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NICHOLAS NICKLEBY

Installments 1- 3 : Chapter 1 - 11



“The Nickleby Portrait�� - Daniel Maclise

It seems right to head our read with this portrait, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Charles Dickens and the artist Daniel Maclise had become close friends the summer before this portrait was painted. Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) was a history and portrait painter. In a letter dated 28 June 1839, Dickens wrote “Maclise has made another face of me which all people say is astonishing��. In October, which as you will see is just after the novel was completed, his publishers Chapman and Hall presented it to Dickens at a celebratory dinner. An engraving of it was later used as the frontispiece to the first edition of Nicholas Nickleby in 1839. Perhaps it is also in your copy?
This is in the public domain, but a better reproduction is here, on the National Portrait Gallery website: ..

I like to think this shows the Dickens as the earnest young hero of Nicholas Nickleby. Just look at that eager expression, and the piercing eyes. He is, like our hero Nicholas, determined to make his way in the world sensitive to slights and “lion-hearted�� (as one character calls him) in his chivalric readiness to defend moral justice.

In many ways, Nicholas Nickleby is Charles Dickens.

LINKS TO CHAPTERS

The Nickleby Proclamation

I
Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

II
Chapter 5

Chapter 6
The Five Sisters of York (Interpolated story 1)
The Baron of Grogzwig (Interpolated story 2)

Chapter 7

III
Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Link to new thread

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION:

Nicholas Nickleby was Charles Dickens’s third novel, begun when he was 26 years of age. Like nearly all of Charles Dickens’s novels, it was published in 20 monthly installments, each containing 32 pages of text and the two illustrations, with the last two being published together as a double issue. The original title was very wordy:

“The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family��

and it was not published under his own name, but under the pseudonym, “Boz��. Only when it was published as a novel did Dickens use his own name.

The serial was illustrated by his favourite illustrator and great friend Hablot Knight Browne, (or “Phiz��) who produced 2 illustrations per installment (except once, where there was a problem and he missed the date - making it up by engraving four the next month! More when we get there ��) Here is the original publishing schedule, so that you can plan ahead if you wish. It was published in book form later that year.

Installment—Date of publication—Chapters:

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)

READING PLAN

If you have not joined in a read of a novel with ��ྱ�����Բ������Բ�!�� before, please read this! Regular members can just skim the bulk of it.

Our read is different from that of real life groups, because we discuss as we go. The experience is more like the original readers had.

There are 65 chapters. We will read and comment on one chapter a day, (with one exception) with a break after each installment. This story is long, but not as complex as some, so hopefully those who wish to, should be able to fit in other reads too.

Although Charles Dickens’s original readers took a year and a half over it, we will take 3 months, which may seem a long time to 21st century readers, but is more than 6 times as fast as his original readers! If you prefer a faster pace, please bear in mind exactly where we are in the novel, which you can see at a glance at the first post in the latest thread. This will have links to each day’s chapters added as we go. Please do NOT include spoilers; your post will be deleted if you do. There is a chance to discuss the novel as a whole during the third month.

Splitting a group read into more than 5 or 6 threads can cause problems of access for later readers, so hopefully we can stick to this, unless the threads become too long and unwieldy. I will remind everyone when the next day will be a break day, or if it will begin a new thread. Feel free to continue discussing through this, but please forgive me if I do not respond personally on a break day. I will read it, and bear it in mind as we go, but that day helps me to consolidate my preparation.

Dickens wrote two further Prefaces to the one in 1839; one in 1848 and one in 1867. They are interesting, with no plot spoilers, but some may prefer not to read them until afterwards. Also, most online resources contain spoilers. Please avoid wiki, schmoop, sparknotes etc., for this reason (unless you are familiar with the story). Even googling one character’s name may reveal something you prefer not to know until Dickens tells you, as members have found to their regret. And in Nicholas Nickleby just as in all his novels, there are secrets and surprises right at the end, which it would be a shame to spoil for yourself.

