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Nicholas Nickleby - Group Read 6
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Nicholas Nickleby: Chapters 24 - 36
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Installments IV - VII
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VIII
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
IX
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
X
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
XI
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Next thread
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Chapter 24: Of the Great Bespeak for Miss Snevellicci, and the first Appearance of Nicholas upon any Stage
The next morning, Mr. Folair the pantomimist, and Mr Lenville, the tragedian visit Nicholas. He is a little irritated to see them, fully expecting that they want just want him to provide breakfast. However they are curious about the new play Nicholas is translating, and hope to persuade him to give them choice parts.
“The Resident Dramatist meets the Tragedian of the Company - Charles Stanley Reinhart - 1875
Nicholas tells them the plot. A man abandons his wife and child and murders his son. In remorse, he plans to commit suicide. However, he is reminded of a childhood memory, which causes him to repent and become a better man.
“‘Capital!’ said Mr. Lenville: ‘that’s a sure card, a sure card. Get the curtain down with a touch of nature like that, and it’ll be a triumphant success.’”
However Mr. Folair is not very happy about having yet another part where he is paired with:
“that infernal phenomenon … and we go into poor lodgings, where I won’t take any wages, and talk sentiment, I suppose?”
Nicholas admits that that is how the story goes. When Mr Folair says he must add a dance to it, Nicholas doesn’t see how, but Mr Lenville suggests a way. Mr Folair’s role is a servant who is with the abandoned wife and child. Heartbroken, the wife is on her deathbed, and to console her, the servant performs a dance they did in happier times.
“‘Oh! let me see it once again before I die!”—There it is—cue for the band, before I die,—and off they go’”.
They both agree this is a good plan, and:
“Profiting by these and other lessons, which were the result of the personal experience of the two actors, Nicholas willingly gave them the best breakfast he could,”
and settles down to work on the play.
When Nicholas returns to the theatre, he finds everyone transformed for the play:
“all the people were so much changed, that he scarcely knew them …and, in short, everything was on a scale of the utmost splendour and preparation.”
An entire family have come with their servants and are filling up the box. Mr Crummles is quite moved, and says:
“ ’There are six children, and they never come unless the phenomenon plays.’
It would have been difficult for any party, family, or otherwise, to have visited the theatre on a night when the phenomenon did not play“
observes the narrator, but Nicholas tactfully refrains from saying so.
“If Nicholas had been astonished at the alteration for the better which the gentlemen displayed, the transformation of the ladies was still more extraordinary.”
Nicholas watches the play from behind the curtains and particularly admires the ability of Miss Snevellicci.
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
Mr. Crummles, very hot and dishevelled, asks Nicholas what he thought of the play. Nicholas is enthusiastic, especially about Miss Snevellicci, whereupon Mr Crummles says he would like Nicholas to have the play he is translating ready for her “bespeak” night. First though, a little canvassing needs to be done.
Nicholas is asked to call on the actress the next day, and at first he is very reluctant. Mr Crummles assures him that the Infant will also be there, and there will be no impropriety. Moreover:
“It would be of material service—the gentleman from London—author of the new piece—actor in the new piece—first appearance on any boards—it would lead to a great bespeak, Mr. Johnson.”
Mrs Crummles also lends her voice, appealing to his gallantry and humanity, thus Nicholas lets himself be persuaded, despite his reservations.
Nicholas calls at Miss Snevellicci’s apartment the next morning, as arranged. It is above a tailor’s shop on Lombard St. The tailor’s daughter lets him in with a smile, and shows him into a small apartment on the first floor, where he waits for Miss Snevellicci. From the chinking of cups he can hear in the next room, he assumes she is taking tea in bed.
In the meantime Nicholas looks at her scrapbook - which contains various glowing critical notices and reviews of her performances, taken from local newpapers, (and a poem) - and which seems to have been set out for the purpose. Miss Snevellicci arrives while Nicholas is still engrossed in reading these, full of apologies for being late. She tells Nicholas that she had been caring for her friend, who had fallen ill. Nicholas makes a couple of light-hearted remarks intended to flatter her, and Miss Snevellicci purports to be embarrassed that the friend had left her scrapbook out for Nicholas to see.
The Infant Phenomenon now appears from the bedroom, where she had been waiting, and they set off:
“The phenomenon was rather a troublesome companion, for first the right sandal came down, and then the left, and these mischances being repaired, one leg of the little white trousers was discovered to be longer than the other; besides these accidents, the green parasol was dropped down an iron grating, and only fished up again with great difficulty and by dint of much exertion”
but they walk on in good humour.
They visit a Mr. and Mrs. Curdle, who are supposed by some to “ possess quite the London taste in matters relating to literature and the drama”
“Canvassing the fashionable Curdles for Miss Snevellicci’s Bespeak” - Fred Barnard - 1875
Miss Snevellicci says she hopes that they will sponsor her bespeak. The couple lament how drama has died in the theatre, so the actress tells them about the new play, which she credits Nicholas with writing, (although Nicholas explains that it is from a French one.)
