid that at this stage of his career, Dickens was not yet above using them from time to time. The major divinity, for instance, seems to be coincidence in NN. We already talked about the strangeness of Nicholas's running into Sir Mulberry and Lord Verisopht in a first-class hotel, but there are other strange coincidences that don't go down too well with me.
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Chapter 33Sorry folks, fell behind. Will catch up over next week.
The relationship between Noggs and Ralph is the comedy, I think. Newman standing with his back to Ralph. Sometimes I think of the movie Arthur, and the distain Gielgud as butler had for Arthur. It's hilarious. Mrs. Nickleby on the other hand . . . a comedic flop.
Oh, and the wondering if an umbrella or some such thing was left behind as the Nickleby's vacate Ralph's dungeon hit home. I can remember the many times as a child when the family would go on a trip, and without fail 10 miles down the road: "STOP! TURN AROUND! I THINK I LEFT THE UPSTAIRS BEDROOM WINDOW OPEN." It happened like clockwork (or the back door unlocked, or the stove left turned on, or the heat turned up too high, or ...
Chapter 34This is the chapter to meet old acquaintances.
Ah, the dandy Mr. Mantalini reappears. How wonderful. But Dickens robs us of describing his dress -- Boo Hoo.
I'm not going to pretend to understand that financial transaction, but all of this is more than made up for by Mrs. Mantalini placing her husband on an allowance. For Mr. Mantalini this is like chaining your dog to a stake in the ground during the winter. Alas, Demmit, it all comes crashing down when he threatens suicide. I hope before the end she offers him the knife when he threatens it again. Or maybe she tightens the noose.
Ok, Squeers is the worst. It's not Hawke, although I think they'd make perfect college roommates.
Chapter 35Good, gosh, I can't take Mrs Nickleby. It's time to say it: poor Kate and Nicholas, the wrong parent died!
Poor Smike. Doomed to listen to Mrs. Nickleby's tortured logic. Be merciful, send him back to the school now.
Where else would one meet his fairy godfather than at the employment office?
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Maybe, Mrs. Nickleby and Squeers are in cahoots?
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So, we agree again!!!"
I know, it's awful isn't it?
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Tristram wrote: "In this chapter, there are some more examples of the lady’s wonderful style, and I must say that she sometimes reminds me of a more benevolent and less grating version of George Costanza’s mum."Lol. Now let's see if I can't envision Mrs. Costanza as Mrs. Nickleby while reading the rest of the book.
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Tristram wrote: "Mary Lou wrote: " Julie wrote: "...with Nicholas and Kate both young and single...neither has a romance going yet.""There was that one hint of one in the gentlewoman with the maid in the employme..."
l also was expecting to see that young woman show up in the employment office and I suspect that she may show up yet. Another coincidence? Ah yes, the coincidences. I remember them in OT, although it has been quite some time since I read that.
I also have noticed another tendency in Dickens novels. It seems that so many of his characters fit into certain categories. Many tend to be either terrible, evil, people with seemingly no redeeming qualities like Squeers and Ralph or they are almost unbelievably good, as the Cheerybles, just introduced.
From my experience I think that some of his characters are simple, almost cartoonish in representing good or evil, whereas others are not what they seem to be at face value. Evil characters such as steer fourth, or Uriah Heep, Seem almost one dimensional in their evil qualities.However There are some characters, for example Magwitch, who is the escaped prisoner who scares Pio and takes food and tools from Joe who is multi dimensional....he is actually Pio’s benefactor and it is more layered multifaceted character which takes most of the novel to figure out . Kathleen
Kathleen wrote: "From my experience I think that some of his characters are simple, almost cartoonish in representing good or evil, whereas others are not what they seem to be at face value. Evil characters such as..."And then there's change of heart characters, like Noggs seems to be: such a good guy now, but presumably with some key mistakes in his past.
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"I shall scream if you don't compose yourself, Mr. Noggs," said Miss La Creevy.
Chapter 31
Charles Edmund Brock
Text Illustrated:
‘Gracious, Mr. Noggs, you quite terrify me!’ exclaimed Miss La Creevy, turning pale.
‘I should have spoilt his features yesterday afternoon if I could have afforded it,’ said Newman, moving restlessly about, and shaking his fist at a portrait of Mr. Canning over the mantelpiece. ‘I was very near it. I was obliged to put my hands in my pockets, and keep ‘em there very tight. I shall do it some day in that little back-parlour, I know I shall. I should have done it before now, if I hadn’t been afraid of making bad worse. I shall double-lock myself in with him and have it out before I die, I’m quite certain of it.’
‘I shall scream if you don’t compose yourself, Mr. Noggs,’ said Miss La Creevy; ‘I’m sure I shan’t be able to help it.’
‘Never mind,’ rejoined Newman, darting violently to and fro. ‘He’s coming up tonight: I wrote to tell him. He little thinks I know; he little thinks I care. Cunning scoundrel! he don’t think that. Not he, not he. Never mind, I’ll thwart him—I, Newman Noggs. Ho, ho, the rascal!’
Lashing himself up to an extravagant pitch of fury, Newman Noggs jerked himself about the room with the most eccentric motion ever beheld in a human being: now sparring at the little miniatures on the wall, and now giving himself violent thumps on the head, as if to heighten the delusion, until he sank down in his former seat quite breathless and exhausted.
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Nicholas, blind to all sense of danger, still maintained his place and hold upon the reins.
Chapter 32
Charles Edmund Brock
Text Illustrated:
‘I am the son of a country gentleman,’ returned Nicholas, ‘your equal in birth and education, and your superior I trust in everything besides. I tell you again, Miss Nickleby is my sister. Will you or will you not answer for your unmanly and brutal conduct?’
