What the Dickens? Nicholas Nickleby
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- In which I talk about Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby…
Nicholas Nickleby was Dickens’s third novel, published in 1838-9; it is my thirteenth favourite Dickens novel.
Nicholas Nickleby: / 325085.nicholas_nickleby
2002 film: www.imdb.com/ti...
Kate Howe’s 2001 TV film review: / @carolynsreadingramblings
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Yes if you thought the school in Jane Eyre was bad, the school in this novel makes that look paradise.
I loved this book just for its sheer melodrama. I really felt for the character of Nicholas trying to support his family. He's a really good character, his only flaw really is he's a bit hot headed. His time at the school and how he rebels against it. I remember the part where the uncle is telling his mother and sister various falsehoods about him and how he kicks the door open, appears and yells "lier!" Its so melodramatic it becomes almost funny. I still remember very vividly the part where Kate is brought to a party by her uncle and reliases to her horror that she's the only woman at the party and all these drunken men leacherously chase her round the room. The mother too was always believing that every man was in love with her if I remember rightly. Also in terms of a main character with an actually realistic profession Nicholas Nickleby and David Coplerfield are probably better than some others.
Super entertaining characters and a very compelling story line - I loved it!
@@MothGirl007 yes entertaining is the word.
"Bland hero. Good-looking and nice and well-meaning. Faints a lot." What a coincidence. That's what I wrote on my online dating profile.
+S Gabriels Hahahaha. Oh Sanna I miss you. I am so excited to see you soon :D
Nicholas Nickleby is one of the many Dickens books I haven't read, so it was really interesting to hear you talk about it! And ooh that first edition!
+A Hermit's Progress Thank you :) For all that the central characters are not my favourite, it's got a brilliant story. And I do love a very old book!
Just started reading it! Love your videos!!
'What is that word, Dickens?' Loved this, I've so been there when a word just doesn't make an sense aha. Your love for Dickens is definitely coming through, don't worry about that. It's like a marriage - sometimes he does bad things and you have to pull him up in that! :)
+Olivia Pope (Reading like a mad woman) Ha yes - lots of love and a fair bit of irritation is basically what I feel for Dickens :P
Yay for this series you're doing! I hadn't even realized it but Nicholas really is a dull hero but like all Dickens the minor characters are what hold the readers interest.
+Kate Howe I'm glad you're enjoying it :) And yes, I think you're right - especially in his earlier novels, his minor characters hold my attention much more than the main ones.
This was my first long Dickens (I’ve only reas A Christmas Carol before), and I really enjoyed it. I quite liked the caricatures 😁
Dickens is great at eccentric characters!
Katie, you never let us down with all of your wonderful Dickens videos. I have a suggestion, what about ranking the worst villains in all the Dickens novels?!! There are so many to choose from, like Ralph Nickleby in this one! Ugh! I've never seen a rankling of the villains in Dickens, and you are certainly the person to do it!
Good thought!
I haven't read it this one yet, but it sounds really interesting! I can totally see where you're coming with from your complaints though.
+ElizabethAnneBooks Thanks :) It is certainly an interesting and entertaining read, for all that I don't like about it.
That 1st edition is gorgeous! Nicholas Nickleby is also one of my least favorites, thought I do enjoy his story! I am loving these videos. Can't wait for tomorrows!
+Elizabeth Tyree Thanks :) I agree - it's got a good, dramatic story, even if it's not my favourite.
I haven't read this one yet but you made me want to read it right now haha. Your first edition is beautiful! So many evil schools in Dickins haha, I admit, I love his evil schools ;)
I need to pick this one up soon, especially since I love Dickins so much. Can't wait for tomorrows video!
+The Bookish Babbler Thanks :) I think you would really like Nicholas Nickleby actually - it's got a kind of similar tone to Oliver Twist :)
P.S. How are you enjoying City of Glass?
I will totally have to pick it up then!
And I am really enjoying it, Cassandra's character are just so much fun. How are you liking it?
So much. I do enjoy her characterisation, and it's just so fun and gripping :)
I totally feel your love/hate relationships with your favorite authors. I felt like getting my masters was one long disenchantment with Shakespeare while falling in love with his works over and over again. Plays or scenes I'd found charming or sweet earlier in my life started looking ugly, and then other plays I'd known little about became new favorites! Because you love Dickens so much you expect a great deal from him, so when his early books let you down you're disappointed. Yeah?
+BooksandQuestions Exactly! Because I know he can do characterisation so well, it irritates me when he doesn't. I often feel the same with bits of Shakespeare - especially with authors with large bodies of work, you kind of want every little bit to live up to their very best!