The Curdles ask Nicholas if the play observes the unities, and Nicholas asks what those are. Mr. Curdle explains at great length that it is when all the elements come together:
“a kind of universal dovetailedness with regard to place and time—… a unity of feeling, a breadth, a light and shade, a warmth of colouring, a tone, a harmony, a glow, an artistical development of original conceptions, which I look for, in vain, among older performers”
Even though they think the stage has been degraded, the couple decide to support the bespeak because they believe in Miss Snevellicci. Nevertheless they pay less than is asked. As they leave, Nicholas observes that they are odd sort of people, and Miss Snevellicci says drily:
“I think myself very lucky they did not owe all the money instead of being sixpence short.”
Next they visit a family with six children, who are regular visitors to the theatre. These are the ones who supposedly admire the Infant Phenomenon, and:
“being called down from the nursery to be treated with a private view of that young lady, proceeded to poke their fingers into her eyes, and tread upon her toes, and show her many other little attentions peculiar to their time of life.”
Mrs. Borum compliments Miss Snevellicci while chiding her children to stop “pinching the phenomenon behind, apparently with a view of ascertaining whether she was real” and “filch[ing] the phenomenon’s little green parasol … while the distracted infant looked helplessly on.”.
Nicholas and Miss Snevellicci visit other people, all with different tastes and opinions. Some refuse to go to the bespeak if certain other people are not going, whereas others refuse to go if they are. Nicholas, Miss Snevellicci, and the Infant come home exhausted.
Nicholas works hard to finish the piece. The town crier is sent out with his bell to proclaim it, and many large playbills are posted to advertise it. That night, they attract a good amount of people to the play, and all the actors are particularly excited and nervous:
“Miss Snevellicci was in such a perspiration that the paint would scarcely stay on her face. Mrs. Crummles was so nervous that she could hardly remember her part. Miss Bravassa’s ringlets came out of curl with the heat and anxiety; even Mr. Crummles himself kept peeping through the hole in the curtain, and running back, every now and then, to announce that another man had come into the pit.”
“The Great Bespeak for Miss Snevellicci” - Hablot K. Browne - November 1838
Miss Snevellicci receives an ovation when she appears on stage.
“But when Nicholas came on for his crack scene with Mrs. Crummles, what a clapping of hands there was! … His air, his figure, his walk, his look, everything he said or did, was the subject of commendation. There was a round of applause every time he spoke.”
At the end of the play Nicholas and Miss Snevellicci walk on stage hand in hand, and share the audience’s applause.
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There are a couple of parts in this chapter which are clearly autobiographical, such as:
“He worked very hard all day, and did not leave his room until the evening, when he went down to the theatre”
This describes Charles Dickens’s own routine at this time precisely. John Forster’s bio notes that there were about 3 years, when Charles Dickens went to the theatre every single night! There are a lot of theatres in the West End, changing their programme frequently, and Charles Dickens will have gone to both the “legitimate” ones in Covent Garden, Drury Lane and the Haymarket, and the “illegitimate” i.e. unlicensed ones, showing unapproved and new plays: more burlesques etc., as we've discussed in our reads of these plays
My favourite quotation here triggers a personal memory
“although it is, undoubtedly, a great convenience to be able to reach anything you want from the ceiling or the floor, or either side of the room, without having to move from your chair, still these advantages can only be had in an apartment of the most limited size”
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Of course I wondered which drama play Nicholas translated and adapted (how gifted and efficient! how quickly the actors learned their part!). In spite of my research I could not find anything and came to the conclusion that Dickens invented something.Still 1838 and the 1830ies were a golden age for drama writing in France. Romantic drama was a literary form theorised by Victor Hugo (leader of the Romantic movement) and influenced by Shakespeare's Baroque theatre and the German Romantics (Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich von Schiller, etc.).
This is a form of theatre that is usually historical, like for instance Ruy Blas combining different styles: the tragic, the pathetic, but also the comic and the burlesque (or heroic-comic).
This new form of theatre, developed by authors as varied as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Alfred de Vigny and Alfred de Musset, refused to respect the obligations and rules of writing in classical theatre, such as maintaining the rule of the three unities (place, time, action) or that of propriety, and instead focused the plot on the feelings of the main heroes.
I was struck by many things in this chapter but will mention a few. The canvassing of attendees for the new play!- I had no idea that this was how audiences were raised for a play. And Nicholas actually acquitted himself quite well. He’s proving himself more adept in these situations than I thought he would be. I suppose it’s his naturalness. He is who he is and doesn’t put on airs. I was also struck by the ongoing love for the Infant Phenomenon everywhere. And that having a part written into this new play probably won lots of applause in spite of not likely belonging in the story.
Lastly for now, I was very pleased by Nicholas’s success as translator and actor on his first try. He has certainly made his place with the group for now!