Credits: I intend to use the summaries from the Literature Network, which look OK. So far I have give up on summaries on the Net every time, and written my own, so time will tell ... (Edit - They were hopeless with too many mistakes, and never picked up on the satire or humour, so were quickly abandoned.)
The illustrations will be from the Victorian Web, mostly scanned by Philip Allingham.

Reading of the text will begin on 22nd September, and continue until 16th
December, with a few days extra for comments and observation of the work as a whole, before our next read, of his final Christmas book, begins with Petra on 23rd December.

FILMS AND ADAPTATIONS

Nicholas Nickleby is very theatrical, lending itself well to be dramatised. As a consequence there are numerous adaptations! I’ll record here some of the best, and my personal favourite(s).

1. The outstanding one, (critics and anyone who saw it live agree), was the unforgettable “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1980)�� written for the Royal Shakespeare Company by David Edgar and premièring in Stratford, then the West End and New York. It is nine hours in length!

The book of Nicholas Nickleby had rather fallen out of favour in the 1960s, with falling sales a fraction of the early ones, and little critical attention. But this adaptation, spread over 2 days for each performance, gave the novel a new lease of life and played to turn-away audiences in both Britain and America. A live relay was chosen in 1982, as the first ever broadcast on the new British TV channel 4. Roger Rees played Nicholas Nickleby (quite a marathon, as he was on stage all the time!)

Sadly, we can't fly back in our Dickensians' time machine to attend the performance, but this performance is available on a DVD set. It won an Emmy award in the USA for Outstanding Miniseries. The DVDs are a bit expensive in Britain, but may be cheaper abroad, and secondhand copies are worth looking for. (I was given a copy as a gift a couple of years ago, and it’s one of my favourite DVD sets.)

2. If you prefer shorter and more modern adaptations, the best one is probably The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001), an ITV television film directed by Stephen Whittaker, with James D’Arcy as Nicholas. The film won a BAFTA and an RTS Award for costume design.

3. Another is Nicholas Nickleby (2002). I think of this as “the blond Nicholas Nickleby��! It’s not as highly regarded, and Charlie Hunnam seems unconvincing and rather wooden to me, but there is a brilliant performance from Jamie Bell as Smike, and other secondary characters are good.

4. There’s a BBC series titled Nicholas Nickleby from 1977, starring Nigel Havers in the title role. There are 6 episodes, and each one is nearly an hour long. This holds up really well, and is quite authentic. I recommend this as the most complete version.

5. Another BBC series also called Nicholas Nickleby from 1968 stars Martin Jarvis as Nicholas. All episodes exist, but it will probably have a dated feel and be rather set-bound. (I haven’t seen this one for years.)

6. (and 7.) Finally we have the film of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), which was the very first sound film adaptation, starring the amazingly tall Derek Bond as Nicholas, and a stellar cast. It is quite famous and so exuberant; heightening the theatrical melodrama, it really brings the caricatures to life. Still well worth watching, even though it’s such an old film. The DVD also includes a half-hour film from 1912, featuring Harry Benham as Nicholas, which attempts to cover most of the novel!

You can tell my favourites, but if you know any or all of these, which do you like and recommend for everyone, perhaps to enjoy after our read?

WHICH EDITION?

There is no textually definitive edition of Nicholas Nickleby. One of his letters in September 1838 reveals that it was the very first time Charles Dickens had decided it might be a good idea to preserve his manuscript! However, only fragments survive, the longest being over 100 pages, (ch 9,16,17 and 20) in the Rosenbach Foundation in Philadelphia.


This is the edition on our shelves, and the one I will be using (ASIN B00I99PLJ4). It is a kindle edition, complete, unabridged and with all the original illustrations from the first serial publication and costs £1.49 (probably just over a dollar). If you are happy with just the text, you can get various free editions, but they may not have an active table of contents. As usual I will post all the original illustrations by Phiz in the relevant chapter summary, plus as many of the others by other slightly later artists as I have time for!

The free Gutenberg one is the same edition. You can download it or use it on your pc. Here is a link:



If you would like an annotated edition, sadly there is no Norton critical edition to date. However, there are several paper editions with introductions by Dickens scholars, such as Michael Slater (currently held to be the author of the best critical biography). The best ones are probably:



Penguin Classics (ISBN 978-0-140-43512-2 - pub. 1999) Also on kindle. Introduction and notes by the literary critic and poet Mark Ford. Tiny print but good notes. Please avoid the introduction until afterwards unless you know the story, as it is packed with spoilers.



