Books with title Nicholas Nickleby

Though only the third novel Dickens wrote, "Nicholas Nickleby" is a well-crafted and significant precursor to his other great works. The tale follows the fortunes of the young man Nicholas, the son of an imprudent gentleman who leaves his family without resources. Fiercely devoted to his mother and sisters, as well as his true friends, Nicholas is occasionally emotional and even violent, yet always idealistic. He seeks the aid of his villainous uncle, Ralph Nickleby, who comes to hate his nephew and wish him serious harm. Nicholas goes through more than one attempt at employment, being first disgusted by the abuse of the schoolmaster Squeers, later surprised by the acting and antics of Vincent Crummles, and finally assisted by the merchant Cheeryble brothers. Dickens employs a cast of characters, both good and unsavory, in this adventurous story of Nicholas Nickleby, who helps those in need, despises wickedness, grows in self-awareness, and even experiences falling in love in a plot that is by turns melodramatic and comedic. An uplifting tale full of poignant indictments on Victorian society, Dickens' work has all the best characteristics of his classics.

'I shall never regret doing as I have—never, if I starve or beg in consequence'When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father's death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an extraordinary gallery of rogues and eccentrics: Wackford Squeers, the tyrannical headmaster of Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted boys; the slow-witted orphan Smike, rescued by Nicholas; and the gloriously theatrical Mr and Mrs Crummles and their daughter, the 'infant phenonenon'. Like many of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterised by his outrage at cruelty and social injustice, but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work, revealing his comic genius at its most unerring.

Charles Dickens had an understanding of mid-Victorian society second to none, and genius and energy massive enough to make the absurdities and terrors of that society come alive on the page. Nicholas Nickleby, with its episodes of chicanery in finance and education, and the dramatic intensity with which it tells the story of its openhearted young protagonist and its frightening villain, the magnificently rendered Ralph Nickleby, represents Dickens at his clear-eyed, indignant, and mesmerizing best. When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless by the death of his father, he appeals to his Uncle Ralph to help him and his mother and sister. But Ralph conceives a violent hatred of the young man, and his schemes of persecution haunt Nicholas through a series of picaresque adventures, including a job as a tutor at a horrific school for unwanted boys run by the cruel Wackford Squeers and a stint as a member of the eccentric Crummles family theater troupe. Without shying away from the grimmer aspects of the world Nicholas encounters on his path to eventual happiness, the story remains one of Dickens’s most high-spirited and exuberant. This edition reprints the original Everyman preface by G. K. Chesterton and includes thirty-nine illustrations by Phiz.

Introduction and Notes by Dr T.C.B. Cook Following the success of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby was hailed as a comic triumph and firmly established Dickens as a 'literary gentleman'. It has a full supporting cast of delectable characters that range from the iniquitous Wackford Squeers and his family, to the delightful Mrs Nickleby, taking in the eccentric Crummles and his travelling players, the Mantalinis, the Kenwigs and many more. Combining these with typically Dickensian elements of burlesque and farce, the novel is eminently suited to dramatic adaptation. So great was the impact as it left Dickens' pen that many pirated versions appeared in print before the original was even finished. Often neglected by critics, Nicholas Nickleby has never ceased to delight readers and is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic masterpieces of nineteenth-centure literature.

This edition includes 10 illustrations. Charles Dickens published two novels before his breakout success with Nicholas Nickleby, the story of a young man who must take care for his family when his father passes, and there is no doubt that this 1838 work in particular serves as the significant precursor for the great novels that would follow and earn him his fame. As we have come to expect from Dickens, the cast of characters is many, varied and full of lively personalities, both villainous and virtuous, and our titular hero’s experiences convey upon him the knowledge and wisdom to be a good man.

It was supposed to be a simple human-interest story, the kind of fluff piece hard-nosed reporter Brett Davis begrudgingly accepts only because his job is at stake. But when his newspaper editor sends him to the northernmost point of Europe to interview the head of a secretive monastery, Brett encounters a man who cannot possibly be who he claims to be—St. Nicholas of Myra. All Brett wants are the facts, but the tale Nicholas tells is too incredible to be true. Or is it? As Nicholas reveals the intricacies of his amazing long life, Brett discovers not only the origins of every facet of the much beloved Santa Claus myth, but also that, when confronted with the miraculous, faith is the only rational choice left.

Our hero confronts a large and varied cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures up and down the country. Punishing wickedness, befriending the helpless, strutting the stage, and falling in love, Nicholas shares some of his creator's energy and earnestness as he faces the pressing issues of early Victorian society. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby tells the story of a young man who must support his mother and sister, as his father dies unexpectedly after losing all of his money in a poor investment. Nicholas, his mother and his younger sister, Kate, are forced to give up their comfortable lifestyle in Devonshire and travel to London to seek the aid of their only relative, Nicholas's uncle Ralph, a cold and ruthless businessman. Nicholas starts working as a tutor in an abusive all-boys boarding school, but that is only the beginning of his adventures and misadventures.

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY by Charles Dickens Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family Our hero Nickleby confronts a large cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures up and down the country

"Nicholas Nickleby" combines comedy and tragedy in a tale of triumph over adversity, where Nickleby succeeds despite poverty, the indifference of his wealthy uncle, the tyranny of wicked schoolmaster Wackford Squeers and the social injustice that he encounters throughout the institutional system, meeting such eccentric characters as the Crummles, the Kenwigs, Newman Noggs and businessmen, the Cheeryble brothers along the way. Here, Dickens uses his greatest skills as a creator of caricature to present a cast of rogues and eccentrics perfectly able to illustrate his criticism of social status and the possibilities of crossing social boundaries through hard work and good will - a reflection of his own ascendance from poverty to great success as a novelist and social commentator, a theatrical performer and editor of a number of important journals...Based on the world-famous "Nonesuch Press" edition of 1937, the text is taken from the 1867 "Chapman and Hall" edition, which became known as the "Charles Dickens" edition, and was the last edition to be corrected by the author himself. "The Nonesuch" edition contains illustrations selected by Dickens himself, by artists including Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'), George Cruikshank, John Leech, Robert Seymour and George Cattermole.