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Yes, I think Charles Dickens was quite deliberately not being specific, don't you? The way it is described is as a hackneyed and feeble plot, and as a vehicle for the actors to show off their skills such as the Scottish dance the highland fling, and the props which are to hand! It is just intended to entertain and bring the crowds in. It's safe enough for Charles Dickens to make light of William Shakespeare as nobody would issue law-suits about someone so long gone, but he would need to be careful when parodying a contemporary French dramatist, so invented one!
My favourite line from that was Mr Crummles's assertion that Nicholas could easily learn the part of Romeo and tossed a couple of other scripts to him, as "one helps the other along so much". 🤣😆
There is a character in the much later (but very Dickensian) novel Festival at Farbridge (1951) by J.B. Priestley, who is an "Ac-tor" in that great and concrete way Peter referred to - much lauded and conscious of his own superiority in the profession. Sadly though he was past his prime, and had taken to drink. All his great Shakespearean roles were no played with great gravitas, but with bits of other Shakespearean roles such in the soliloquies, leading to much confusion in the audience. 😂It's very funny, and I have to whether J.B. Priestley got the idea from that one line by Mr Crummles!
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The new play is a great hit and Mr Crummles decides it will be performed each evening until further notice. Also, the theatre will open for an extra day a week, instead of being closed for three. Nicholas earns thirty shillings, enjoys fame, and receives an autographed pamphlet from Mr. Curdle, who says he: “would be very happy to read Shakespeare to him for three hours every morning before breakfast during his stay in the town.”
Mr. Crummles delightedly tells Nicholas that a “Miss So-and-so, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane” will be joining them. This turns out to be Miss Petowker, whom Nicholas met at the Kenwigs’ party. Mr. Crummles says she is extremely talented, and is to come that day:
““The Blood Drinker” will die with that girl; and she’s the only sylph I ever saw, who could stand upon one leg, and play the tambourine on her other knee, like a sylph.”
She is an old friend of Mrs. Crummles, the original performer of the Blood Drinker, and who had taught the young woman nearly all she knows.
Mr. Crummles then goes on to boast about his wife, who comes from an acting family. He describes some of her many talents which continue to amaze him, while Nicholas reacts with appropriate astonishment:
“’The very first time I saw that admirable woman, Johnson,’ said Mr. Crummles, drawing a little nearer, and speaking in the tone of confidential friendship, ‘she stood upon her head on the butt-end of a spear, surrounded with blazing fireworks.’”
The Crummles receive a letter from Miss Petowker and burst out laughing, which puzzles Nicholas. Then the next day at the theatre Miss Petowker greets Nicholas warmly, acting as if he is an old friend rather than an acquaintance. Moreover she even whispers that she has wholly dropped the Kenwigses and tells the Crummles that she had met “Mr Johnson” in “the very first and most fashionable circles”. The two act together in a short piece. Nicholas notices that Miss Petowker keeps her eye on a particular box during the act, and he notices a peculiarly shaped hat and umbrella there which he vaguely remembers.
That same night, Nicholas and Smike are sitting down to their supper when they are told they have a visitor. Used to fellow actors wanting food, Nicholas says to come up, and Smike quietly puts back a slice he had cut for himself, so that they would still have something to eat the next day.
The visitor proves to be Mr. Lillyvick.
“The collector of water-rates […] regarding Nicholas with a fixed look and immovable countenance, shook hands with most portentous solemnity”.
He tells them that he had arrived that morning, and confirms that it was his fat green cotton umbrella with a battered ferrule that Nicholas had spotted. It was Mr Lillyvick’s box which Miss Petowker had kept eyeing. He is a great admirer of Miss Petowker, and goes into eulogies about her “divinity”, at which:
“Nicholas had much ado to prevent himself from laughing; not trusting himself to speak, he merely nodded in accordance with Mr. Lillyvick’s nods, and remained silent.”
Mr. Lillyvick confides in Nicholas that he finds being a bachelor miserable. Moreover his family wish to see him dead, so they can have his money. He says that he could have married any number of women - fifty fine women - but he did not want the expense.
“Now suppose a man can get a fortune in a wife instead of with her—eh?’ … the talented Henrietta Petowker has a fortune in herself,”
and Mr Lillyvick tells Nicholas that he is going to marry Miss Petowker the day after next, but they have had to keep it a secret from his family, the Kenwigs, who would be jealous. Miss Petowker would be staying with the Crummles family; he had gone to Guildford to meet her on the coach, and they had travelled down from there together. Her staying with her acting family friends was a cover, so that they could arrange their wedding.
Mr. Lillyvick says he is revealing this to Nicholas in case Nicholas is writing to Newman Noggs, as he wants Nicholas to keep their secret. Nicholas promises, whereupon Mr. Lillyvick invites him to the wedding breakfast:
“’It won’t be expensive, you know,’ said the collector, highly anxious to prevent any misunderstanding on this point; ‘just muffins and coffee, with perhaps a shrimp or something of that sort for a relish, you know.’”
Nicholas quite understands (as do we) and accepts gladly.