The first half of the novel contains some of my favorite Dickens' passages. I'm of Yorkshire descent landraced into the fertile soil and Bluegrass of Kentucky so I love the Brodies. Noggs and Smike are, for me, great characters as well. It really falls apart towards the end and feels to me like CD is stretching the story to fit a periodical goal. I thought the theater adventures were fun to read. But the last time I read it I stopped about the time the veggies flew over the wall. And what's with Victorian fainting? I've seen one young lady faint in 50 yeas and that was at a bloody crime scene. Perhaps the clothes and want of air? I don't know. Good review!
Probably all the corsets and the vast quantity of layers women were expected to wear, even in summer. Plus everyone's health was kind of worse in the Victorian period...
Excellent insights, thank you....I had never read Nickleby, despite having first waded through Christmas Carol when I was just 8 [it was rather over my head ! ] and then reading various other of his novels over the decades....What struck me about Nickleby is that it is similar to his book of 4 years later, the aforementioned Christmas Carol.....Ralph Nickleby is absolutely a forerunner of Ebenezer Scrooge...same greed, same total indifference to the suffering of other people.....But, alas, unlike Scrooge, Ralph finds no redemption.....As for the poor waif Smike, the
infirm boy..... he is absolutely the forerunner of Tiny Tim.........but again, just as with Ralph, Smike does not recover in the way Tiny Tim did....I did like the way Kate stood up to Ralph, that was QUITE a confrontation she had with him, and ice-cold Ralph was genuinely touched by the way Kate reminded him of his happy childhood ....a childhood before he....again, just like Scrooge.... like Scrooge, became obsessed with greed......Finally, we had Mr. Mantalini ....who was an utter HOOT !....Who could not laugh at his hilarious misbehavior?
Interesting, I can see some similarities to A Christmas Carol.
I finished reading Nicholas Nickleby on 09/06/2020. I enjoyed this more than Oliver Twist. (I liked both). I’m currently reading “All Creatures Great and Small”. My intent is to read the second in James Herriot’s series or go to The Pickwick Papers. Thank you for your time.
Thanks!
I think I should read more late Dickens. :)) So far, your two least favorite books are the ones that I've read. I have Great Expectations though and want to read that; I'm also excited to hear your thoughts on that one because I loved the Cuaron film although of course it's probably very, very far from the book.
I remember watching the Nicholas Nickleby movie!!! That's the one with Charlie Hunnam and Anne Hathaway! And yesssss, I remember really loving Jamie Bell as Smike!
+Wina Wonders Yes, that one. Jamie Bell as Smike <3 Or just, Smike <3 And I highly recommend Great Expectations - you have a few more days to wait to hear me talk about that one :P I've never seen that film - is it good? That's a modern adaptation, right?
Yup, it's a modern adaptation! :) I really, really liked that film although that might be because I haven't read the book. I'm not sure how I would like it as an adaptation but it was good enough to get me interested in the book.
Curious. I'd be really interested to see the film. And it is such a great book!
Have you seen Edward Petherbridge as Newman Noggs in the famous RSC production? Sheer perfection...talk about wanting to give him a hug...the most humbly loveable, noble character! Here's a link with his bits: czcams.com/video/KPZ8zkAh0mY/video.html
I have not! Though I did see a remake of the play one which I loved.
Yayyy Newman Noggs!
Hi, I have just subscribed to your channel and I love it. Can I please ask what publisher is the book you are reading from. The good reads link is penguin but is different. Thanks
Thanks! They're the Collector's Library edition - their design has changed since these editions and they're now an imprint of Pan Macmillan.
What was the very first Dickens book that you ever read?
+Liz L 'Twas my dear Our Mutual Friend.
I've just finished reading Nicholas Nickleby and despite some interesting plot twists I came away wondering what the fuss was all about. Nicholas and Kate are beige, and bland. I particularly liked John the Yorkshireman. In defence of Dickens I think we should remember that when he wrote Nicholas Nickleby he was still in his 20s. Next Dickens is the Pickwick Papers.
i loved the 2002 film so much that it is the reason why i read the book lol. This story is one of my favorite classics of all time and I completely agree that Smike is the best! I also love the Cheryble brothers and Noggs and even though i do agree that Nicholas is one dimensional, the pure goodness of his heart makes me love him dearly as a character. Kate is sweet but dear gosh i was just like "STAND UP FOR YOURSELF! DO NOT PUT UP WITH RALPH NICKLEBY!". I actually enjoyed Nicholas's love story/interest and found it much more believable than Kate's (even though i like the guy, being vague in case people haven't read it). I am excited to reread iit because sometimes I get the movie and the book muddled in my head so it will be interesting to see which events i mixed up or forgot. I also need to see the 2001 miniseries because that cast looks just as wonderful as 2002.
