Nicholas Nickleby: Classic Tales Edition

Written by Charles Dickens

Narrated by B. J. Harrison

When Nicholas befriends Smyke, a physically challenged runaway from a deplorable Yorkshire school, he risks his livelihood, and that of his sister and mother. Through many hardships and adventures, Nicholas demonstrates that loyalty and integrity can overcome the most devious machinations.

Featuring a glorious cast of Dickensian heroes and villains, Nicholas Nickleby is a tour-de-force Victorian novel. Scowl back at the cringe-worthy Wackford Squeers, and laugh at the histrionics of the Crummels Family. While Ralph Nickleby shows you the evils that money can bring, the Cheeryble brothers demonstrate the good. And though Nicholas walks through the fire, he also triumphs as a beacon of hope for the downtrodden.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B.J. Harrison
• Release date: Mar 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781937091699

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

Reviews for Nicholas Nickleby

[entrenous-324372 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This has everything one could hope for in a Dickens story. While Nicholas is the common thread that ties everyone together, there are the usual myriad relationships, deceptions, heartbreak, villainy and coincidences throughout the chapters of this book. Dicken's compassion and humor are everywhere, whether the characters be foolish, silly, vile or wise. Great story.

[therebelprince · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dickens 4th book, and 3rd novel, published in 1838-39 and cementing his speedy celebrity, Nickleby combines the angry social statements of Oliver Twist with something of the sense of sharp satire of The Pickwick Papers. True, neither Nicholas nor Kate exhibit much in the way of interesting features, but as Tintin-esque Everypeople, they are surrounded by a gallery of delightful characters. The Victorian pathos is there in spades, and some of it is really quite silly, but one can feel Dickens gaining such a sense of self-assuredness as he works through this novel, and the picaresque nature of Nickleby's travels will not be equalled by any of the other novels that feature extensive journeys. The acting troupe, the brutal world of Mantilini's dress shop, and the figure of Ralph Nickleby, who extends on Fagin's sparks of life to suggest that the author might one day be interested in creating characters with more than one-and-a-half dimensions.

Excepting parts of Little Dorrit and David Copperfield, this is the Dickens novel that has the purest sense of fun, and combined with some of the powerful statements about the workhouse and the place of women, it's a very worthy read. To be honest, I think this is the height of the Dickens canon for several years, until Copperfield comes along.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a Dickens I knew very little about - a vague bit about a school was my limit. I enjoyed it a lot although did feel it dragged a bit in the middle. Kate is a nonentity and at her sections I was hoping to quickly go back to the Nicholas sections. Nicholas himself is slightly surprising - far more violent that you might expect! And his romance is strange - he doesn't appear to speak to her more than twice.....But I loved the character of Newman Noggs - so interesting and John Browdie made me laugh. I listened to the audiobook which was excellently read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (who then coincidentally turned up in series 3 of His Dark Materials).

[brightman-4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Exquisite illustrations.

[caanderson-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great classic from Charles Dickens. One family’s hardship after their father had pass away and they ask for the help from their uncle.