Penguin English Library Nicholas Nickleby (ISBN 9780141199818 pub. 1999) Has an essay at the end by Michael Slater as above. - thanks Chris Small print, but larger print than the other Penguin edition.


Oxford World’s Classics (ISBN 9780191505935 pub 1990) Also on kindle. Introduction and notes by Dickens scholar Paul Schlicke, author of several books on Dickens, and who edited the The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens).


Wordsworth Classics (ISBN 9781853262647 - pub. 1995) Introduction and Notes by a Dr T.C.B. Cook. Thanks Claudia

Also worth looking at are:

Oxford University Press: Mandarin paperback - (ISBN 9780749307578 - pub. 1991) Introduction by Peter Ackroyd


Penguin Popular Classics (ISBN 9780140620573 - pub.1994)


Vintage Classics Nicholas Nickleby (ISBN 9780099540793)
Just the text, including the 2 prefaces. Small dense print, between the 2 Penguin size fonts.

There are many more! If yours is not here, please say and I will add it if you like.

Please be aware though that both Oxford and Penguin books are notorious for including spoilers in their introductions, critical notes and even on occasion we have found, their footnotes! So please do read these with care, or after the novel itself.

And a little more ��

I don’t want to say too much about the story, so that we can all enjoy exploring it together.

Nicholas Nickleby is an early novel, and very much the energetic and exuberant work of a young man. Charles Dickens wrote the sort of novel he had loved ever since he was a child: a picaresque “life and adventures�� tale patterned on those by Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett and so on. We have read two of these 18th century novels as a group: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding, and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. (After his stellar lead of this one Erich will be leading another 18th century novel for us in Spring 2025.)

So just as in those, we follow a young hero who encounters a variety of colourful characters, and meets with diverse experiences in the course of his travels. Up to a point, his character develops as he learns from his experiences, so it conforms to the idea of a Bildungsroman or “coming-of-age story��.

Nicholas Nickleby is famous for its attack on the notorious Yorkshire schools, and also its comic depiction of a travelling theatre company - which is why, of course, it is perfect as a finale for our “Dramatic Dickens!�� season.

Be prepared for lots of drama, side-splitting humour, sentiment, pathos, romance, tragedy - and simply wonderful characters in an unforgettable story.

We begin exactly 2 weeks today, on Sunday 22nd September, and everyone will receive the official GR notification in one week. Please try to read the above comments before then. They will not spoil the plot, but hopefully the information may help get the most out of our read.

Feel free to say if you are joining in, as I will link the first day’s comment
to the beginning of the thread, as usual. I’m looking forward to our read of this one; in some ways it is my favourite!

I’m in!! I have been looking forward to another Dickens’s novel, and lucky for me this is one I haven’t yet read!

I'm looking forward to reading Nicholas Nickleby for the first time. I received the book as a present a few years ago, and have been hoping it was chosen for our yearly novel. Thanks for all the great information, Jean.

Can’t wait to get started! I’ve been looking forward to the next long Dickens read :)

Ready to read. Here we go.

Me, too - waiting for the next Dickens novel. Thanks. peace, janz

I’m definitely excited to read this one with the group!

I’m going to do my best to join in. Have 2 upcoming trips in October and December. But I really want to read another Dickens!

Bionic Jean wrote: "WHICH EDITION?

There is no textually definitive edition of Nicholas Nickleby. One of his letters in September 1838 reveals that it was the very first time Charles Dickens had decid..."

These days when I read a Victorian classic like Dickens, I enjoy reading it along with the audiobook narration. It seems there are no less than 4 Librivox versions. Does anyone have a sense as to which one they think is the best recording?

I’m not certain if I will be joining in as I read this not too long ago, but I do love the Dickens reads so I may well try. Nothing like reading with this group.