Miss Petowker is staying with Miss Snevellicci, as there is no room for her to sleep at the Crummles’. Miss Snevellicci, Miss Ledrook and Miss Bravassa are going to be bridesmaids, and also:
“‘The—the phenomenon,’ groaned the collector.
‘Ha, ha!’ cried Nicholas. ‘I beg your pardon, I don’t know what I’m laughing at—yes, that’ll be very pretty—the phenomenon …“
When it is settled:
“Mr. Lillyvick, who […] exhibited […] a compound of precipitation, hesitation, confidence and doubt, fondness, misgiving, meanness, and self-importance […] left Nicholas to enjoy a laugh by himself if he felt so disposed.”
Miss Petowker awakes the morning of her wedding, and makes a pretence of having second thoughts about the marriage. Her friends know that this is an act, but they play along—preaching to her about consistency, meekness, duty and so on:
“although for their parts they held true happiness to consist in a single life, which they would not willingly exchange—no, not for any worldly consideration.”
Miss Petowker expresses regret that her marriage may cause partings with friends and family, and is alternately given drinks of tea and brandy:
“as a means of strengthening her feeble limbs and causing her to walk steadier.”
She gets into the fly, and is supported by more of these stimulating drinks, and whiffs of smelling salts. Everyone is splendidly and theatrically dressed for the wedding, and Miss Petowker uses her best acting skills to great effect.
“The bridesmaids were quite covered with artificial flowers, and the phenomenon, in particular, was rendered almost invisible by the portable arbour in which she was enshrined.”
The Crummles act as honorary parents, and Mr Crummles gives the bride away. For his role, he had decided to act as if he was greatly overcome, so:
“when they entered the church, the sobs of the affectionate parent were so heart-rending that the pew-opener suggested the propriety of his retiring to the vestry, and comforting himself with a glass of water before the ceremony began.”
Mrs Crummles, not to be outdone, performs her role by walking up the aisle with an affected gait “advancing with that stage walk, which consists of a stride and a stop alternately”.
Mr. Lillyvick discovers that the wedding reception breakfast is more lavish than he had intended, so decides:
“that since the good things must be paid for by him, he would leave as little as possible for the Crummleses to eat up afterwards.”
He takes offence at the breakfast when Mr. Folair makes a crass joke that it doesn’t take long to get married, just as it doesn’t take long to hang oneself. Mr. Folair is upset that this joke is taken as an insult, and apologises, but he spends the rest of the time holding a grudging contempt towards the groom, and pinching Nicholas’s leg to relieve his frustration.
""Is the sight of me so dreadful, Henrietta Petowker?" -"Henrietta Petowker marries the London Water-rate Collector" - Charles Stanley Reinhart - 1875
Everyone imaginable makes speeches, which are only called to a halt by the fly-driver saying he must have more money if they do not start immediately. He is to drive them to where they can catch a steamboat to Ryde. Mr Lillyvick has chosen the Infant as his new wife’s travelling bridesmaid on their honeymoon; he has checked that she can travel half-price because of her size.
Nicholas leaves the party early to study the part of Romeo. Smike is trying to learn his part as the Apothecary without much success, and asks Nicholas to repeat his lines as he learns better this way. Nicholas is happy to do this, and Smike very slowly does makes progress:
“‘“Who calls so loud?”’ cried Smike.
Thus they continued to ask each other who called so loud, over and over again; and when Smike had that by heart Nicholas went to another sentence […] and so on, until at midnight poor Smike found to his unspeakable joy that he really began to remember something about the text.“
“Nicholas Instructs Smike in the Art of Acting - Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) - November 1838
The next day Smike is able to learn more, and Nicholas gives him pointers on body language which will communicates ideas to the audience.
“Never had master a more anxious, humble, docile pupil. Never had pupil a more patient, unwearying, considerate, kindhearted master.”
They work at the technique in every spare moment. “Romeo” is received with great favour, and:
“Smike was pronounced unanimously, alike by audience and actors, the very prince and prodigy of Apothecaries.”
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Autobiographical and Theatrical
While we are enjoying the absurd writing and parodies of the first two - very long - chapters in this installment, we can see how Charles Dickens portrays himself as Nicholas. Not only the wish-fulfillment angle, but also that we see the theatre from Nicholas (i.e. Charles Dickens’s) point of view. Nicholas is amazed that everyone is so much changed that he hardly knows them:
“False hair, false colour false calves, false muscles - they had become different beings”
This surely lies at the heart of Charles Dickens’s fascination with the theatre: the ability to lay aside one identity and assume another. Nicholas is a “Mr Johnson” - a pseudonym given him for self-protection by Noggs - but which suits him admirably. He can “play at” being in the world and trying different things for a while.
Even Smike profits from this. From being a pitiable individual, he can, for a while, become somebody else entirely. He even seems to develop so that he can be apart and think independently from Nicholas. We see him developing the maturity and planning to keep some food back (his own portion!) when there are uninvited guests. He is learning new roles in life ... as Connie suggested earlier, he may have been hindered in his development by the cruel treatment he had at Dotheboys Hall.
