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melbsreads 's review for:
Nicholas Nickleby
by Charles Dickens
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.