Dickensalong 2023- 2024 : Nicholas Nickleby

[Piggywaspushed]

Come along and join me in the next Dickens readalong.

We have chosen Nicholas Nickleby which was originally published by Dickens in 19 instalments.

I propose condensing this to a nine month read, using Dickens shorter sections as a guide. We begin in October, as follows:

October - Chapters 1 - 7
November - Chapters 8-14
December - Chapters 15-23
January - Chapters 24-29
February - Chapters 30-36
March - Chapters 37-42
April - Chapters 43-51
May - Chapters 52-58
and finishing in
June 2024 - Chapters 59 - end

Summoning old faithfuls and newcomers, one and all!

Katie has a sense of humour bypass on Mrs N. She repetitively states it's 'mean'.

She also loves Newman Noggs and I have to say he really doesn't much register with me compared with Smike, for example.

She thinks Smike is in love with Nicholas so she buys that theory.

Hmm, the lack of a sense of humour about Mrs N is too bad. But any friend of Newman Noggs is a friend of mine! 😍😁

I'm hoping to finish the book today.

I've watched one of the videos.
Really interesting reflections by Katie.
I don't agree with her that Kate is bland.
I thought she was a strong female character. She really let rip at Mulberry Hawk and Uncle Ralph and defended herself quite well. Nicholas resorted to violence but I thought she stood up for herself. I agree with Katie that Madeleine is bland.

The ending was odd about the Cheeryble brothers arranging the marriages. I suppose you could argue that they have the best interests of Nicholas and Kate at heart and they are their benefactors. It does tie in with her observation about money and agency and that the Nicklebys rely on the Cheerybles and will forever more be in their debt and owe their happiness to them. They are so nice though and they mean well! They make the world a better place!

The discussion of 'Queer Dickens' was fascinating. It reminded me of your observations on the subject, cassandre.

I also thought Mrs Nickleby* *was very funny and I saw her as bit of a character. The treatment of the eccentric neighbour was odd alright. Definitely peculiar and a bit sad, particularly in the later parts when he seemed quite out of his mind.

So far though, I rate NN high up on my list of Dickens's books.

Katie does have a bit of a downer on the novel whereas I liked it more than many, certainly more than The Old Curiosity Shop.

I didn't find the ending rushed or trite - or rather it was as trite as expected.

In my introduction, the point is made that there are no character arcs and I think that is fair comment. Katie makes the point that Nicholas is an everyman.

I like Mrs N because she's funny. I don't find it 'mean'. It's great to have a richly comic female turn.
It's the Kenwigs etc I could do without. Too much for my head to contain.

I agree with you about the Kenwigs. I found them irritating. Definitely not a highlight of the book for me.

I absolutely preferred NN to TOCS. No contest whatsoever!

Yes. The ending was trite. I liked it still.

Ah, I should watch the Katie videos! Even though I'm not much of an audio/video person for some reason...

I agree, Fuzzy, that Kate's character is much better developed than Madeline's.

I loved this novel. I just checked to see how old Dickens was when he wrote it; he was only 26. It seems to me it's just brimming with youthful life and energy. It may not be the most serious of his novels, but it must be among his most entertaining, thanks to its comic and theatrical qualities. Many thanks to you, Piggy, as this is the first time I ever read a Dickens novel at the same speed it was originally serialised, and it was a great experience.

And the novel does have a serious theme as well, with its foregrounding of the dreadful abuse in the Yorkshire boarding schools.

I've just read Mark Ford's 1999 intro to my Penguin edition (I have a habit of only reading the introductions to classic novels after I've finished the novel, in order to avoid spoilers). He praises the character of Mrs Nickleby highly, and talks about the way her crazy monologues touch on so many different aspects of life and the world. They add a kind of anarchic joy to the novel, like Mr Mantalini and the Crummles.

The ending felt to me like the traditional ending you get in stage comedies, which end in marriage. It does feel like Nicholas and his family are subsumed into the status quo after all their adventures... but after so much hardship, I would say they deserve it. Ending with Smike is a lovely touch.

When I read this novel as a teen, I found Ralph's suicide very plausible. This time round, it seemed slightly less plausible to me. I mean, he's such a jerk, would he really react so strongly to the revelation about his son (and the other setbacks that fall on him at the end of the novel), or would he just carry on fixating on his precious money, and amassing more of it?

Regardless of that, though, I thought the scene where Ralph is walking home on the last night of his life was remarkable. So atmospheric.

Here's a sentence from the Mark Ford intro that I liked: 'Nicholas Nickleby is made up ... of all manner of different kinds of writing - melodrama, political satire, class comedy, social criticism, domestic farce - while its loose, episodic narrative style allows Dickens to push the story at almost any moment in whatever direction happens to appeal.'

I think that's true. It's a genuinely polyphonic / multi-voiced novel. Even if Nicholas himself is not the deepest of characters, that fact allows the whole cast of characters to shine.

