Nicholas Nickleby ; or, The Life and Adventure of Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens. Originally published as a series from 1838 to 1839, it was Dickens' third novel.
The novel centers on the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father died.
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Nicholas Nickleby is the third novel published by Charles Dickens. He went back to his favorite publisher and to a format that was considered to be very successful with The Pickwick Papers . The first story appears in the monthly section, after which it is published in a single volume. This style is considered episodic and funny, although the second half of the novel becomes more serious and plotted tightly. Dickens began writing 'Nickleby' while still working on Oliver Twist and while his mood was much lighter, his portrayal of the Yorkshire school run by Wackford Squeers was as moving and influential as it was in social homes and lower-class criminals in Twist .
'Nickleby' marks a new development in a further sense because this is Dickens's first novel. When published, the book was an immediate and complete success and built Dickens' lasting reputation.
The cruelty of a Yorkshire schoolteacher named William Shaw became the basis of Dickens' brutal character from Wackford Squeers. Dickens visited Shaw's school in Bowes and based on the school section of Nicholas Nickleby during his visit.
Maps Nicholas Nickleby
Main theme
Like Dickens's early works, this novel has a contemporary setting. Most of the action took place in London, with several chapters taking place at Dickens birthplace in Portsmouth, as well as settings in Yorkshire and Devon.
His tone of work was an ironic social sarcasm, with Dickens aiming at what he felt as social injustice. Many impressive characters were introduced, including Nicholas's wicked Uncle Ralph, and the evil Wackford Squeers, who operate the boarding school of all the rough boys in which Nicholas temporarily serves as a tutor.
Plot
Nicholas Nicklebies's father died suddenly after losing all his money in a bad investment. Nicholas, his mother and younger sister, Kate, were forced to give up their comfortable lifestyle in Devonshire and travel to London to seek help from their only relative, Nicholas's uncle Ralph Nickleby. Ralph, a cold and cruel businessman, had no desire to help a bad relationship and hate Nicholas, who reminded him of his dead brother, in plain sight. He earned Nicholas a low-paying job as assistant to Wackford Squeers, who runs the Dotheboys Hall school in Yorkshire. Nicholas was initially wary of Squeers (a very unpleasant person with one eye) because he was rude and abusive to his young indictments, but he tried to extinguish his suspicions. When Nicholas installed the postal carriage for the Greta Bridge, he was given a letter by officer Ralph, Newman Noggs. A once wealthy businessman, Noggs loses his fortune, gets drunk, and has no other way, but looks for a job with Ralph, whom he hates. The letter expressed his concern as an innocent youth, and offered to help if Nicholas ever obliged him. Once he arrived in Yorkshire, Nicholas realized that Squeers was doing a fraud: he brought unwanted kids (mostly illegitimate, limp or flawed) at high fees, and starved and mistreated them while using the money sent by them. parents, who just want to get them out of their way, to fill their own pockets. Squeers and whip his awful wife and beat children regularly, while spoiling their own child. Lessons are no better; they showed how the lowly educated Squeers themselves and he used the lessons as an excuse to send the kids away to do the chores. While he was there, Nicholas made friends with a simple boy named Smike, who is older than the other "students" and now acts as an unpaid minister. Nicholas caught the attention of Fanny Squeers, his innocent and intelligent master's daughter, who deceived himself by thinking that Nicholas fell in love with him. She tries to express her feelings during the card game, but Nicholas does not catch the meaning. Instead, he finally teases his friends, Tilda Price, to the gracious yet rude fiancee of Fanny and Tilda â € "John Browdie. After being approached by Fanny again, Nicholas frankly tells him that he does not reciprocate his affection and wants to be free of Dotheboys Hall's gruesome atmosphere, earning his hostility.
Fanny uses his newfound hatred from Nicholas to make life difficult for the only friend in school: Smike, the Squeers take to beat more and more often. One day Smike escaped, but was arrested and taken back to the Dotheboys. Squeers started hitting him, but Nicholas intervened. Squeers attacked him in the face and Nicholas snapped, hitting the principal harshly. During the fight, Fanny enters and attacks Nicholas, hating him for rejecting his love. Nicholas ignored him and proceeded to defeat the bloody Squeers. Quickly packing up his belongings and leaving Dotheboys Hall, he met John Browdie on the way. Browdie finds the idea that Squeers himself has been beaten very funny, and gives money to Nicholas and a staff walk to help him on his way back to London. At dawn, he is found by Smike, who begs to come with him. Nicholas and Smike left for London. Among other things, Nicholas wanted to find out what Squeers would say to his uncle.