[rayski_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An absolute slog to get through.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Before there was Scrooge, there was Ralph Nickleby. Years before “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens had already created a character in “Nicholas Nickleby” who could have given Scrooge lessons in miserliness.The novel, published in 1838, opens with the death of Ralph's brother, making him responsible for his brother's widow and her two grown but not yet independent children, Nicholas and Kate. First he moves them into much more humble accommodations, then finds Nicholas a position as a tutor in a boy's school far from London. With the brother out of the way, he uses pretty Kate to entice two playboy noblemen into some business dealings, unmindful of what might happen to Kate afterward.Nicholas soon discovers the headmaster at the school to be abusive toward the boys in his care. He flees with one of those boys and finds himself for a time with a wandering theater group before learning of his sister's situation. When he returns to rescue her, a long struggle between uncle and nephew begins, with many complications and adventures.“Nicholas Nickleby” was not a successful novel in its day, at least in comparison with “Oliver Twist,” but it is hard to understand why. While it may not be one of the best novels Dickens wrote, it provides nonstop entertainment (except for one chapter that is obviously just padding and could be skipped without missing any of the story). It would make an excellent entry-level Dickens novel for those intimidated by that author's reputation for meandering plots and multitudes of characters. Here the plot rarely strays far from the Nicklebys, and the characters, while plentiful, are easy to keep straight. If the reader becomes confused about who a character is, Dickens soon enough makes it clear.This was one of the early Dickens novels. He was still learning the game he would soon master, but we can already find evidence of some of the writer's greatest personal interests and concerns, among them the plight of boys in schools operated for profit, young women coerced into careers in the sex trade and the theater, his greatest love, perhaps even including writing.There's humor here (Mrs. Nickleby ranks among his greatest comic characters), an abundance of romance (the clergy will have all the weddings they can handle by the end of the novel) and all the plot twists a reader could want. It's a massive novel, of course, but this is Dickens in an age when writers were paid for bulk. When a novel is this much fun, however, size is more blessing than curse.

[westwest-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Verbose, meandering and even shallow, but full of Dickens genius for sarcastic humor and memorable characters.

[electrascaife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nicholas's father left him, his sister, and his mother without a home or any money at all at his death, and so they seek help from a rich uncle, who turns out to be the great villain of the plot. Nicholas must seek his own fortune and meets an outstanding variety of characters along the way, who run the spectrum from angelic to despicable with plenty of comic relief in between. It reads like a Shakespearean comedy on a grand and intricate scale, complete with a coming-of-age story and multiple marriages at the end. I loved it. I absolutely loved it.

[matke-261098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very mixed book, this is an early Dickens, coming after the great Pickwick Papers and the melodramatic but wholly absorbing Oliver Twist.The positive aspects of the novel are led by the marvelous comic characters: Mrs Nickelby, who would drive the most patient of listeners to commit mayhem; Mr Lilyvick of the modest fortune and ever-changing will; Mr Crummles and his unusual family, which includes the Infant Prodigy, and several others. Another two believable, if less comic, characters are Newman Noggs and Miss LaCreevy. The settings are beautifully developed, and there’s a considerable amount of humor in the book. And the horrors of Dotheboys Hall are Dickens at his best—so good, in fact, that several headmasters considered suing Dickens for his portrayal, citing it as libelous.But my heavens! The plot is, even for Dickens, too full of coincidence and deus ex machina for the modern reader to take seriously. Parts of the ending are eminently satisfying, but other parts are too pat. And the book is so very, very long.Taken as a whole, this is an above-average novel, but it’s certainly not one of Dickens’s best.