Fantastic! It's lovely to switch on and see 17 friends in already (I always think I might be talking to myself LOL!) We are going to have a rollicking ride 😊

Paul makes a great point about audio, so please do share if you know a good one. I didn't recommend any radio dramatisations in the section on adaptations, as I don't know of any. But the complete audio I know of is a DAISY disc read by George Hagan, and is 37 hours, 43 minutes long. I'm not sure it is commercially available though.

I am also looking forward to reading this along with the group.

I will do my best to join in!

I have purchased the Wordsworth edition, second hand. Generally speaking their notes are explanatory and not betraying anything. I agree with you Jean on some Penguin classics, sometimes with spoilers.

Ah good! Thanks Claudia - that's helpful. T.C.B Cook did not sound familiar to me.

Good to have you along too Katy.

I also plan to join in. I have never read this novel and have the 1978 Penguin English Library PB edition with intro and notes by Michael Slater.

Great Chris! I've been trying to find that one ... can you check the ISBN please? I have 9780141199818 and 9780141974132 but suspect these may be for a later Penguin English library edition with a different intro.

(The GR database shows 1577 editions .... which is clearly nonsense and must have lots of duplicates as well as translations, so it would be good to nail half a dozen good ones and have our own list 😊)

I will join in on this group reading. It will be my first time to read it and am really looking forward to it. I have borrowed the novel plus audiobook from Prime reading. Like others with the classics, I like to follow along with an audiobook; I think it enhances the experience of reading the novel that much more. In my experience, the actors with the Amazon classics are excellent; I've never been disappointed with the audiobooks.

Great Laura! It will be good to have you along for this Big Read 😊 Please do read the first few comments, which explain more.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Great Chris! I've been trying to find that one ... can you check the ISBN please? I have 9780141199818 and 9780141974132 but suspect these may be for a later Penguin English library edition with a ..."

0140431136

I will be joining. I am also listening while reading along. I am in the U.S. and have access to several audiobooks where I need not buy the book. The first option is my Hoopla from the library with several editions available to borrow and the second is with my subscription to Audible Plus which has some audiobooks you can listen to without using a credit and there are a couple of versions available for this. I will probably listen to the Simon Vance narration since he is a favorite narrator, but since I am always listening to Vance I may try a different narrator for variety this time.

Thanks Chris - I'll add it to the post.
And welcome SAM! 😊

I will be joining in, although a few days late, as we have company for the first few days.

I recently listened to the Simon Vance narration of NN and did not enjoy his voice for this book. His British accent did not compete well in the somewhat noisy environment I was walking in at the time.

I began this book a while ago but I never got to finishing it, so I am definitely ready to give it another go!

It's sounding good ... great to see you Kathleen - and welcome to the group Naomi! Do introduce yourself here LINK HERE if you like, so we can get to know you 😊

Yeah!!! I've been checking for weeks for the next big read. Nicholas Nickleby sounds like so much fun. I'll be along for the ride as well, Jean. Looking forward to it!

Oh I'm so pleased to see you back Shirley! And yes, it is a hoot, and a great story too. We will have a ball 😆

I'm sending a group message soon, separate from the official GR notification, hopefully to make sure nobody misses it by accident.

I'll be joining in, but will start sometime in Oct., after I finish another group read I'm committed to. But I'm trusting that I'll catch up with you all before Dec. 16!

Welcome Werner 😊

Thanks, Jean! :-)

Love your introduction to this novel, Jean! Those who are new to the group are in for a real treat! And if you ARE new to Dickensians, I humbly offer a few suggestions.

Keep up with the readings; you will feel more confident in contributing to the conversation because you will know the material. And we definitely want to know what YOU are thinking, because that is how original thoughts & ideas are born!

Do your best to keep up with the comments, too. You will learn as much as if you were sitting in a classroom listening to the exchange between students and professor. And in our group, many members really know their Charles Dickens.

Make this reading a part of your regular routine. Very quickly you will become aware that we are in different time zones all around the world!

Most of all, have fun!!

Been looking forward to the next Big Read! I will definitely be joining in again :)
Hopefully I can keep up this time!