Meanwhile, Kate and her mother were forced by Ralph to move from their home in the beautiful Miss LaCreevy portrait painters and into the cold, windy house Ralph owned in the slums of London. Ralph found a job for Kate to work for a fashionable miller, Madame Mantalini. Her husband, Mr. Mantalini, is a gigolo who relies on his (much older) wife to supply extraordinary tastes, and alludes to Kate by glancing at her. Kate proved initially awkward at her job, which frightened her head of the showroom, Miss Knag, a foolish and stupid woman who used Kate to make herself look better. It's a boomerang when clients prefer to be served by young and beautiful Kate than old Miss Knag. Kate was blamed for humiliation, and as a result, Kate was ostracized by other mills and left without friends.
Nicholas sought the help of Newman Noggs, who showed him the letter Fanny Squeers wrote to Ralph. It cruelly exaggerates the event of Nicholas's beating and slander. They suspect Ralph secretly knows the truth, but sticks to Fanny's account to further persecute Nicholas. Noggs told Nicholas, who was intent on confronting his uncle, that Ralph was out of town and advised him to find a job. Nicholas went to work, where he met a very beautiful girl. His job search failed, and he would give up when Noggs offered him little French teacher position to his neighbor's children, the Kenwigs family, and Nicholas was employed under the pseudonym "Johnson" to teach French children.
Ralph asks Kate to attend the dinner she is hosting for some business associates. When he arrived he found out he was the only woman present, and it became clear Ralph used him as a decoy to attract the stupid lord Lord Frederick Verisopht to do business with him. Other guests included a mentor and friend of Verisopht, the ugly nobleman Sir Mulberry Hawk, who embarrassed Kate at dinner by making her the subject of an offensive bet. He escapes from the table, but is then greeted by Hawk. He tried to force himself but stopped by Ralph. Ralph shows an unexpected tenderness towards Kate but insists that he will withdraw his financial aid if he tells his mother what happened.
The next day, Nicholas discovers that his uncle has returned. She visited her mother and sister just as Ralph was reading Fanny Squeers's letter and slandering Nicholas. He confronts his uncle, who vows not to give Nicklebys any financial aid as long as Nicholas lives with them. His hand was forced, Nicholas agreed to leave London, but warned Ralph that the day of reckoning would come one day between them.
The next morning, Nicholas and Smike travel to Portsmouth with the aim of becoming a sailor. At an inn, they meet the theater manager Vincent Crummles, who hired Nicholas (still using Johnson's name) in plain sight. Nicholas is the new teenage leader, as well as the playwright, with the task of adapting French tragedies into English and then modifying them to a minimal dramatic ability of the rombong. Nicholas and Smike joined the acting company and were warmly welcomed by the entourage, which included the tough Crummles wife, their daughter, "The Baby Phenomenon", and many others who were eccentric and melodramatic. Nicholas and Smike made their debut in Romeo and Juliet, as Romeo and Apothecary, and were greeted with great praise from the provincial audience. Nicholas enjoys temptation with his Juliet, beautiful Miss Snevellici.
Returning to London, the careless spending of Mr Mantalini had made her bankrupt. Madame Mantalini was forced to sell her business to Miss Knag, whose first sequence was to fire Kate. He found work as a companion of Mrs Wittiterly's social ascent. Meanwhile, Sir Mulberry Hawk embarked on a plan to embarrass Kate for refusing the down payment. He uses Lord Frederick, who is crazy about him, to find where he lives from Ralph. He will succeed in this plot when Mrs Nickleby enters Ralph's office, and two rakes distract them from Kate's uncle to her mother, managed to infiltrate Mrs Nickleby's company and gain access to Wititerly's home. Mrs. Wittiterly grows jealous and rebukes Kate for teasing the nobles. The injustice of this accusation made Kate so angry that she scolded her employer, who flew into hysterics. With no other way, Kate goes to her uncle to ask for help, but he refuses to help her, citing her business relationship with Hawk and Verisopht. It was left to Newman Noggs to come to his aid, and he wrote a letter to Nicholas, telling him on vague terms about the need of his very urgent brother. Nicholas stopped short of the Crummles troupe and returned to London.
