The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Down fallings, and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family by Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/oliver-twist-by-charles-dickens.html and a good number of other great books - 9 out of 10

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Down fallings, and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family by Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/oliver-twist-by-charles-dickens.html and a good number of other great books

9 out of 10

 

 

Nicholas Nickleby is one of my favorite Dickens works, sitting up there with Great Expectations https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/great-expectations-based-very-loosely.html which is included by the luminaries of our time among the Greatest Books of All Time, the remarkable writer has no fewer than nine works on another important compilation, the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read – Nicholas Nickleby is not there though

 

It will be interesting to see if I ever finish Hard Times, or some other rather lengthy beano, which I have started, but going in the neighborhood of one thousand pages does not enthuse this lazy bum, we will see anyway – Dickens was a rather disreputable character, he was cruel to his spouse we find from biographies

He was not the only bright mind who had vile habits, you should read Intellectuals https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by majestic Paul Johnson, and find about Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and their atrocious acts, in real life

 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau left his children at the door of an orphanage (it could be a bad memory, but I think I remember nine of them) at a time when nine out of ten died in that situation, so the list of splendid minds with awful characters is long, and it affects my choices lately, if I know that aspect, I avoid the lad

Nicholas Nickleby has a good childhood, to begin with, his father is a very good man, loving, kind, but also gullible, when his brother – the villain in the narrative, Ralph Nickleby – suggests speculating on the stock market, all that the poor man has is lost, then he dies, and the widow and two children have to struggle to survive

 

They go to see Ralph Nickleby, and this scoundrel sends Nicholas to work at a private school, where the master is the atrocious Wackford Squeers – played in the film version by the phenomenal Jim Broadbent – helped by his equally heinous wife, they keep children in appalling conditions, something we have seen in other Dickens novels, such as David Copperfield https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/david-copperfield-by-charles-dickens.html

Nicholas understands soon the nature of his employer, a tyrant and psychopath – however, we could consider that in those days, in the nineteenth century, the conditions were dreadful, and many, maybe most of the employers were oppressive – and he tries to help the children there, and avoid trouble on many fronts

 

The daughter of the headmaster has inherited traits from her parents, she looks with desire at the handsome teacher, and presumes that his politeness is in fact a testimony of his feelings, and presto, she declares she is engaged to him, in her imagination, and we must say, stupidity, she does not bother to ask for confirmation

Nonetheless, when they mention this to Nicholas Nickleby, he rejects the notion with ardor, he is concerned with Smike, a poor crippled teenager – spoiler alert, in one fantastic twist of fate, we find the two are related, I will not say to what degree – who is crucified by the owners of this slave trade, they abuse the children horribly

 

Meanwhile, the other monster, uncle Ralph, has another plan for Kate Nickleby, Nicholas’ sister, he sends her to assist in a dressmaker’s shop, and then he wants to more or less ‘sell her’, if not in a brothel, then use the beauty of his niece as a means to get investors to place more money with him, and give her to one in particular

He knows one of his business partners is a pervert (perhaps more are, but he chooses this one) and then he facilitates encounters, where the innocent, young woman is defenseless and her reputation is threated by the assault of this would be rapist, and the uncle is deaf to her pleas, and wants to profit from her looks

 

Nicholas helps Smike escape, but he is caught by the disgusting school master, and tortured, until our hero comes into the room, and starts beating the adult, then they both leave that House of Horrors, and encounter a travelling theater company, where we have the opportunity to laugh a little, when they act in a play

This is Romeo and Juliet, and Smike has to say a line, only he forgets it, after one performance however, they have to leave, because they get a letter and hear about the awful situation in which Kate is, and her brother confronts the vile man and eventually, his ignoble uncle, the two confront each other, and Ralph Nickleby wants revenge

 

He calls Squeers back and plots a severe revenge, understanding the affection that the protagonist has for the disabled Smike, he instructs Squeers to kidnap the crippled boy, for that will be the most devastating act they can organize, and they do it, only they do not have a successful operation, Alhamdulillah, they fail

The spoiler alert was still on – the noble hero meets Madeline Bray, and maybe it is love at first sight, our role model is nearly lost, when her gambling, obnoxious parent tries to have her marry for money, the cash he needs for his dreadful addictions, so let us leave it at that, maybe there is joy, perhaps someone dies…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”