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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Pretty long as far as plays go. Can't compare to the original; haven't read it, but the play is in regular Dickensian/social commentary/satire style.
You guys should know by now that I'm a tragic Dickens fangirl. I've been obsessed with the dude's writing since I was ten. I passed Dickens Trash status many a long year ago. Nicholas Nickleby isn't one of my favourites, and it took me a solid week to get through it. But it's still definitely worth a regular reread.
Nicholas as a character is kind of a pain. He clearly has anger management issues, and yet everyone fawns over him. Madeline is almost non-existent on the page, and yet we're supposed to believe there's this great love between them? Whatever, Charlie. Whatever.
My love for this one comes not from Nicholas' story, but from all the secondary characters in Nicholas' story. The Squeers family are utterly ridiculous. Mrs Nickleby and her constant tangents and malapropisms is inadvertently hilarious. The Cheeryble Brothers are delightful cinnamon rolls. Ralph Nickleby is the epitome of "money corrupts". Smike is.....kind of gay for Nicholas, to be perfectly honest, but he's had such a horrible life that you can't help but find his wet blanketness endearing. John Browdie is a delightful country boy who seems like he's rough as guts but actually has a heart of gold. The Mantalinis are wonderfully melodramatic. Etcetera.
Essentially, the plot is fairly basic when you think about it. The good guys all get happy endings. The villains all die or get transported. It's not exactly full of twists and turns. But the characters? The characters make it all worth it.
Nicholas as a character is kind of a pain. He clearly has anger management issues, and yet everyone fawns over him. Madeline is almost non-existent on the page, and yet we're supposed to believe there's this great love between them? Whatever, Charlie. Whatever.
My love for this one comes not from Nicholas' story, but from all the secondary characters in Nicholas' story. The Squeers family are utterly ridiculous. Mrs Nickleby and her constant tangents and malapropisms is inadvertently hilarious. The Cheeryble Brothers are delightful cinnamon rolls. Ralph Nickleby is the epitome of "money corrupts". Smike is.....kind of gay for Nicholas, to be perfectly honest, but he's had such a horrible life that you can't help but find his wet blanketness endearing. John Browdie is a delightful country boy who seems like he's rough as guts but actually has a heart of gold. The Mantalinis are wonderfully melodramatic. Etcetera.
Essentially, the plot is fairly basic when you think about it. The good guys all get happy endings. The villains all die or get transported. It's not exactly full of twists and turns. But the characters? The characters make it all worth it.
I felt like I was reading this for roughly a decade of my life.
However, we made it, and we enjoyed it almost all the way through. There were some bits that I felt lagged a little, particularly near the end, but overall I thought the pacing and plot was pretty solid, especially considering a) how bloody long this book is and b) everything that happens in the book.
In many ways this almost feels like the quintessential Dickens: You have the colourful cast of delightful and dastardly (can't think of another appropriate 'd' adjective at the minute) characters, including some of my all time faves (Miss La Creevy and Mr. Mantalini, looking at you), you have the sprawling epic story that comprises of so many ups and downs and twists and turns of fate. And plot for dayyyyys.
Of course, you have one of my favourite portions of the book which I feel like had a weirdly formative effect on me growing up, which is, of course, the Crummles Theatre troupe.
Ok, ok, I'm rambling but honestly the fact that it took me nearly 4 weeks to read this book I feel like gives me an excuse?
But anyway, yes, quintessential Dickens. Lots of fun. Some of the conflicts were resolved a bit too quickly (Mulberry Hawk, one of the best villains but also not as much page time as I remember) but then other antagonists felt like they kept getting dragged into the plot (Squeers) and they weren't a consistent part of the novel, they kept just popping up to throw a spanner in the works...it's almost like he felt he had too many likeable characters and so needed to counteract that? I mean good old Ralph is a constant, but he's not a fun villain, he's just a cunt, so I guess you need the others to liven things up a little.
But again that didn't really do anything massively to stop me enjoying the book. Definitely give it a read, feels like a good entry point as well, into the Dickens canon just because it feels a little like 'if you like this, you'll probably jive with a lot of this other stuff' and vice versa. But yes, it is a little long.
