Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens: Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Published on by Margaret

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m getting to the end of reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens, so I’m looking around to find a book to read to replace it. One of the books I might read is Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.

Nicholas Nickleby is the third novel by Charles Dickens, originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839 and published in book form in 1839. I know very little about and don’t remember watching any of the adaptations on TV or film.

The book begins:

There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire, one Godfrey Nickleby: a worthy gentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment, who in her turn had taken him for the same reason. Thus two people who cannot afford to play cards for money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

On page 56

‘Stop,’ cried Nicholas hurriedly; pray hear me. This is the grossest and wildest delusion, the completest and most signal mistake, that ever human being laboured under, or committed. I have scarcely seen the young lady half-a-dozen times, but if I had seen her sixty times, or am destined to see her sixty thousand thousand, it would be, and will be, precisely the same.

Description from Goodreads:

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, such as 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 phenomenon’. 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.

15 thoughts on “Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens: Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56”

  2. Oh, goodness, Margaret, I haven’t thought of this book in ages! Dickens was always so good at creating characters, so I hope you’ll enjoy these if you choose this book. I’m really hoping you’ll have a good reading experience!

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  3. The first part of the book is the strongest. I lost interest in all the sections about the Crummles. Dickens was fascinated by the theatre and the circus and just didn’t know when to shut up!

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    1. As I said in my post I know very little about Nicholas Nickleby, so now I’ll have to read it soon to find out who or what the Crummies are!

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  4. I hope you do decide to read this one, Margaret – it’s right up there with Bleak House as far as I’m concerned. I particularly like Kate Nickleby who is a much stronger female character than most of his drippy heroines. And just to say that I love the section about the Crummles— that whole section about the theatre is one of the things that makes the book so much fun. So now you’ll have to read it to see whether BookerTalk is right or I am… ;)

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    1. I finished Bleak House yesterday and after reading BookerTalk’s and your comments I can’t wait to find out about the Crummies. I’d never heard of them. And a strong female character would be good after reading about Esther and Ada in BH – rhey really are soppy characters.

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  6. Nicholas is one of my favorite Dickens novels and characters. I love everything about this book–so many memorable characters and scenes.

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adaptation, which is fine. Although I have heard there is a very good, and long, one!

    Enjoy!

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    1. I have read David Copperfield, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t decide which one of Dickens’ books is my favourite, so many of them are brilliant. David Copperfield is up there with others like Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times etc etc

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