We are told that Smike “appears on stage with another gentleman as a general rebellion” while Nicholas is elsewhere. (This also tells us that the resources of the company are not very great, if only two actors can be spared for a “general rebellion”!)
We noticed before that there are many characters in the book are acting a role which serves them best, but that the theatre people themselves are the honest actors, and good-hearted. They accept Smike, for instance, and we get the feeling that they would tolerate - even perhaps celebrate - all forms of eccentricity.
Unpleasant selfish people such as the Squeers, or the Mantalinis, or the Wititterlys are performing all the time, but when the actors do it, it does no harm. And they do continually behave as if they are in character, even off stage. We see an extended example of this in tomorrow’s chapter 26, but we have already seen indications. Mr Lenville (the tragedian) booms “What ho! Within there!” when he pays a social call to Nicholas … and we will see more examples of this stagey rhetoric - which will stop as soon as they are called out.
We see how the troupe adapt themselves to their circumstances. Nicholas has to write a play which incudes “a real pump and two washing tubs” - simply because they had recently been acquired as props. 😂🤣I have no doubt that this scene recalls an episode in Charles Dickens's own theatrical career, where something so extraordinarily unexpected received a great shout of appreciation from the audience - who were very voluble indeed at this time with their catcalls and roars of appreciation. When Charles Dickens himself was acting in his early roles, it was received with “such a shout of enthusiasm as had not been heard in those walls for many and many a day”.
No wonder these chapters are so enjoyable to read. They are written from the heart, about experiences which have given the author much pleasure, and which will continue to delight him all his life, right until his tragic public readings which killed him.
Charles Dickens did not expect to be writing about his much-loved theatre, but we see theatrical motifs and methods throughout. And he must have been confident that
Nicholas Nickleby is both entertaining and authentic in its treatment of the theatre, to dedicate it to the great tragedian William Charles Macready, to whom he had been introduced by John Forster in June 1837, in Macready’s dressing room at Covent Garden.
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Mr Lillyvick’s Umbrella
Umbrellas were signs of affluence in Victorian society. We’ve also noticed them regularly in Charles Dickens's writing whether novels or short stories. Usually he uses them as phallic symbols: a metaphor for sexual lust, or fertility. Examples are Mrs Bagnet in Bleak House, who travels the world with her grey umbrella and her husband and has a child in every place he has been stationed. Or there is the mysterious woman on the beach in the ghost story “His Umbrella” by John Oxenford, part of the excellent portmanteau collection of stories partly written and edited by Charles Dickens, “Somebody's Luggage” (Our group read of that one, expertly led by Plateresca is well worth a look!) There the umbrellas serves as a sort of fetish. (There's also Mrs Gamp ... but I won't say any more as we haven't read that novel yet!)
So here, when Charles Dickens describes Mr Lillyvick’s umbrella as “most persevering” or that “every time she did so, the umbrella broke out afresh” it could be literally that every time Miss Petowker looked at him Mr Lillyvick somehow signalled by opening his umbrella, or that it trembled in his excited grasp … or it could be symbolic of something else more earthy. The description of it as “a fat green cotton one with a battered ferrule” also gives us pause for thought. We know Mr Lillyvick is older than Miss Petowker; is he a little the worse for wear perhaps?
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a fly is a horse-drawn carriage to seat two.
Ryde is a town on the Isle of Wight, the island off the South Coast of England.
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But I also marvel at how perfect the construction is. Charles Dickens does not leave us with jokiness, but carefully manipulates our emotions and appeals to our human side.
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“The very first time I saw that admirable woman … she stood upon her head on the butt-end of a spear, surrounded with blazing fireworks.”
But in the end this is the one which make me choke up, about Nicholas and Smike:
“Never had master a more anxious, humble, docile pupil. Never had pupil a more patient, unwearying, considerate, kindhearted master.”
Just beautiful.
Over to you
Great summary and rich additional info Jean, down to flies and umbrellas!I above all enjoyed reading how different and much kinder Mr Lillyvick reveals to be when he is away from the Kenwigses. (Themselves perhaps not genuine, there is the word "wig" inside their name). I remembered a few instances in real life when some people proved to be the positive opposite of what we thought them to be when we first met them inside a family circle or among relatives who, because of some alchemy and prejudice, gave a wrong impression of them.
On the theme of "pretense", it occurred to me that Dickens did a bang-up job of portraying the characters of the folks in the theater line. Clearly, they had become so used to the notion of playing a role that their own personalities became roles which had to be acted out as opposed to simply allowing themselves to be, well, themselves. Everybody, by contrast to Nicholas who is new to the game, is ostentatiously overacted.I wonder if Dickens felt he might have been guilty of having such a personality himself?
Mod
Never had master a more anxious, humble, docile pupil. Never had pupil a more patient, unwearying, considerate, kindhearted master.
What a contrast with Dotheboys Hall!