[rretzler_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nicholas Nickleby is the tale of a young man whose father has died leaving his family penniless. Nicholas must find a job to support his mother and sister, Kate. The family turns for help to their uncle, Ralph Nickleby, a ruthless businessman, who has taken a dislike to his relatives. Nicholas, aided by many diverse characters, must protect his family from his uncle’s machinations.Nicholas Nickleby was the third book written by Charles Dickens, and it was published in serial form monthly in 1838 and 1839 before being published as a book in 1839.At first, I found the book very readable. As with many books written in the 1800s, the prose tends to be very wordy, and the style of the language is more stilted and formal than in books written more recently. However, I feel that Dickens’ style is perhaps a little more casual than some authors of that time which made reading the book more enjoyable. I felt there were a lot of descriptive passages in the book that could have been edited, making the book more streamlined. After a while, I felt that I got bogged down in the detail which made it somewhat less enjoyable to read. Also, Dickens introduces many characters throughout the book who really do not have a bearing on the overall tale. The characters seem to be part of amusing anecdotes used as filler to keep the serial going as long as possible. I felt that there was a lot of buildup to a climax, and then the story just petered out with minimal wrap-up compared to the amount of buildup. For instance, we learn much about two aristocratic gentlemen and also a family of performers, none of whom figure largely at the end of the story, but there is very little to be learned about the future spouses of both Nicholas and Kate, even though they would have more bearing on the longer story. Please skip the next paragraph as there are spoilers contained. I felt that there were some inconsistencies in how certain characters reacted. Nicholas seemed to be a very kind and honorable young man; however, at the beginning of the story, he seems to have a terrible temper which gets him into trouble. Not long afterward, he seems to have matured, and there is little reason for this given by the author. He may have realized the error of his ways, but Dickens did not see fit to mention this. Also, Ralph Nickleby is portrayed as a mean and heartless man. He finds that he has a son who was ill-treated before he was befriended by the Nickleby family and has now died. Because of this Ralph commits suicide, which seems very out of character. I did enjoy the classic good-triumphs over evil storyline. I also enjoyed meeting the many and varied characters introduced by Dickens, although there were a lot to keep track of. Dickens does a fabulous job of fleshing out some of the characters, but he does leave other characters feeling flat.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great opening paragraph eases readers smoothly into the challenging life of Nicholas Nickleby.The plot moves gently along with lovely entries like "Snow Hill!" "coffee-rooms,""...for gold conjures up a mist about a man."and: "He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favor of two."Dickens weaves his humor into Nicholas' conversation as he exposes the vivid contrastsof the lives of the poor with the wanton material wealth of the rich.Unfortunately, he also proceeds to lapse us into catatonia with his muffins resolutions parody.But, what does Dickens have against Smike?!? His trials were painful to read,even when John Brodie brings actual comedy.This was welcome to both readers and to "...Nicholas sat down, so depressed and self-degraded by the consciousness of his position, that if death could have come upon himat that time, he would have been almost happy to meet it."Nicholas' words on Shakespeare were a true delight in the midst of the paid-by-wordserialization that made for some truly boring side plots.This is my favorite of all Dickens novels.

[lkernagh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My favorite Dickens read so far. Never thought I would find one that would surpass Great Expectations, but this one did. While Dickens continues to bring forth, in vivid strokes, the bleak and terrible realities of his time period, there is a vibrancy of melodrama - and a bit of a carnival spirit - that gives this story a more lighthearted feel. While I have only scratched the surface of Dickens' writings, I find that he has a flair for creating some rather interesting characters. As much as I despise Ralph Nickleby, his fierce and calculating business mind is something to marvel at. Mrs. Nickleby comes across as a bit of an aristocratic "ditzy" woman but even she makes the odd observation that made me hit rewind once or twice. Overall, one of the better Dickens reads for me - and redeems Dickens in view of how much I despised Bleak House - giving me the incentive to consider reading more of Dickens works.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After his father dies, Nicholas Nickleby must go to work to support his mother and sister. The family is at the mercy of the "wicked uncle." Nicholas, at Ralph's arrangement, takes a position with Dothebys, a boarding school run by Mr. Squeers. Squeers and his equally corrupt wife regularly abuse the boys in their charge. After an incident, Nicholas leaves for London, being joined by Smike, one of the older boys. Newman Noggs, an employee of Ralph Nickleby,delivers a message to Nicholas. Life, love, and corruption continue to abound in the novel. Like most of Dickens' novels, social problems of the day are prominent. Enjoyable, but probably not Dickens' best work.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy Dickens very much and fin some of his novels have had a deep impact on me. Nicholas Nickleby is a typical Dickens novel--memorable names, poor family survives adversity to prosper, and commentary on social evils (a certain class of for-profit schools and usury) and it was enjoyable to read. Somehow, it felt to me a bit below-par for Dickens. I was very conscious of the "plot machinery" creaking along toward the entirely predictable denouement, something not true of most of the other Dickens novels I have read.