‘To a proper champion—yes. To you—no,’ returned Sir Mulberry, taking the reins in his hand. ‘Stand out of the way, dog. William, let go her head.’
‘You had better not,’ cried Nicholas, springing on the step as Sir Mulberry jumped in, and catching at the reins. ‘He has no command over the horse, mind. You shall not go—you shall not, I swear—till you have told me who you are.’
The groom hesitated, for the mare, who was a high-spirited animal and thorough-bred, plunged so violently that he could scarcely hold her.
‘Leave go, I tell you!’ thundered his master.
The man obeyed. The animal reared and plunged as though it would dash the carriage into a thousand pieces, but Nicholas, blind to all sense of danger, and conscious of nothing but his fury, still maintained his place and his hold upon the reins.
‘Will you unclasp your hand?’
‘Will you tell me who you are?’
‘No!’
‘No!’
In less time than the quickest tongue could tell it, these words were exchanged, and Sir Mulberry shortening his whip, applied it furiously to the head and shoulders of Nicholas. It was broken in the struggle; Nicholas gained the heavy handle, and with it laid open one side of his antagonist’s face from the eye to the lip. He saw the gash; knew that the mare had darted off at a wild mad gallop; a hundred lights danced in his eyes, and he felt himself flung violently upon the ground.
He was giddy and sick, but staggered to his feet directly, roused by the loud shouts of the men who were tearing up the street, and screaming to those ahead to clear the way. He was conscious of a torrent of people rushing quickly by—looking up, could discern the cabriolet whirled along the foot-pavement with frightful rapidity—then heard a loud cry, the smashing of some heavy body, and the breaking of glass—and then the crowd closed in in the distance, and he could see or hear no more.
The general attention had been entirely directed from himself to the person in the carriage, and he was quite alone. Rightly judging that under such circumstances it would be madness to follow, he turned down a bye-street in search of the nearest coach-stand, finding after a minute or two that he was reeling like a drunken man, and aware for the first time of a stream of blood that was trickling down his face and breast.
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"This isn't the first time you've talked about superannuating me."
Chapter 35
Charles Edmund Brock
Text Illustrated:
‘That’s what I’ve got to say, Mr. Edwin and Mr. Charles,’ said Tim, squaring his shoulders again. ‘This isn’t the first time you’ve talked about superannuating me; but, if you please, we’ll make it the last, and drop the subject for evermore.’
With these words, Tim Linkinwater stalked out, and shut himself up in his glass case, with the air of a man who had had his say, and was thoroughly resolved not to be put down.
The brothers interchanged looks, and coughed some half-dozen times without speaking.
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Chapter 35
Charles Edmund Brock
Text Illustrated:
‘That’s what I’ve got to say, Mr. Edwin and Mr. Charles,’ said Tim, squaring..."
Kim
Is this a new illustrator to our group?
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Charles Edmund Brock was a widely published English painter, line artist and book illustrator, who signed most of his work C. E. Brock. He was the eldest of four artist brothers, including Henry Matthew Brock, also an illustrator.
He received his first book commission at the age of 20 in 1890. He became very successful, and illustrated books for authors such as Jonathan Swift, William Thackeray, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot. Brock also contributed pieces to several magazines such as The Quiver, The Strand, and Pearsons. He used the Cambridge college libraries for his "picture research." In illustration Brock is best known for his line work, initially working in the tradition of Hugh Thomson, but he was also a skilled colourist. As a painter he received plaudits for his realism and vibrancy he created in his work. Only a small quantity of his paintings have been located which is why their prices have been so high.
He and his brothers maintained a Cambridge studio filled with various curios, antiques, furniture, and a costume collection. They owned a large collection of Regency era costume prints and fashion plates, and had clothes specially made as examples for certain costumes. Using these, family members modeled for each other.
Having trained in the studio of Henry Wiles, their careers began in the early 1890s at Macmillan. Like his brother, E. C. Brock contributed to Punch, but Charles Edmund was also a recognized painter in oils. Moreover, he illustrated Dickens's Christmas Books — A Christmas Carol, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Haunted Man, and The Battle of Life, as well as The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, various novels by Jane Austen, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, Thomas Hood's poems, Lamb's essays, volumes of Greek and Norse myths, and the Bible.
Unequivocally the most famous and valuable paintings in Brocks career were his golf paintings – The Bunker; The Drive; and The Putt – all of which were painted in 1894 as part of the same series. These paintings were acquired together by a Japanese collector in 1991 for $1.5 million.
Kim wrote: "For everyone out there who has an iphone:https://fineartamerica.com/shop/iphon..."
Oh, for--
Who puts Dotheboys hall on their phone??? How cheery.
I would definitely get one of these if I had an iPhone. Probably not Dotheboys Hall, but maybe Veggie-man coming down the chimney. :-)
Mary Lou wrote: "I would definitely get one of these if I had an iPhone. Probably not Dotheboys Hall, but maybe Veggie-man coming down the chimney. :-)"I guess if I had to pick one, that would be it.
The Old Curiosity Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Pickwick Papers (other topics)Oliver Twist (other topics)
I see you are making a reference to one of my favourite (Christmas) films, Alissa! It would definitely be interesting to keep the motif of the fairy godmother or godfather in mind and see whether Dickens has similar characters in his other novels. In Oliver Twist, the godmothers were more serious (Rose / Mrs Bedwin) and one of them, Nancy, was even a very multi-faceted and psychologically believable character. In fact, re-reading OT this time made me realize what a brilliant character Nancy is.