Also it is such a fun guessing game trying to figure out the next book you'll talkabout (but the ones towards the end will be much easier to guess lol).
+BBCgirl520 YES, KATE NICKLEBY STAND UP FOR YOURSELF.
Anyway, yes, Kate's love story is also not very developed. I don't mind Nicholas's really, but I think there are so many more interesting love stories in later Dickens books :) Ah Smike, Smike
+Books and Things looking forward to later Dickens then (esp. Little Dorrit because I adore the love story there :)). I'm interested to see what my order will be once I finish this project, it will take so long I'll have to keep track of my favorites as I go along.
You certainly will! I'll be really interested too to hear your thoughts :)
This was my fifth Dickens. Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend next.
I just finished Nicholas Nickleby. I liked the book very much all in all. I found Mrs. Nickleby's ramblings a bit annoying. I had high hopes for Ralph as I thought at some point he would see the light and redeem himself, but it wasn't to be. My favorite character was Newman Noggs, whom I would like to have learned more about. Dickens is great!
seems to me this was more of an victorian tv show than a book as dickens had to produce 20 episodes in total and an episode per month and just like today's tv shows episodes he had to satisfy the length. might even be that he made up plot points as he went along.
and about the over the top and comical characters - that was his first thing - making funny stories and funny characters in sketches and pickwick papers, nickelby coming right after those, dickens was still in jokey mood.
You have escaped my watchful eye with this novel as I have not read it! (Must be fixed soon!)
Dickens chauvinism is unavoidable in his early novels and that picture sums it up.
What was the secret word at the end of the video?? Tell us, do not keep the suspense up any longer! This ain't a Dickens serial to await next month for the tantalising answer!! xD
Can I make a guess what the next novel will be? So far I know your 2 least favourite and 2 most favourite, minus E. Drood which is unfinished, I have a 10% to find the right answer: Martin Chuzzlewit!
+IAmBroke Ha, it's a word from the opening of the book, that I did eventually manage to say (correctly or not, who knows), is 'sequestered' :)
+Books and Things Ha! I knew that word from Hardy's novels #totallynotbragging xD . Ah, the joys of Victorian vocabulary! Was I right in my prediction though? And I am nearly done with OT, NN's school plotline sounds fascinating, you are itching me for more CD.
The joys indeed. And sorry, didn't see that question the first time - nope, tomorrow's book is not Martin Chuzzlewit :P
+Books and Things Damme! (in Bill Sikes's words.) You keep us on the edge of our seats here!! May I make a suggestion for a Dickens character countdown?Keep the videos coming!!!
Well, I'm going to have to do something to celebrate Dickens's birthday next year :P
And the mother Is Just soo irritating!
This is one of my top five favourite books, probably in second place. You don't seem to like Dickens much and don't make allowances for the fact that he was writing at a time with totally different expectations. You can't expect him to write about female doctors, lawyers etc before women existed in positions of power. In his day, most women were side-lined.
If you were wearing a whale-bone girdle, you'd do lots of fainting and swooning!
Yeah I really do like Dickens quite a lot, as I'm sure my other videos on him make pretty clear. I don't expect Dickens to write about female doctors - but I do expect him to write convincing interesting female characters, but he can and does in a lot of his other novels and was very much capable of it (in Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Dombey and Son, etc). I still do enjoy Nicholas Nickleby, but this is just not one of my favourites.
It interesting that Dickens writes about Male characters with little female substance, maybe like Jane Austen writes about women characters with little male substance ?!
On the contrary, I would say that Jane Austen's male characters are very good - as indeed are the female characters in Dickens's later novels.
Am I the only one who hates this novel solely bc the best character dies and doesnt get the romantic love he so almost needs but certainly deserves.
Ah, I still love it. But yes, Smike is my favourite and I wish he got more!
@@katiejlumsden yeah. I so wanted him to get the sister. I just feel like out of everyone he deserved the happiness most. And he loved her. I just wished shed fallen for him. I know I would have if it was in my time. He was sweet, sad and so grateful for love. He deserved so much more than he got. :/
@@katiejlumsden p.s. hi from America, love ur accent. ;) can I ask what's ur favorite Austen novel? Just curious. Mine's always been Persuasion bc I think it's the closest book to Austens actual life. I feel like she wished that she and Tom Lefroy had a chance to meet and be together later in life. Tho, he married someone else. I know Darcy was based on him as well but everyone loves P&P. :)
@@meghanschuler4739 Actually Smike and Kate turned out to be cousins…so that wouldn’t make marriage advisable.