[lynsey2-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars. Typical Dickens which I normally love but this was not one of my favorites. It is the first one that I listened to and it took me quite awhile to get through so I think I just never got fully engaged with it. Despite that an average book by Dickens is still really enjoyable. Good characters with a strong narrator made for some entertaining scenes.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A picaresque novel by Dickens gives us a smorgasboard of delightfully crafted characters. The good the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. Dickens tells the story of a widow and her two children who seek help from her deceased husband's brother and are treated meanly and stingily by him. A social commentary told through the characters in this book and the main character, Nicholas Nickleby is a young man who comes to age as he takes care of his mother and sister and is kind to others he encounters on the way. This is Dickens third novel and a episodic and humorous book and also a first for romance for Dickens.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was a happy day when I, for whatever reason, elected to sample Charles Dickens. Having read A Tale of Two Cities in high school, I digressed to more popular fiction (Michener, Clavell, McMurtry, King, Grisham), as well as periods of science fiction and even non-fiction (Ambrose, McCollough for example), before making an effort to upgrade my reading list.I read some Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Steinbeck and Hemingway with mixed success before reading Great Expectations. I liked it enough to read David Copperfield, and I was hooked. A Tale of Two Cities followed and then Oliver Twist (not my favorite) and Bleak House (another below average Dickens novel in my opinion) before taking on this lengthy tome.As in many of his previous works, Dickens introduces his protagonist and then follows him throughout succeeding adventures, introducing many quirky and fascinating characters. It is these characters that spice up the narrative and are the strength of Dickens’s writing in my opinion. Midway through this novel, I compared it favorably to David Copperfield (the gold standard), but as the book droned on, it diminished in enjoyment. Perhaps the fact that it was introduced in serial form had an effect on the flow of the story once it was incorporated into a single novel, but for whatever reason, I grew tired of it before its conclusion. Having read several Dickens works prior to this one, I was aware that a period of acclimation is required before becoming comfortable with both the language and the cultural landscape. Unlike Bleak House, whose dialogue I found to be overly florid and tortured at times, I had no such problem with this work. If you have never read Dickens, it may take a little while to become comfortable, but if you have, you should have no problem.Make no mistake, at nearly 900 pages this is a real door stop, and while it is not my favorite Dickens effort, it is nonetheless worth the time and effort to read.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not one of Dickens' strongest tales. I just couldn't make myself care much about Nicholas although I liked Kate a bit more. But his secondary characters were brilliant as usual -- Ralph Nickleby, Wackford Squeers, Smike, the Brothers Cheerfull -- all wonderful. But my favorite part was the happy ending for Linkinwater and Miss La Creevy in the final chapter -- a beautiful, sentimental, feel-good poignant passage.

[nosajeel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I started re-reading Nicholas Nickleby thinking it was something like my 13th or 14th favorite Dickens novel (Hard Times has an uncontestable hold on 15th, or last, place). In reading the second quarter or so that judgment felt vindicated. After the excellent last half, however, I am starting to think I was unfair. Not that there are other obvious candidates one would want to downgrade.

There is an unfair misunderstanding of Dickens that he wrote in a hurry, by the word, in serials, and that as a result his books are not well thought out integrated novels but instead one incident following another in a somewhat muddled progression. That is unfair for just about all of Dickens

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this Dickens classic very enjoyable. I had seen a film adaptation so I was familiar with the basic plot, but (as always with Dickens!) the book has so much more to it! I was surprised by the character of Nicholas's mother in particular -- so self-centered and annoying!

[jiraiya_5 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's with a weary heart that I end my patient, obdurate reading of one of the great Victorian novels. Flowery syntax aside, let me confess that I meant, at many times, to abandon reading. The punctuation and epithet of this book was very trying to me. In the end, my unusual patience prevailed and I now declare that this was a not completely futile experience. It was justly so that the book ended where it did. Had I ditched this book I would be under the impression that all would end well. Alas it did not. Nicholas Nickleby would have earned 4 stars had the character called Smike - my fondest character in this book - not had a link with the Nicklebies. All grumblings aside, all imagined or inherent grievances aside, I wouldn't say no to a second Charles Dickens novel.

[kylekatz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a great read. Romance and evil villains and minor theatricals. A from rags-to-riches kind of tale. It was relaxing to read about a time where things moved only as fast as your feet (or your horses) and not faster than your brain can conceive of. If everyone today read a course of Dickens I think we'd be much less stressed out and more happy. Turn off your screens.

