Nicholas Nickleby
Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby
FictionClassicsComing of AgeFamily & Domestic Fiction
68 chapters·35h 36m listening
3.95from 47,605 ratingson Goodreads
"Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens is a novel originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839. After his father's death, young Nicholas must support his mother and sister, seeking help from their wealthy but cold-hearted uncle Ralph. When Ralph sends Nicholas to a brutal Yorkshire boarding school, he witnesses terrible cruelty and befriends an abused servant boy named Smike. Their escape sets off a chain of events involving theatrical troupes, harassment, schemes, and dark family secrets that will test Nicholas's courage and determination.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
Published in monthly parts in 1838 and 1839, Nicholas Nickleby begins when the death of his father leaves young Nicholas, his mother and his sister Kate dependent on his uncle Ralph, a cold and grasping moneylender. Ralph finds Nicholas a post as an assistant at Dotheboys Hall, a Yorkshire school run by the brutal Wackford Squeers. Charles Dickens based the school on real establishments where unwanted children were neglected and starved, and his portrait helped bring them to public notice. From there the novel ranges through a touring theatre company, London offices and fashionable society, mixing comedy and melodrama as Nicholas defends the friendless Smike and his sister against his uncle’s schemes.
Characters
Nicholas Nickleby — Protagonist
A young man trying to support his mother and sister after his father's death.
Kate Nickleby — Nicholas's sister
A young woman whose search for respectable work exposes her to the cruelty of her uncle's associates.
Ralph Nickleby — Nicholas's uncle
A calculating businessman who treats family obligations as obstacles to profit.
Smike — Nicholas's companion
A mistreated young man at Dotheboys Hall who forms a devoted attachment to Nicholas.
Wackford Squeers — Schoolmaster
The brutal proprietor of Dotheboys Hall, where neglect is disguised as education.
Newman Noggs — Ralph's clerk
An eccentric, impoverished clerk whose sympathy leads him to help the Nickleby family.
Vincent Crummles — Theater manager
The enthusiastic head of a traveling theatrical company that offers Nicholas a new livelihood.
About the author
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the defining English novelist of the Victorian age and, in his own lifetime, its most famous writer. When his father was imprisoned for debt the twelve-year-old Dickens was sent to work in a blacking factory, and the experience runs under everything he wrote about childhood, poverty and institutions that fail the people in them. Publishing in monthly instalments, he wrote for an audience that read each part as it appeared, which is part of why his books are built of cliffhangers and crowds of minor characters nobody forgets. His novels include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol.