Thanks, I don't have a lot of ideas about this section, but I'm loving the book, and loving your thoughts, Piggy and Fuzzy. I honestly think this is my favourite Dickens novel (not that I've read all of them though).
Fuzzy, I also noted what a wonderful depiction of London that was in Ch 31.
Thanks Piggy for making me see the poignancy of Nicholas and Smike and the definition of home.
It's a relief that Nicholas has finally met the altruist brothers Cheeryble. He deserves some good karma, especially after his own altruistic adoption of Smike.
I note that Squeers is still on the scene though, which makes me anxious on Smike's behalf. Squeers manages to be comical and terrifying in equal measure. He shows that stupid cruelty can be as frightening as clever cruelty.
It's madly implausible that Nicholas should just happen to find out all the details about his sister on his first night back in London, by dint of strolling into the right hotel, but that's literary devices for you! It certainly makes for a good story.
I agree that Mrs Nickleby is a peerless comic figure. I love the way Nicholas and Kate pretty much just ignore her and carry on with what they're doing 😂
My Penguin edition (ed. Mark Ford) has a footnote on the hairdresser and the bear: the annoying kind of footnote that just refers you to an earlier footnote ('see chapter 6, note 8'). The earlier footnote on Ch 6 reads, 'Gillingwater was a perfumer and hairdresser in Bishopsgate Street who kept bears in the basement of his shop, and often displayed a sign announcing "Another young bear slaughtered today". Bear grease was a fashionable dressing for men's hair.'
So that offers some explanation of the association between bears and hairdressers, but does not lessen the bonkers nature of Mrs Nickleby's anecdote IMO!