[scarchin-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the great books of English literature - so no need to bore you with a review. I loved it.
Also - the unabridged audio read by Alex Jennings is nothing short of phenomenal.

[alanwpowers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite Dickens, partly because it helped close down abusive residential "Public Schools" like Mr Squeers'; this effective critique of education holds much appeal to a lifelong teacher whose critiques of education have had much less dramatic effect. The scenes from the North England Dotheby's Hall are both convincing in their detailed cruelty and devastating as satire. Nickleby rescues the handicapped (or "retarded") Smike and they both leave after Nicholas is driven to beating the sadistic headmaster. The complex plot also satirizes the semi-professional theater of the day, in the Dover company of Crummles that includes the "infant phenomenon"--reminiscent of our own child actors, like Justin Biber, whom nobody satirizes now. Nicholas is hired as juvenile male lead and playwright-adapter of French plays to their minimal acting skills. This is a lively, generous, myriad-plotted book that will engage and amuse any reader with sufficient time not to feel rushed and burdened--i.e., most readers not reading for a college class. Other strands include the millenary business which Nicholas's sister Kate works in, and the machinations of the cruel "rich uncle."

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book even more than Great Expectations - maybe because I was reading it on the beach. Dickens creates such wonderful heroes and such funny conversation.

[c9j9moran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Q: Why, more than 140 years+ after his death is Charles Dickens still regarded as the greatest novelist the English language has ever seen?A: Because that is what he is.Nicholas Nickleby is a good illustration. I set myself to finish this - 776 pages in this edition - in a month; in the event it took twelve days. On most days, I only put it down because my eyes were throbbing from the small print.Of course, 776 pages is a lot of book but there is a lot of story; a lot happens to a lot of people. The reader must be given a chance to get to know these people if he is to a give a damn what happens to them. Dickens gives us this time; it is part of his art. He takes time, too, to describe people and places; remember that he wrote in the days before television, or newsreels, or even cheap picture-books. If he wanted the reader to know what something looked like, he had to describe it.To many, in this world where one death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a sound-bite, such a deliberate approach to story-telling will prove too taxing. To those with a more traditional attention span, it must simply add to the experience.And experience it is. Nickleby loses nothing with the passing of years. Dickens dealt, as do all great writers, with human nature and the real world. At root, neither changes. We are still afflicted with businessmen who know no morality beyond the p&l account; educationalists who substitute cant for understanding and choose to forget the humanity of their charges; gold diggers, cheats and frauds; and parents who care nothing for their children.Nicholas Nickleby was a page-turner in 1838 and it is a page-turner today. It has, by turns, villainy and romance, comedy and tragedy, sudden death and new beginnings. Truly, all human life is here.

[john257hopper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have finished this wonderful novel on the eve of the author's 200th anniversary. While for me this was not quite as consistently marvellous throughout as David Copperfield, this may be because Nicholas is not quite so central to the story line in all parts of the book as David; indeed he fades out of focus for whole sequences of chapters at a time while other characters' storylines come to the fore. Ralph is a marvellous villain and would be such just as much so in 2012 as he was in 1839; Newman Noggs was perfect as a shabby and disreputable but you love him really sort of chap; while Smike is one of the most tragic older boys or young men in literature and his decline and death really heartbreaking. I also liked the solid and reliable Yorkshireman John Browdie. The Cheeryble brothers I found slightly tiresome. Mrs Nickleby was unintentionally hilarious with her being completely caught up in her own view of the world and of the people around her, and her scenes with the amorous mad next door neighbour some of the best slapstick comedy I have read. Kate was a little more nondescript. Overall a marvellous cast of characters and a satisfying plotline. This is up there in my favourite group of 3 or 4 Dickens novels. 5/5