These two chapters are great fun and a welcome departure from the sense of impending doom that has surrounded Nicholas and Kate since meeting their uncle. It is a joy to see Smike coming into his own a bit, and Nicholas' kindness and concern for him speaks so well of his character. No wonder Lillyvick wants to keep his wedding under wraps. I cannot imagine the Kenwigs will be very happy to know their bachelor uncle now has a bride...sort of cuts into their prospects, and they have built a lot on the expectation of money from that quarter.
Wonderful summaries, Jean, of these long, full-of-drama chapters!What struck me the most was the feeling Dickens is able to convey of what it's like to be around theatre people. I never did any acting, even in school, but many in my group in high school were very involved, and there is something so attractive in these people. They're so full of fun and always making do and being creative with what they have around them, just like the Crummles' do.
And so touching to see Nicholas helping Smike, and Smike being successful had me beaming!
Kathleen C.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Sue - I like all the parts you highlight too. And I had no idea about canvassing for a "bespeak" either! Imagine actors having to go around with metaphorical begging bowls today 🤔"Chapter 24
I don’t think any theatrical historian or biography of a 19C actor can come as close to getting the true feel of energy, hope, activity and life of an actor as Dickens does in chapters like these which focus on the theatre. Can’t you just feel the play, the players, and the setting? I can.
As mentioned earlier, Dickens was perhaps destined to be an actor except he had a nasty cold and cancelled his audition. I have often wondered (and the answer is impossible to know but fun to speculate) what would have happened if Dickens had auditioned and became an actor. Would he have also written plays? Certainly, he wrote plays even though he became an author. More speculatively, would he have changed the course of 19C drama as much as he did make an enormous impact as an author. We’ll never know.
What I do know is I love the names Curdle and Borum (boredom?)
Claudia wrote: "Never had master a more anxious, humble, docile pupil. Never had pupil a more patient, unwearying, considerate, kindhearted master.
What a contrast with Dotheboys Hall!"
Claudia
Absolutely! The subtle manner that Dickens unfolds this short scene into the chapter is brilliant. Nicholas is the teacher. Smike is the willing student. Smike, through patience and kindness, does learn his lesson and is a success on stage.
I find much of the subtlety of this passage rests in fact that the play is ‘Romeo and Juliet.’It might be an idea to keep this scene in mind for later in the novel.
In the final sentence of the chapter ‘Smike was pronounced unanimously, alike by audience and actors, the very prince and prodigy of Apothecaries.’
Bionic Jean wrote: "I absolutely loved this chapter, finding it the funniest so far and laughed myself silly! I also marvel at how many authentic details Charles Dickens gives us about the Victorian th..."Jean
I too loved this chapter. There is both an elegance of balance and a joyful playfulness in Dickens. While this chapter and the previous one can been seen as perhaps more episodic than tightly focussed on the major structure of the novel, the two chapters invite us into a new place far, far away from Dotheboys Hall, London, and the anxieties confronting Kate.
Dickens is a great juggler of plot, setting, symbolism and character.
Jean, I deeply appreciate all the summaries and the extra background material you have prepared for us. This is obviously something you enjoy and thrive on. I also enjoy the thoughts and insights others in the group have provided. It delights me to "see" many of my own favorite quotations in print and to know others appreciate them also.I know to be prepared for lesser characters reappearing in Dicken's work. I must add that I was more surprised by Nicholas's and Smike's unexpected guest at dinnertime to be Mr. Lillivig than they were! How clever! Am I the only one who was unprepared for this?
Thanks to all for allowing me to eavesdrop on your conversations. Dee
Paul wrote: "On the theme of "pretense", it occurred to me that Dickens did a bang-up job of portraying the characters of the folks in the theater line. Clearly, they had become so used to the notion of playing..."This is exactly what I was thinking as I read the wedding scene. It was so theatrical, as though they were all playing parts in a play rather than being themselves at a real wedding ceremony. As you said, Paul, it's as though it was no longer natural to merely be themselves. I'm wondering if Miss Petowker was enjoying the part of playing a bride, but just how excited will she be when she starts having to hand her salary over to Mr. Lillyvick (as that miserly collector of water-rates confided in Nicholas he would do).
Oh my, Jean... your comments about Mr. Lillyvick's umbrella! That was hilarious, and I must say, my mind did not even go there. LOL
I loved everyone's comments about the beautiful, developing relationship between Nicholas and Smike... patient teacher and eager-to-please student! And yes, Claudia, what a contrast to the teaching methods at Dotheboys Hall.
And yes, Sara, I would love to be a fly on the wall when the Kenwigs find out they have been disinherited. How will they treat him then? I can't wait to read that scene!
Such lighthearted, fun chapters from Mr. Dickens! Maybe a release from his mornings writing Oliver Twist?
Nicholas continues to be himself at all times and I think the members of the troupe appreciate that constancy. I doubt he could be any other way. But he is obviously an accepted and now becoming an important part of the group too. But he’s unchanged. He still devotes his time to helping Smike. Do you suppose Dickens saw himself in this light, Jean? This essentially good, intelligent young man who was talented and could be successful in many ways.
