I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going to post to Semicolon the entries in the reading journal that I was required to keep for that class because I think that my entries on these works of literature may be of interest to readers here and because I’m afraid that the thirty year old spiral notebook in which I wrote these entries may fall apart ere long. I may offer my more mature perspective on the books, too, if I remember enough about them to do so.
Author Note:
Charles Dickens was born near Portsmouth in 1812, the son of a government clerk. His parents, being rather incompetent in money matters, put young Dickens to work in a London warehouse at the tender age of ten. The time of chid labor in his life was brief, and DIckens soon returned to school. Nevertheless, the experience affected him deeply. Nicholas Nickleby was Dickens’ third novel, published after The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist.
Summary:
After the death of his father, young Nicholas must make his own way in the world, and serve as protector to his sister and mother, in spite of harsh schoolmasters, a grasping and greedy uncle, and other characters who are ready and willing to exploit the innocence of Nicholas and of his sister, Kate.
Characters:
NIcholas Nickleby: a young man who must come of age quickly when his father dies without leaving him any money.
Ralph Nickleby: Nicholas’s avaricious uncle.
Newman Noggs: Ralph Nickleby’s clerk and drudge.
Wackford Squiers: a one-eyed Yorkshire schoolmaster, head of Dothebys Hall.
Madeline Bray: an unfortunate young lady.
The Cheeryble Brothers: Nicholas’s patrons.
Mrs. Nickleby: Nicholas’s mother.
Kate Nickleby: Nicholas’s sister.
Miss La Creevy: a painter of miniatures.
Smike: Nicholas’s friend.
Quotations:
Persons don’t make their own faces, and it’s no more my fault if mine is a good one than it is other people’s fault if theirs is a bad one.
There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.
Mrs. Nickleby: “I would rather, I declare, have been a pig-faced lady, than be exposed to such a life as this!”
(Sometimes so would I. So would I.)
Two of my children were in a play a couple of years ago based on this novel, so I got to re-visit it then. I found it just as absorbing and full of life as a drama as I did when I read it thirty plus years ago. Has anyone seen this movie version? Is it any good?
Other bloggers talk about Nicholas Nickleby:
Books and Border Collies: “I have a literary crush on Nicholas Nickleby! And on his creator, Charles Dickens. Those of you who are veterans of Dickens’ writing will please forgive the silly gushing of a neophyte. He is such a joy to read! His characters are beyond memorable and his descriptions are so creative that I’m constantly thinking I would never in a million years have written something so imaginative.”
Bookphilia: “Dickens’ writing, for me, is always a joy to immerse myself in; as well, I liked many of the characters and wasn’t always irritated by how un-subtly Dickens employed them. It’s just that Nicholas Nickleby is so obviously the work of a writer much younger and perhaps less thoughtful than the writer who, 20-25 years later, produced A Tale of Two Cities and Our Mutual Friend. But it’s still brilliant because it’s still Dickens.”
If you’ve written about Nicholas Nickleby, leave me a comment and I’ll link.