I haven’t watched the Katie video but just to say, funnily enough I found that the Mrs Nickleby passages - while she was undoubtedly annoying as a character and would probably be insufferable in RL - were a big part of what made the book seem to me so very relatable , because we’ve probably all known someone a bit like that. I really enjoyed knowing that it was recognisable behaviour, in a very funny way, you’d see in somebody almost 200 years ago - and to prove my point, this very week I read a MN thread where someone was talking about this exact trait, and thought to myself: 'Mrs Nickleby!'

Agree about the formulaic ending - in fact, it was an ending that wouldn’t have been out of place in one of Mr Crummles's productions, with the lovers united and everyone living happily ever after. Come to think of it, most of the characters were like something out of a Crummles play - very recognisably Good, Bad, Comic and/or Romantic. There were strongly-defined stereotypes and the Bad got their comeuppance while the Good triumphed over their misfortunes. There wasn’t an enormous amount of nuance or subtlety but maybe that’s what makes it so satisfying in the end: all the dramatic unities are observed in a very pleasing way.

Hi cassandre, some really interesting observations* *there! Thank you for the excerpts from the foreword. I always like to read introductions at the end too. It's like bonus material after finishing the final chapter.

Some random thoughts of mine in response...

The happy ending featuring marriage (and a double marriage is even better!) is also reminiscent of musicals, operettas and happier operas. I hadn't known before that Dickens loved the stage so much. It seems obvious now. Many of his villains are like pantomime characters.

I never thought of Mrs N in that way! I feel I have almost wronged her! Pearls of wisdom scattered in her foolish ramblings.

I was thinking if Ralph hadn't been ruined financially, he may not have been driven to taking his life. Did it tip him over the edge rather than the knowledge of his lost son? I need to read it over again to be sure. I thought that chapter was amazing. Really atmospheric.

Nicholas is a versatile character and he seemed to slot easily into every situation he came across. I like your description of the book that it is brimming with youthful life and energy. This describes Nicholas too and this energy propels the book forward. Compare it to poor sickly Little Nell and feeble Grandad on their long trek which really wasn't the same although it was written after this one.

Very nice analogy to Crummles and his plays Terpsichore!

And just to add to my thoughts too! having said there was little subtlety, I think there was sublety, and unexpectedly so, in the Kate/Mulberry Hawk seduction storyline, and it stood out precisely because Dickens stepped outside the brightly-coloured certainties of the rest of the book and showed us a much more ambiguous and psychologically powerful intelligence. In a way it didn’t fit in the book but it was fascinating to read.

Yes definitely. That aspect of the book stood out for me too.

I think this might be my favourite Dickens so far, or at least a close second to Little Dorrit. It was very episodic, but all the episodes were engaging and amusing (no one episodically tramped off to die sentimentally in the Welsh borders, thank God).

A theme that struck me (and might be to do with Dickens’ youth when he wrote it) was how natural parents were wrong-headed, ineffectual (the Nicklebys senior) to downright conniving and evil (Madeleine’s father and Ralph), balanced out by generous and big-hearted father figures (Mr Crummles, Newman Noggs, and above all the Cheerybles).

My brain already thinks the character is called Noggin Noggs, by the way, which is what I almost typed just then…

Dropping in after a long break (having finished the book in January - I’m terrible at pacing myself!) to say how much I enjoyed NN. Lots of fun, so many interesting characters - some realistic, some pantomime - and the happy ending that they all deserved 😊 What really struck me was how many different types of writing Dickens used, with lightweight comedy interspersed with much more serious topics.

I preferred this to Great Expectations, and liked it at least as much as Bleak House and Little Dorrit. Thank you to everyone for the readalong - it meant I got so much more out of the book than if I had read it on my own!

Noggin Noggs 😂

I'm enjoying everyone's thoughts. Thanks to all.

because we’ve probably all known someone a bit like that.

Yes.... my mother...

And a touch of mine too Piggy!

Is there a new Dickensalong or is there a break after NN?

Yes, we usually have a month off.

Think we agreed Martin Chuzzlewit?

Looking forward to the next one but a break will be appreciated too.

Nothing much to add to what everyone else has already said (and you’re all far more eloquent with more interesting observations than me anyway!). I really enjoyed this one - it doesn’t quite top David Copperfield or Great Expectations but agree with everyone else that it was better than The Old Curiosity Shop.

And just adding my thanks to everyone on the thread, I’ve really enjoyed the readalong and everyone’s insights and comments make it much more rewarding experience. And thank you for hosting Piggy!

Looking forward to joining you all with Martin Chuzzlewit. I know absolutely nothing about it so am looking forward to getting stuck in and ticking another Dickens off the list.

It seems we all have had a lot to say about this Dickens - which I think is a good sign. I think we are all of one accord that we enjoyed this novel.

I plan a month off and then in late July, I'll post some details on the next readalong!

Hi all, I had planned to catch up by the end of June but I've only just finished the April instalment. Only about 150 pages to go! Was there a decision made on the next readalong? I'm not keen to scan back incase I come across spoilers by accident.

Yes, Martin Chuzzlewit!