Sunday, 31 January 2010

Nicholas Nickleby. By Charles Dickens

Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens

First published 1838-39. The edition I read was the Penguin Popular Classics edition published by Penguin Books in 1994

Maybe the third or fourth time I am reading this book. One of Dickens' best, but not the very best. It was serialized in weekly or monthly parts when Dickens first published it, and some of the requirement of such serialization shows in the book. There are frequent climaxes, characters are introduced even late into the novel (e.g. Arthur Gride and Madeline Bray), and many stories, apparently unconnected, are interwoven, Nevertheless it's a wonderful book, worth the three or four reads, and maybe worth more. The most memorable is Dotheboys Hall, both the name and the description of the school.

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