Noggs and Miss La Creevy negotiate, and decide to postpone telling Nicholas about Kate's misery until late at night for her to search for Hawk and take violent action. So when Nicholas arrived, both Noggs and Miss La Creevy came out. Nicholas would look for the city for them when he accidentally overheard the Eagles and Lord Frederick by roughly roasting Kate in the coffee shop. He was able to pick up from their conversations what had happened, and confront them. Hawk refused to name Nicholas or respond to his accusations. As he tries to leave, Nicholas follows him out, and jumps to the board running from his car, demanding his name. Hawk attacked him with horse riding, and Nicholas lost his temper, restored the blows and frightened the horses, causing the train to fall. Hawk was injured in the accident and vowed to take revenge, but Lord Verisopht, who was sorry for his treatment of Kate, told him that he would try to stop him. Then, after the Eagles recovered, they quarreled over Hawk's insistence on taking revenge on Nicholas. Verisopht attacked Hawk, resulting in a duel. Verisopht was killed, and Hawk fled to France. As a result, Ralph lost a large sum of money owed to him by his late master.
Nicholas gathered Kate from Wittiterlys, and with their mother and Smike, they returned to Miss LaCreevy's house. Nicholas wrote a letter to Ralph, refusing, on behalf of his family, a penny from his uncle's money or influence. Back in the labor office, Nicholas meets Charles Cheeryble, a wealthy and very generous merchant who runs a business with his twin brother, Ned. Hearing Nicholas's story, the brothers took him into their work with generous salary and gave his family a small house in the suburbs of London.
Ralph meets the beggar, who recognizes him and reveals himself as Brooker, a former employee of Ralph. He tries to blackmail Ralph with a piece of unknown information, but is expelled. Returning to his office, Ralph received Nicholas's letter and started planning his niece seriously. Wackford Squeers returned to London and joined Ralph on his plot.
Smike, on the London road, has the misfortune to run to Squeers, who kidnaps her. Luckily for Smike, John Browdie was honeymooning in London with his new wife Tilda and found the difficulty. When they had dinner with Squeers, Browdie faked the disease and took the opportunity to save Smike and send him back to Nicholas. As a thank you, Nicholas invited the Browdies for dinner. At the party, also attended by Cheerybles nephews, Frank and their elderly employees, Tim Linkinwater, Ralph, and Squeers attempted to reclaim Smike by presenting false documents stating that he was a long-lost son of a man named Snawley (who, in actuality), is a friend of Squeers with children at Dotheboys Hall). Smike refused to leave, but the threat of legal action remained.
While working, Nicholas meets the beautiful young woman he once saw in the labor office and realizes that he is in love with her. The brothers told him that his name was Madeline Bray, the poor daughter of a debtor, Walter Bray, and asked for his help to get a small sum of money for him by commissioning his work, the only way they could help him because of his cruel father.
Arthur Gride, an old miser, offered to pay Ralph's debt owed by Walter Bray in return for the aid of the moneylender. Gride has illegally mastered the will of Madeline's grandfather, and she will become an heir at the time of her marriage. The two moneylenders persuaded Bray to bully his daughter into receiving a disgusting Gride as a husband, with the promise of paying off his debts. Ralph was unaware of Nicholas's involvement with the Brays, and Nicholas had not found Ralph's scheme until the wedding. She encourages Madeline to cancel the wedding, but even though she has feelings for Nicholas, she is too loyal to her dying father to fight her wishes. On the wedding day, Nicholas tried to stop him once more but his efforts proved academic when Bray, who was ridden by the sacrifices his daughter made for him, died suddenly. Madeline thus has no reason to marry Gride and Nicholas and Kate take her to their home to recover.
Smike has tuberculosis and becomes seriously ill. In a last-ditch effort to save his friend's health, Nicholas took him to his childhood home in Devonshire, but Smike's health quickly deteriorated. On her deathbed, Smike is surprised to see the man who took her to the Squeers school. Nicholas dismissed him as an illusion but later revealed that Smike was right. After confessing his love for Kate, Smike dies peacefully in Nicholas's arms.
When they returned to the Gride house after a failed marriage, Ralph and Gride discovered that Peg Sliderskew, the housekeeper of Gride's old, had robbed Gride, taking, among other things, a will. To get it back, Ralph enlists the Wackford Squeers service to track Peg. Noggs found this plot, and with the help of Frank Cheeryble, he was able to restore the will and capture Squeers.
