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!

Hi, I'm back from my overnight stay having rallied but DH is now ill!

I think if NN was adapted for scree now they'd have to be really careful casting Smike so as not to make him sentimentally ridiculous - but I'd also hate it if they went all Peaky Blinders in an adaptation! I look forward to what Katie has to say on Smike. She likes a queer theory and also often talks about representations of disability. There was a bit in this section where Dickens described Gride just like Rumpelstiltskin-which is a seam he mined a lot in TOCS in a none too edifying fashion.

A for the next readalong, Martin Chuzzlewit is the book I own, having bought it last time and then we decided on Nick Nick.

I looked The Moonstone up last time, too, and it's probably too short for a readalong.

I'm not a rereader of books, so would rule out Vanity Fair, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist as I have read them all.

Happy with any Dickens really. I think he works well for readalongs because he wrote in instalments and his books are LONG but open to other Victorian suggestions that are a) long and detailed enough for a readalong and b) I haven't read!
That would include Martin C, Dombey and Son and probably several others!

I think I got Squeers and Gride muddled in my last two posts! Easily done. It's Squeers Noggs nobs on the noggin,yes?

Gride is dead as a doornail, to coin a phrase!

I bookmarked the bit about hope too as my quote of the month but in my addled state forgot about it. That's a great bit fuzzy and I definitley agree Nicholas doesn't really have a character arc. Very astute.

I guess it's a bit crass that Dickens has cleared Smike away so that Frank can have a clear go at Kate without poor Smike being all devastated. It's partly a plot tidying thing.

Ah, sorry to hear DH is ill, Piggy 😦
It’s the whingey, whiny Bray who’s dead as a doornail! I don’t think we know what’s happened to Gride - I suspect he’ll reappear for the great reckoning.

Ah, yes! So it was Gride burning things and whacked by Noggs??

It was Squeers who tracked down Peg Sliderskew and grabbed/burned the documents - then the marvellous Noggs bopped him on the head with the bellows (to resounding cheers from all readers)

There are a lot of baddies in this book!

I’m waiting for Gride to get his comeuppance too!

We need to take a roll call for the baddies in this book.

Ralph Nickleby, Squeers, Gride, Bray (deceased).

All present and accounted for?! I have a feeling there is someone else lurking in the shadows. The man who pretended to be Smike's father. Snawley. He's Nickleby's henchman. One of them.

It's a record number of baddies!

I'm sorry your dh is ill, Piggy.
One of my dds has come down with something in the past couple of days.

I wouldn't get too carried away with your sympathies... he's just had egg on toast followed by some ginger nuts...

I have a question!

In your heads are you saying Ralph as written , or Rafe? MN always likes to say Ralph is Rafe!

I read it as Ralph. But then I am not posh.

I read it as Ralph!

OK, good! We are all Ralph -ers!

I’m a Ralpher!

Found a copy of Martin C in the ‘take a bagful for $2’ room of the Hospice shop today so would be up for that. As most things in that room are ancient Jilly Cooper/Catherine Cookson/Wilbur Smith/ Rubgy Heroes 1978 etc, this was quite a good find.

If you've room in the room for another - I could really do with a Dickens read this summer.

MC is on my own list of yet unread ones.

Always room at the inn! You are more than welcome.

You left me wondering which inns Dickens and friends might have been found in :)
Have any inviting ones appeared in Nicholas Nickleby?

Oh, not sure! We do have resident experts on this thread who research this stuff for us!

People keep getting duffed up in pubs in NN!

The main one in NN is the Saracen’s Head, @LiesDoNotBecomeUs - it was a famous old coaching inn on Snow Hill in the City of London (dating back to the Middle Ages at least - Pepys drank there in the 17thc). It was where stagecoaches departed for various destinations so I guess it made sense for Dickens to have Squeers arriving there from Yorkshire.

It was demolished in the 1860s when they built Holborn Viaduct and this whole very ancient area was massively redeveloped. In the 20thc the site was occupied by a police station on the site (built in 1926) but I think it’s been, or is in the process of being, sold and turned into a Premier Inn (which from the architect’s plans online looks like yet another depressing faceless monolith, squeezed into the very narrow site, although they have to keep the facade and some internal features as it’s listed Grade II).

I’m amazed there don’t seem to be any photographs of it, but this is a drawing of the inn in its sad final days.

Thank you Terpsichore. That's fascinating.

'The Saracen's Head' is a great name for an Inn. Maybe they could incorporate it into the name for the new premier inn :)

The perfect place for a virtual book club gathering! We could put ourselves back in its heyday and arrive from all parts of the country in the ghostly coaches. 😁

I finished it last night. A very satisfactory conclusion.

This was a very enjoyable one.

I have also now finished !

We can discuss later if everyone is ready?

Meantime, I found two Katie videos for those who want to watch. Here is the first one.