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Nothing makes me feel quite as home as reading Dickens, and Nicholas Nickleby was no exception to that. I listened to an audio book of this story from the library across many nights at the track and while painting around my house. It was a definite charmer! Whereas many of Dickens' works can focus on the poor and destitute of his time period in London, Nicholas Nickelby is no exception, except that it begins in a sad environment and leaves it behind and only uses it as a scare tactic later on so that the rest of the novel feels a lot less urgent than some of his others.

This novel's title character begins his story as his father dies, leaving Nicholas and his mother and sister Kate alone in the world and without much means. Ralph Nickleby is the uncle of Nicholas and Kate. He isn't a particularly nice man, and the instant he meets Nicholas, he hates him and continues to do so for the entire story. Ralph, out of obligation, sets up Nicholas as an assistant for Mr. Squeers, the headmaster of a boarding school of sorts, which is outside of town. While Nicholas is befriending the crippled Smike, who is regularly mistreated along with the rest of the boys by the contemptuous Squeers family, Kate is given a job for a seamstress in town and lives with her flighty mother. One thing leads to another, and Nicholas and Smike begin a sort of traveler's tale, moving on through different situations together, including a period of time with the Crummles, a family of performers, and eventually is reunited with his mother and sister with the help of the brothers Cheeryble, who also assist the whole family in a lot of their following troubles, with the help of Ralph Nickleby's unhappy attendant, Newman Noggs.

This novel definitely brought me a lot of joy. I'm not sure if I just haven't noticed it before or if it's particular to this novel, but Dickens was very meticulous in describing the staging of his scenes. It's as if he wrote them to be acted out, because one can always envision exactly where people are sitting or standing, as well as what their postures are, and also the expression on their faces. He is so descriptive that sometimes I found myself actually making the expression he described just to fully appreciate it, which always made me laugh.

The characters of this novel are colorful to say the least, and it's hard to say who my favorites might be. I loved the money-hungry emotions of the Kenwigs Family, the amount of times Mr. Mantellini used the word "damn", the hilarious uppity attitude of Fanny Squeers, the Crummles' acting techniques (and just the phrase "the infant phenomenon" in reference to the youngest daughter always had me laughing), the bonnie John Browdie, the snooty Mr. Lillyvick, and the cheery Cheerybles. If I had to pick, I'd probably choose Mr. Mantellini. Poor man.

There is always danger in Dickens' novels, and Mr. Squeers and Ralph Nickelby provide plenty of that in this story. With the exception of the boys at Mr. Squeers' Dotheboys Hall, most of the people in this story aren't as miserable as one might expect out of a Dickens novel. It feels a lot more lighthearted, although I do admit that some of the mischief plotted out by the two villains was pretty bad.

I haven't had time to do any in-depth reading about the novel, the times, significant themes, etc, so, sorry - no analysis in this post! Dotheboys Hall seems to be Dickens' biggest form of criticism in the story. Most of the time, I was smiling and following the story like a soap opera, rather than worrying about if all would turn out well in the end. I guessed the main twist of the plot early on, but that's probably because I think I saw the movie version of this story a long while ago.

Overall, it was one of my favorite Dickens reading experiences, and I'm happy to have "read" it. I'm bummed that we got rained out from visiting the Dickens Fest this year, since it was themed off of Nicholas Nickelby. Hopefully I'll be able to make it next year!