The Cheeryble brothers confronted Ralph, informing him that his various schemes against Nicholas had failed. They advised him to retire from London before the allegations were filed against him, as Squeers was determined to concede all and involve Ralph. He refused their help, but was called back to their office that night and said that Smike was dead. When he reacts to the news with joy, the brothers reveal their last card. Brooker beggar appears, and tells Ralph that Smike is his own son. As a young man, Ralph had married a woman to his fortune, but kept it a secret so that he would not lose his inheritance for marrying without her brother's consent, and wait for his brother to die. He finally leaves him after giving birth to a son, whom he entrusts to Brooker, who was then his servant. Brooker, taking the opportunity to take revenge, took the boy to the Squeers school and told Ralph that the boy had died. Brooker now regrets his action, but a transport sentence prevents him from putting the matter right. Stricken with the thought that his only son died as the best friend of his greatest enemy, Ralph committed suicide. His bad fortune ends up in the state treasury because he dies and his distant relatives refuse to claim it.
Squeers was sentenced to transport to Australia, and, upon hearing this, the children at Dotheboys Hall rebelled against the Squeers family and escaped with the help of John Browdie. Nicholas became a partner at Cheerybles firm and married Madeline. Kate and Frank Cheeryble were also married, as did Tim Linkinwater and Miss LaCreevy. Brooker died with regret. Noggs restored his honor. The Nicklebys and their family now return to Devonshire, where they live in peace and contentment and grieve over Smike's grave.
Main characters
Although some people consider this book to be one of the best works of the 19th century comedy, Nicholas Nickleby is sometimes criticized for his lack of character development.
Theater adaptation
This novel has been adapted for stage, film or television at least seven times. The large-scale version (from playwright David Edgar) aired in 1980 in the West End by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was a theatrical experience lasting over ten hours (counting pauses and dinner breaks - actual play time was about eight and a half hours). Production received critical and popular acclaim. All the actors play many roles because of the many characters, except Roger Rees, who plays Nicholas, and David Threlfall, who plays Smike (because of the amount of time they are on stage). The drama moved to Broadway in 1981. In 1982 the RSC had an event recorded as three episodes of two hours and one hour and three hours for Channel 4, where it became the channel's first drama. In 1983, it was featured on television in the United States, where he won an Emmy Award for Best Mini Series. This version was released on DVD and re-broadcast in December 2007 on BBC Four.
In 2006 Edgar prepared a shorter version for production at the Chichester Festival, which was transferred in December 2007 and January 2008 to the Gielgud Theater in the West End. This version has been produced in the US by the California Shakespeare Festival.
Early theater adaptations included Smike , 1838 Nicholas Nickleby; or, Doings at Do-The-Boys Hall (Premiums ¨red at Adelphi Theater and City of London Theater, and featuring Mary Anne Keeley as Smike), American version of the 1850s featuring Joseph Jefferson as Newman Noggs, and others at the end the 19th century featured Nellie Farren as Smike. The latest theater adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby as a musical performed by The Bedford Marianettes. The inaugural world opens on October 23, 2012 at The Place theater in Bedford, featuring Daniel Pothecary as eponymous Nicholas Nickleby, Chris Lynch as Smike and Bill Prince as Mr. Squeers. Music, lyrics and libretto were written by Tim Brewster and available for professional and amateur production.
Early theater versions actually appeared before the publication of the serial novels were completed, with the stage resolution playing quite different from the finished novel. Dickens's cheating on this plagiarism prompted him to meet the "literary man" in chapter forty-eight novels. The man boasted that he had dramatized two hundred and forty-seven novels "as fast as they came out - in some cases faster than they produce," and claimed to have given the author his fame. In response, Nicholas gave a long and heated condemnation of the practice of adapting unfinished books without the author's permission, went so far as to say:
If I was a book writer, and you are a thirsty playwright, I would rather pay your tavern score for six months, as big as possible, than have a niche in the Temple of Fame with you for the simplest corner of my base, through six hundred generations
Movies and TV adaptations
Two short minutes showing the fight scene in "Dotheboys Hall" was released in 1903. The half-hour movie adaptation that attempted to cover most of the novels followed in 1912, featuring Batman's Victory as Miss La Creevey and Ethyle Cooke as Miss Snevellici. The first sound adaptation film, Nicholas Nickleby's Life and Adventure, was released in 1947, starring Cedric Hardwicke as Ralph Nickleby, Sally Ann Howes as Kate, Derek Bond as Nicholas and Stanley Holloway as Crummles.
In 1957, it was a TV series that went on for a season, with William Russell in the title race.
In 1968, it was made into a TV series starring Martin Jarvis.
In 1977, BBC Television adapted a novel in production directed by Christopher Barry, starring Nigel Havers in the title role, Derek Francis as Wackford Squeers and Patricia Routledge as Madame Mantalini.
