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!

I also enjoyed the first few chapters, except the tall tales which I was very confused about until reading the explanation upthread. I liked all the stuff about The United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company - what a fantastic company name!! Very Dickens. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I'm behind (surprise surprise!) and yet to get to the weird chapter you've been talking about but what I have read so far has been entertaining. Another aside - in chapter 2 Ralph Nickleby was described as wearing a "spencer", so a quick Google informed me this is a short jacket - I was stupidly pleased to find this out as it's a piece of clothing I've always admired in period dramas (sad, I know!).

So, November is chapters 8 - 14 and doubtless some Dotheboys set gloom with the wicked Wackford.

Have just finished the October chapters and was most confused about Chapter 6 so thanks for shedding some light on that. I do hope Dickens doesn't have too many word count issues throughout the rest of the book.
Onward with November's chapters. Fingers crossed someone likeable turns up soon - Nicholas seems too bland to count for much sadly.

After the comments here about chapter 6 I decided to skip the 'story' chunks of it 🙈 life's too short and I have too many competing demands in this short life!

You didn't miss anything, Cludgie.
Twas all very strange.

Does anyone know of a free copy for kindle? I can find lots of other Dickens but not NN for some reason!

I found the hard copy a little bit less available than others to be honest!

Have you got any kind of Apple device, @Goldwakeme? I downloaded a free copy on Apple Books. I can’t see anything free on Kindle. Otherwise it’s always available on Project Gutenberg on the web.

@Terpsichore thank you, I'll have a look.

I'm bumping up the thread as a reminder to myself to get going onto the next installment!

I have one chapter to go. Dickens is on form with his pithy asides.

I’m behind again, not sure if I will have caught up by Friday so if not I’ll join you over the weekend!

I'm also still to finish, so may have to post later in the week. We'll see!

It might be the weekend for me too!

Happy to wait til the weekend.

I’ve finally started the book and loving it so far - I’d forgotten how funny Dickens is, and how (relatively) modern the satire sometimes feels considering when it was written. I fell asleep last night in the middle of the weird filler chapter with the random stories 😂I’ll try to get through the November chapters quickly enough to join in with the discussion!

To clarify... I shall post tomorrow morning. Been flat out all day and need restorative calm/many cups of tea. Not got headspace to remind myself of Dickens!

I have one chapter left to read tonight.

So, my thoughts.

This has been an enjoyable section but Dickens is also very clear in his abhorrence of greed and child abuse and neglect as ever. Those poor children. And those odious adults

Fanny Squeers's ridiculousness was an entertaining diversion. I love Dickens when he is cutting. This was my favourite :

'the reason's plain' cried the girl (if Miss Squeers were the reason it was very plain)

I’m still reading these chapters but I did like this description of porridge: ‘a brown composition, which looked like diluted pincushions without the covers’

Oh yes, I remember that. Yum.

It's very pleasing to see Nicholas showing a bit more grit and character and giving Squeers a good drubbing. One thing I did notice was that when I first read it, the awfulness of Dotheboys Hall seemed quite caricatured - now, sadly, it feels all too believable and very violent. The psychology of poor Smike being made even more of a victim because Nicholas was showing some kindness towards him felt like an astute bit of observation on Dickens's part, as did the phenomenon of a husband and wife teaming up to heap ever more abuse on their victims (we can all think of real-life examples, I'm sure).

On a lighter note, I enjoyed Fanny Squeers and her friend with their endless fallings-out and making-up, plus the 'doing their hair' and trying on each other's new clothes. Nothing changes with teenage girls, it seems!

I found this section quite hard to read, the treatment of the boys was so awful. Although I expected it to go on longer - given that Dotheboys Hall is all I knew about Nicholas Nickleby before starting the book, he spent a very short time there! I assume we’ll return to the school, and Squeers, later in the book.

Also thought the interactions between the girls was very like the present day, as @Terpsichore mentioned! I found Dickens' tone pretty patronising about them, I know Fanny isn’t meant to be sympathetic but it was a bit uncomfortable reading a middle-aged privileged man’s view of young working class women. Funny nevertheless!

Are they working class? I thought Dickens was poking fun at the new Victorian middle classes and their awful pretensions.