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dickens' third, and very wordy, work published in installments totaling 761 pages (in my Project Gutenberg download). Tells the story of Nicholas and family (mother and sister, Kate) from the time of their sudden plunge into poverty on the death of their father at the time of failed investments. The book is notionally a love story telling the romances of Nicholas and Kate, but the theme of the work is social standing and mobility - mostly abrupt falls such as faced by the Nickleby's, Newman Nogg and Madeline Bray, but also some attempts to establish a status, such as by the Kenwigses with their water rates collector uncle as their lynchpin. The writing has its soap opera-ish elements - such as when Uncle Ralph just happens to overhear Kate candidly venting her views behind a screen, and in the utterly black and white characters - pure evil such as Uncle Ralph and schoolmaster Squeers, or pure good, such as the brothers Cherryble. Dickens is also careful to avoid subtlety - where Jane Austen allows characters to define themselves by their speech and actions, Dickens sees the need to add asides to remove all doubt. Dickens has two, clearly personal, digs in the book - one against politicians when NN applies for a job with an MP, and a second when he gives a piece of his mind to a "literary gentleman" who dramatises novels for the stage. Among the darkness, there are slabs of comedy. The acting troop that NN joins, and especially the juvenile "Phenomenon" provides much humour, as does the bucolic John Browdie with his broad Yorkshire accent and simple manners. So, the book is not without flaws, but Dickens does manage to pull it off - I was in the grip of a page-turner for the last third of the book. Read December 2011.

[souloftherose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was Dickens' third novel which he started writing in 1838, while he was finishing Oliver Twist, and finished writing in 1839, while he was starting The Old Curiosity Shop. Like most of his novels, it was originally published in monthly instalments before being published in a single volume.Initially I found Nicholas Nickleby a strange mixture of styles; Dickens' contract with his publishers was to write something 'of a similar character and of the same extent and contents in point of quantity' to The Pickwick Papers, Dickens' first novel, which was a lighter, more episodic work than Oliver Twist. However, Dickens' had been doing some investigative work in respect of the infamous 'Yorkshire schools' of the period and wanted to include some criticism of these schools in Nicholas Nickleby in the same way that he criticised the Poor Laws in Oliver Twist so it has some darker sections unlike The Pickwick Papers.Nicholas Nickleby follows the adventures of our eponymous hero, Nicholas Nickleby, his mother and his sister Kate after the death of their father. The family begin the story in a very bad way as Nicholas' father was in debt when he died. They are forced on the mercy of their uncle, the dastardly Ralph Nickleby who obtains a position for Nicholas as a teacher at a Yorkshire boarding school. The first quarter of the book shows us the appalling realities of life in a boys' boarding school in Yorkshire through the eyes of Nicholas. The villains who run the school are appropriately grotesque and their pupils appropriately pathetic so it would be easy for the reader to assume that Dickens' descriptions of these schools was an exaggeration. However, from the information in the introduction to my edition (the Penguin Classics edition) it seems that Dickens' description of these schools was all too accurate. Thankfully, the popularity of Nicholas Nickleby meant that most of these schools were forced to close down over the next ten years.As with all of Dickens' stories, the family who are obviously good and begin the book in poverty don't end the book that way, although there are many twists and turns before all the characters get what they deserve. I initially found the story somewhat rambling in nature and it felt like a lot of the incidents described, although amusing, didn't really have a bearing on the main plot. It helped me to think of these asides as being similar to The Pickwick Papers which is less plot driven and apparently this style of writing is similar to the picaresque style used by Henry Fielding in Tom Jones and Tobias Smollett's Humphrey Clinker.In terms of characters there were some wonderful villains such as Wackford Squeers, the owner of the Yorkshire school, and Ralph Nickleby, Nicholas' uncle who takes an immediate dislike to his nephew. Both were so deliciously villainous that I felt myself wanting to boo or hiss at them in pantomime style every time they entered the story. There are also many ridiculous characters to laugh at such as Nicholas' mother who never fails to wander from the point in the most amusing fashion and the deceitful yet entertainingly flattering Mr Mantalini. To me Nicholas Nickleby seems to lie somewhere in between Dickens' first two novels in terms of style, or rather, it seems to be combine aspects of both and so overall, I didn't think it worked quite as well as either. However, I still enjoyed it a lot, especially once I was past the slower first quarter of the book.