In 2001, ITV produced The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby won the BAFTA and RTS awards for costume design. It was directed by Stephen Whittaker. It features James D'Arcy, Charles Dance, Pam Ferris, Lee Ingleby, Gregor Fisher, Tom Hollander, J. J. Feild and Tom Hiddleston.
In 2002, Nicholas Nickleby was released. The film is directed by American director Douglas McGrath and the main character features Charlie Hunnam, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Bell, Alan Cumming, Jim Broadbent, Christopher Plummer, Juliet Stevenson, Nathan Lane, Tom Courtenay and Barry Humphries.
In 2012, the novel was adapted as a modern drama (with some changes to the plot and character) for the BBC, filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with local actors. The five-part series is titled Nick Nickleby . In this version, the title character is played by Andrew Simpson, with Linda Bassett as Mrs Smike, Adrian Dunbar as Ralph Nickleby, Jonathan Harden as Newman Noggs (also tells the series), Bronagh Gallagher as Mrs Nickleby and Jayne Wisener (Kat Nickleby) also starred. It aired on BBC One from 5-9 November at 2:15 pm. Each episode is 45 minutes long and is produced by Kindle Entertainment Ltd and distributed by Indigo Film and Television.
Mention in popular culture
- In the story of Roald Dahl on BFG , Great Giant Friendly learned to write by reading Dickens novel "hundreds of times".
- Another character from Roald Dahl's, Miss Trunchbull's school principal of Matilda , supports Wackford Squeers teaching methods as one to be admired.
- In Evelyn Waugh A Handful of Dust , Nicholas Nickleby is one of several Dickens novels Tony Last forced to read to Todd psychotically in reply to Todd saving his life.
- Ray Bradbury Every Friend Nicholas Nickleby is My Beloved Friend featuring a man pretending to be Dickens.
- Laurel McKelva Hand, the main character in Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter , recites Nicholas Nickleby to his father as he recovers from eye surgery.
- In Star Trek: Enterprise , the third 3-episode season is handled with Dr. Arik Soong and his additional "children" test tube which is the remainder of the Eugenic War of the 1990s. An addendum named Udar is shunned by "his brothers" because he does not have all the same superior abilities as the others. He was nicknamed Smike by "his brothers" for his shortcomings and was eventually murdered by his "brother" Malik in the episode of Cold Station 12. Udar is played by actor Kaj-Erik Eriksen, and Dr. Arik Soong is played by Special Guest Star Brent Spiner.
- The title is parodied as "Knickerless Knickleby" in the Monty Python sketch of Bookstore .
Publications
Nicholas Nickleby originally published in 19 monthly numbers; the latter is a double number and cost two shillings instead of one. Each number consists of 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Phiz:
- I - March 1838 (chapters 1-4);
- II - April 1838 (chapters 5-7);
- III - May 1838 (chapters 8-10);
- IV - June 1838 (chapters 11-14);
- V - July 1838 (chapters 15-17);
- VI - August 1838 (chapters 18-20);
- VII - September 1838 (chapters 21-23);
- VIII - October 1838 (chapters 24-26);
- IX - November 1838 (chapters 27-29);
- X - December 1838 (chapters 30-33);
- XI - January 1839 (chapters 34-36);
- XII - February 1839 (chapters 37-39);
- XIII - March 1839 (chapters 40-42);
- XIV - April 1839 (chapters 43-45);
- XV - May 1839 (chapters 46-48);
- XVI - June 1839 (chapters 49-51);
- XVII - July 1839 (chapters 52-54);
- XVIII - August 1839 (chapters 55-58);
- XIX-XX - September 1839 (chapters 59-65).
References
External links
Online edition
- Nicholas Nickleby in the Internet Archive.
- Nicholas Nickleby in Project Gutenberg
- Nicholas Nickleby - Searchable HTML version.
- Nicholas Nickleby - Easy to read HTML version.
- The Life and Adventure of Nicholas Nickleby public domain audiobook on LibriVox
Analysis
- Robert Giddings, reviewing the 2002 movie, but much more insight into the novel itself.
- Nicholas Nickleby - Themes Nicholas Nickleby - detailed checks.
- George Gissing, The Immortal Dickens, 1925.
- G. K. Chesterton, Appreciation and Criticism of the Work of Charles Dickens , 1911.
Resources
- Nicholas Nickleby Selected bibliography 2006
- Nicholas Nickleby Map
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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