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This is actually the first novel where we have selected favourite quotations though, and like you, I get a thrill to read others’ as they may well be ones I particularly enjoyed reading at the time too. Claudia and Peter - great observations about the Kenwigs and Borum (boredom) names. And I loved everything you said, Shirley.
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He was also a young social crusader, whose face, according to his friend the Hon Mrs Watson “used to blaze with indignation when he heard of any wrong or injustice”
Kathleen - Thank you so much! They were very long chapters to summarise for sure, but such fun to read 😂
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Charles Dickens as a Dramatist
Peter - Like Dee, you have joined us with this read, so haven’t been privy to all our discussion during our “Dramatic Dickens!” season - although I am sure you will know his plays for yourself. So your thoughts here:
“Would he have also written plays? Certainly, he wrote plays even though he became an author. More speculatively, would he have changed the course of 19C drama as much as he did make an enormous impact as an author.”
are central to what we have been looking at this year. It’s a big question for sure, and the most helpful book I have found which analyses the topic is one Connie recommended back at the start, in February. When she hosted our group read of The Strange Gentleman. she recommended Victorian Writers and the Stage: The Plays of Dickens, Browning, Collins and Tennyson by Richard Pearson, which looks at plays by both by Dickens, but also Browning Collins and Tennyson and puts them into historical context. Why do we not remember these four major authors as playwrights?
Richard Pearson examines Victorian theatre and speculates on why there are so few great English plays written then, compared with earlier centuries. You will probably know more about this than me, but thinking of William Shakespeare and the Restoration comedies and tragedies, and all the major names then, what the Victorian writers offer is poor fare - good entertainment - but not great literature.
When Connie kicked off our season, she gave the background on “legitimate” (or patent) and “illegitimate” theatre, and the 2 approved theatres I mentioned earlier.
The Licensing Act of 1737 restricted spoken word plays to two legitimate theatres in London in the winter season, i.e. the Royal Theatre Covent Garden and the Royal Theatre Drury Lane. When they were closed in the summer, the Haymarket Theatre was open. All plays were censored with the approval of the Lord Chamberlain and needed a license before the first performance. Richard Pearson says that nothing very creative, sensational or experimental would be approved, and it stultified new drama in preference to the classics.
Queen Victoria was to help change all that as she (like Charles Dickens himself) enjoyed plays in the illegitimate theatre, although these tended to include music, like Charles Dickens’s own burlettas and burlesques. However she only came to the throne in 1837, during Oliver Twist, and was young for a monarch, so a creative writer such as Charles Dickens would have to wait a long time before things changed. His early plays were farces with music, but these would get nowhere near the exposure that his monthly serials were getting.
In The Village Coquettes: An Operatic Burletta In Two Acts (our read led by John) there are several places where he criticises the Lord Chamberlain’s rules outright, and issues a direct challenge to those who rule on “decent” or legitimate theatre, and appealing for the right to perform popular burlesques too: i.e. what the public want: “illegitimate theatre”.
But it probably came down to fame and money. It was clear that writing such plays would not really go anywhere, and yet his novels did!
We looked at each play very closely, to try to establish how this developed. One he co-wrote with Wilkie Collins (sometimes even sitting side by side!) The Frozen Deep led by Lori was written at the beginning of Wilkie Collins’s career, and Collins did go on to make a success of his stage work, with over 15 successful plays. The final link with Charles Dickens was to co-write a play and a story by Charles Dickens - No Thoroughfare led byLee, but in this case the balance had changed completely, and most of it was written by Wilkie Collins. In fact it's almost as if Charles Dickens was handing over the theatrical baton to Wilkie Collins.
So what was the difference, or what had been happening in the meantime?
I believe it is partly that Wilkie Collins also wrote adaptations of his stories as plays, and apart from an early couple, John Forster tells us that Charles Dickens was never really very interested in this. He wanted to write new things! And although both were keen to improve the standard of the theatre, Wilkie Collins's earnings from his plays were to be modest, compared with his novels. We know that Charles Dickens was, understandably, obsessed with money, partly because of his father being sent to the debtors' prison, but also because of his own huge personal commitments.
So from our reads, and the historical information in this book, I tend to think that the reason Charles Dickens never tried again for that audition to be an actor, was that he had cannily worked out that much as he loved the stage, and would keep producing, directing and acting plays all his life as a secondary career, and do his public readings near the end of his life, instead of writing another novel, he was not living at the right time for writing drama to give him the enormous success which his stories could.
And we benefit from this too. As Peter says:
"I don’t think any theatrical historian or biography of a 19C actor can come as close to getting the true feel of energy, hope, activity and life of an actor as Dickens does in chapters like these which focus on the theatre. Can’t you just feel the play, the players, and the setting? I can."
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Lord Frederick Verisopht and Sir Mulberry Hawk are reclining among domestic debris, recovering from the previous night’s debauchery.
