Nicholas Nickleby
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4.5 • 27 Ratings
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Publisher Description
Nicholas Nickleby; or, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens. Originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839, it was Dickens' third novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This unabridged audio edition of Dickens's classic novel of poverty, effort, and persistence puts the emphasis on unabridged, clocking in at nearly 40 hours but dedicated listeners will be rewarded with an engaging and entertaining reading from narrator David Horovitch. In Victorian England, Nicholas Nickleby finds himself penniless after the death of his father. Assisted by his cold and parsimonious uncle, Ralph, Nicholas undergoes an array of trials and adventures working as a teacher and actor before finally succeeding in providing for his family. Horovitch wisely doesn't attempt to update or revise the author's familiar world. Instead, he reads with a careful tenor and subtly shaded array of voices that perfectly capture Dickens's prose and characters. Harrumphing and stuttering and tittering, Horovitch turns in a winning performance that fans of the author are sure to enjoy.
Customer Reviews
I still like Bleak House best
‘The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby’, to give it its full title, is Charles Dickens’s third published novel (after ‘The Pickwick Papers’ and ‘Oliver Twist’). Nickleby appeared in serial form from 1838 to 1839, and as a book after that. I had not read it before, and thought I should. Disclaimer: I am not a big fan of Dickens. Twist, Copperfield, Cities, Expectations, Carol never did much for me, although did I like ‘Bleak House.’
The titular protagonist’s Dad croaks (there was a lot of that about in Victorian England) after losing all of his money in an ill-advised investment (lot of that too, and not just in Victorian times). Nick, his Mum and baby sis must abandon the genteel Devonshire life and go sponge off their only living relative, Nick’s uncle Ralph, in London. Ralph is cold and ruthless (lot of that in Dickens novels). He sends our boy off to a boys’ school run (badly) by Wackford Squeers, which is my all time favourite Dickens character name (among stiff competition). Yada, yada, Nick does stuff, meets people, some less malign than others, finds love, loses it, does more stuff, yada, yada, gets bad mouthed, threatened, reaches a low point, then another, and another, keeps battling back, you know the story. If you’ve read much Dickens, you should. Blah, blah, blah, his best bud dies of TB. On a positive note, the aforementioned Squeers gets transported to Australia. The end. There’s lots of plot meanderings that I’ve missed. It came out in serial form, remember. Think the Victorian English version of ‘Home and Away.’ Less beaches and more fogs, but it goes on for almost as long.
The writing is, well, Dickensian, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your views about the great man. His style in the later works is better IMO, mainly because he learned how to smooth out the stop-start feel of serialisation. Next stop: Chuzzlewhit. Maybe.