Book description
'"I may grow rich!" repeated Nicholas, with a mournful
smile, "ay, and I may grow old. But rich or poor, or old or
young, we shall ever be the same to each other, and in that our
comfort lies"'
The work of a young novelist at the height of his powers,
Nicholas Nickleby is one of the touchstones of the English
comic novel. Around the central story of Nicholas Nickleby and the
misfortunes of his family, Dickens created some of his most wonderful
characters: the muddle-headed Mrs Nickleby, the gloriously theatrical
Crummles, their protege Miss Petowker, the pretentious Mantalinis and
the mindlessly cruel Squeers and his wife. Nicholas
Nickleby's loose, haphazard progress harks back to the
picaresque novels of the 18th century - particularly those of Smollett
and Fielding. Yet the novel's exuberant atmosphere of romance,
adventure and freedom is overshadowed by Dickens' awareness of social
ills and financial and class insecurity.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in
English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the
beginning of the First World War.
Charles Dickens (1812-70) had his first, astounding success with
his first novel The Pickwick Papers and never looked back. In
an extraordinarily full life he wrote, campaigned and spoke on a huge
range of issues, and was involved in many of the key aspects of
Victorian life, by turns cajoling, moving and irritating. He completed
fourteen full-length novels and volume after volume of journalism. His
third novel, Nicholas Nickleby was an immediate success.
The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, The Old
Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol,
Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David
Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Litte
Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations,
Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood are
also published in the Penguin English Library.