Great news! I've never read this novel and am looking forward to taking part �� even though I expect to be in the middle of War and Peace!

Lee - thank you! Those comments are perfect, and very helpful. When I was sending my tongue-in-cheek "theatrical" group message yesterday, I suddenly realised I had not encouraged our new and/or silent members to join in, yet Nicholas Nickleby would be a great one to start with. I remember one excellent reviewer on GR writing that she didn't think Dickens was noted for his humour, and I thought "What?!" 😮

Jenny - I'm so glad you will join in ... and I hope I can keep up too. Honestly! 😆

Jim - Lovely to see you in for this one, and that made me laugh! Nicholas Nickleby should prove the perfect complement/antidote to War and Peace, and after all, Charles Dickens was still writing installments of Oliver Twist for a whole year, while he was writing those for Nicholas Nickleby! The mind boggles 🤔

I am another who has never read this, so looking forward to spending the next few months with it and all of you! I'll finish Mr. Nightingale, and then dive into all the wonderful background info I see above--thank you, Jean!

I am going to try to join in on this, even though I have read it before we all know reading with this group is a horse of a different color.

Thank you for the warm welcome back, Jean. I'm so looking forward to reading another long read with the Dickensians! I already love seeing so many participants (truly, friends) from our past reads and look forward to meeting new ones.

Lee, I love your advice for newcomers. Everything you said is so helpful because these awesome long reads are like no other. Reading Dickens' longer works with this group truly feels like a classroom experience!

And Jean, thank you for the heads up on a Spring 2025 read with Erich. There is no way I would have been able to read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman without his expert guidance and the group's wonderful participation last year.

Looking forward to joining in. Have only read a few Dickens novels and this will be a new one for me.

It's so great to find friends old and new here! And also to have a mixture of some friends who know the book, and some for whom it will be their first encounter with Nicholas. What a treat we all have in store. Welcome to Kathleen, Sara and Quirks 😊

Do please feel free to introduce yourself in our welcome thread Quirks, so we can get to know you. LINK HERE (I am delighted that Little Dorrit is on your favourites shelf! We had a fantastic experience with our Big Read of that a couple of years ago ... check out our threads LINK HERE.)

Oh Sigh! I went to the book case where the Dickens books live and pulled out NN. Went to the chair, sat down, opened it up, first page fell out, second page is loose - and the writing is so tiny. Something happened to my book. I probably purchased it and read it 50 years ago - can't remember if it was for a class but I certainly reread it about 40 years ago when the Wayne State University theatre department presented it. At that time, the university theatre deparment was probably the best in the state. It was a two night production - maybe 5 hours one night and 4 the next night. By the end of the show, we knew our neighbors well. I loved it. Now the dilemma: Do I buy a new book with all the pages or struggle with tiny print and paper clips and tape? I have my precious written notes in this book. And another problem is that I am finished with 8 decades of life and would I use up a new book? Ah, the problems of life when one gets old. And waiting for the hurricane to arrive - I live in Florida and maybe it will blow itself out in Texas. peace, janz

I just reloaded my copy of NN back on to the active page of my kindle from the limbo it’s been in since I read it. Can’t believe we begin in just over a week!

Oh, Janz, I feel for you...but, buy the new book in larger print and keep the old one for sentiment and reference. Life is short and eyes are precious. Be safe!

Sara wrote: "Oh, Janz, I feel for you...but, buy the new book in larger print and keep the old one for sentiment and reference. Life is short and eyes are precious. Be safe!"

Janz, I echo what Sara said!

I ordered a copy from Thriftbooks, hoping it arrives by the 22nd! I'm looking forward to participating. The edition I ordered is the Penguin Classic so I don't plan on reading the Introduction :-)

The installment schedule is fascinating to me! In our modern age, reading only 3 chapters every month would be unacceptable for most of us as we are so used to having our books on demand (for the most part). I'm quite a fast reader (reading something in tandom with my husband on my phone, say, is torture for me; "Are you done yet??") but I wonder if I lived in 1838 if my reading style would have been different!

I hope to join. I enjoyed reading Oliver Twist with this group a looking forward to this next Dickens deep dive.