However, we made it, and we enjoyed it almost all the way through. There were some bits that I felt lagged a little, particularly near the end, but overall I thought the pacing and plot was pretty solid, especially considering a) how bloody long this book is and b) everything that happens in the book.
In many ways this almost feels like the quintessential Dickens: You have the colourful cast of delightful and dastardly (can't think of another appropriate 'd' adjective at the minute) characters, including some of my all time faves (Miss La Creevy and Mr. Mantalini, looking at you), you have the sprawling epic story that comprises of so many ups and downs and twists and turns of fate. And plot for dayyyyys.
Of course, you have one of my favourite portions of the book which I feel like had a weirdly formative effect on me growing up, which is, of course, the Crummles Theatre troupe.
Ok, ok, I'm rambling but honestly the fact that it took me nearly 4 weeks to read this book I feel like gives me an excuse?
But anyway, yes, quintessential Dickens. Lots of fun. Some of the conflicts were resolved a bit too quickly (Mulberry Hawk, one of the best villains but also not as much page time as I remember) but then other antagonists felt like they kept getting dragged into the plot (Squeers) and they weren't a consistent part of the novel, they kept just popping up to throw a spanner in the works...it's almost like he felt he had too many likeable characters and so needed to counteract that? I mean good old Ralph is a constant, but he's not a fun villain, he's just a cunt, so I guess you need the others to liven things up a little.
But again that didn't really do anything massively to stop me enjoying the book. Definitely give it a read, feels like a good entry point as well, into the Dickens canon just because it feels a little like 'if you like this, you'll probably jive with a lot of this other stuff' and vice versa. But yes, it is a little long.
Something about reading Dickens feels like returning back home.
Painfully wordy and therefore tedious. An entertaining tale whilst at Dotheboys Hall- stop there and you've got a decent little novel. Beyond that, the plot gets lost quickly as Dickens takes a paragraph to describe someone nodding their head; and not even doing it well. Not his best.
Why do people look at me oddly when they see me laughing out loud on the train to work, only to spot that I'm reading Dickens? Not every book Dickens wrote is my idea of a good time, but this one in particular is absolutely wonderful. I mean really, who can read about Nicholas, worried about his mother engaging in a perhaps scandalous flirtation with the crazy old man on the other side of their garden wall, "You know, there is no language of vegetables which converts a cucumber into a formal declaration of attachment" and not love Dickens?
This has to be the most boring of all of Charles Dickens books. (normally, i am a fan) i really struggled with this one, but it's done now. I hope to never have to do it again
medium-paced
I read this for my classic lit book club. I had been wanting to read Dickens for a while, so I was glad when somebody picked this. I had only ever read Great Expectations in high school. I didn't like it then, but I was hoping age and maturity would make a difference in reading Dickens now. Nope. Not with Nicholas Nickleby anyway. I really suffered through it. Dickens is just way too wordy for my liking. I don't care for authors who take a whole page to make a point that could have been done in a few sentences. My other big complaint about this book, and apparently this is common in all Dickens books, is the ridiculous number of characters. I felt like three new characters were introduced in each chapter! But for real, there were about 60 characters in this book. That is crazy. Who can keep track of that many characters?
I think I am starting to realize that I really don't care for novels that were originally written as a serial. They just don't "flow" like normal novels. You can tell they are really more like mini stories all put together. I especially disliked the flow of Nicholas Nickleby. The story was very linear, going from one storyline onto the next and they didn't really relate to each other that much.
I really struggled thr0ugh this one and am not looking forward to reading more Dickens. He's just not for me.
I think I am starting to realize that I really don't care for novels that were originally written as a serial. They just don't "flow" like normal novels. You can tell they are really more like mini stories all put together. I especially disliked the flow of Nicholas Nickleby. The story was very linear, going from one storyline onto the next and they didn't really relate to each other that much.
I really struggled thr0ugh this one and am not looking forward to reading more Dickens. He's just not for me.