This is early Dickens and I prefer later Dickens, however having said that it is still Dickens and still good. The book in the first half has heavy picaresque elements and shares much in common with 18th century novels like Tom Jones. As it goes along the book becomes more focused and tighter.It has...
I dislike Dickens. His books are popular and it is usually about persons who act out cruelly against the poor and the powerless. As in any story world, the poor and the powerless get their strength for being good and then overcome the cruelty act from other people. That's don't happen in real l...
I'm sure everyone else has said anything I'd say here and it feels a little daft to review a book written over 150 years ago but here goes.I read this book when I was six and it changed my life. Full stop. I reread it every few years and it always resonates just as strongly.
Read a few Dickens and you've read them all. The same characters, the same circumstance, the same stories.
Although much of the plot is driven by coincidental encouters, as much of Dickens' work is, I was still charmed by the interaction of characters in Nicholas Nickelby. Although the book meanders for much of the time, and there are all sorts of characters introduced, and requainted, I didn't mind its ...
I liked this book even more than Great Expectations - maybe because I was reading it on the beach. Dickens creates such wonderful heroes and such funny conversation.
[These notes were made in 1983:]. Read for exams. Good old Dickens -- always a pleasure to read, even under compulsion. Mrs. Nickleby -- eternally fretful, gullible, and good-hearted -- is a masterpiece.
Dickens had a genius for revealing the social ills of the England in which he lived through poignant tales of worthy characters who battle and suffer from those ills. In the process, he lightens the reading experience with his marvelous wit, his gift for characterization, and his clear compassion fo...