“”Suppose we go back to the subject of little Nickleby, eh?” - Charles Stanley Reinhart - 1875
Sir Mulberry Hawk has been determined to find Kate Nickleby. He tells Lord Frederick Verisopht that he will help him, since she had been at the dinner as bait for him. Lord Verisopht perks up at the idea:
“Now, curse me, if you ain’t a real, deyvlish, downright, thorough-paced friend … Upon my soul, Hawk, she’s a perfect beauty—a—a picture, a statue, a—a—upon my soul she is!”
Mulberry Hawk tells Lord Verisopht he can find out where she lives from Kate’s uncle, as he can threaten to stop being his client if he doesn’t reveal her whereabouts.
However the narrator tells us what is really in Sir Mulberry Hawk’s mind:
“in the interval which had elapsed since the dinner at Ralph Nickleby’s, Sir Mulberry Hawk had been furtively trying by every means in his power to discover whence Kate had so suddenly appeared, and whither she had disappeared.”
He had not had any communication with Ralph Nickleby since the night of the dinner, but was still consumed with resentment:
“and using his utmost arts to reduce her pride, and revenge himself for her contempt, was uppermost in his thoughts.”
He also reasons that he might get some more cash out of Lord Verisopht, if he appears to be supporting his “friend”’s desires.
They visit Ralph Nickleby and Lord Verisopht asks to speak to him privately, whilst Sir Mulberry Hawk affects to be surprised and retires into another room.
“Lord Frederick Verisopht confesses his infatuation to Ralph Nickleby” - Fred Barnard - 1875
Lord Frederick Verisopht begins by saying what a pretty niece he has, and Ralph agrees:
“‘… your taste, my lord—on all points, indeed—is undeniable.’
Nobody but the young man to whom these words were addressed could have been deaf to the sneering tone in which they were spoken, or blind to the look of contempt by which they were accompanied. But Lord Frederick Verisopht was both, and took them to be complimentary.“
Lord Frederick Verisopht follows this up by asking where Kate lives, but also asking him to keep his voice down, saying that he does not want Mulberry Hawk to hear.
“‘He bites,’ thought Ralph. ‘He bites.’”
What Ralph says out loud is that Kate is a virtuous girl, and that the lord will have no luck with her. She is also very poor and unprotected: a “poor girl”, but his sidelong look is very shrewd. Lord Verisopht assures Ralph that he only wants to visit her:
“You know you’re making a fortune out of me, Nickleby, and upon my soul nobody shall ever take me to anybody else, if you only tell me this”
whereupon Ralph tells him where she is living, and Sir Mulberry Hawk is called back into the room. Ralph has a cold sneer upon his face all the time, and as he shows the two out hardly responds to:
“the look of admiration with which Sir Mulberry Hawk seemed to compliment him on being such an accomplished and most consummate scoundrel.”
Mrs. Nickleby pays a visit just as the gentlemen are leaving. She has received an offer for the empty house in the city directed to the landlord, and has brought it to him as soon as possible. Sir Mulberry Hawk immediately approaches her, asking if she is Kate’s mother, and then affects to think that this is impossible—she is too young. Mrs. Nickleby, flattered, confirms she is indeed Kate’s mother, and Mulberry Hawk turns to his friend, calling him by his title:
“‘My lord!’ thought Mrs. Nickleby. ‘Well, I never did—’”
They inquire after Kate, demanding that Ralph introduce them, which he does “in a kind of desperation”. Mrs. Nickleby says she had been ill after dining with Ralph, which she blames on her catching a cold from the hackney coach. She prattles on, wishing inconsequentially that she had worn a different bonnet, and eventually gets round to saying that Kate is quite well now.
Ralph asks for the letter and as soon as Mulberry Hawk hears that she has walked some distance, he:
“seiz[es] upon the chance of discovering where Mrs. Nickleby had come from”
Lord Frederick agrees that the route she has described must be at least a mile. Ralph Nickleby tries to bring this to a close, but the two men end up escorting Mrs. Nickleby to the omnibus.
"Sir Mulberry Hawk and his friend exchanged glances over the top of the bonnet" - Fred Barnard - 1875
She is “in a perfect ecstasy of satisfaction”, thinking that she has two potential prospective husbands for Kate. The men continue to praise Kate’s virtues, and she rambles on about how clever and sweet-natured Kate is.
“the extreme politeness of her new friends would not allow them to leave until it actually started, when they took their hats”
As she travels, Mrs. Nickleby reasons to herself that Kate must have liked one of these men, since she never mentioned them. But which might it be? Mrs. Nickleby favours Sir Mulberry Hawk:
“such an attentive gentlemanly creature, so much manner, such a fine man, and has so much to say for himself.”
even though Lord Frederick Verisopht has the better title. She hopes Kate loves Sir Mulberry Hawk, but tells herself she will not stand in Kate’s way whoever she chooses:
“as she pictured with the brightness of a mother’s fancy all the beauty and grace of the poor girl who had struggled so cheerfully with her new life of hardship and trial, her heart grew too full, and the tears trickled down her face.”
Meanwhile Ralph is troubled by putting Kate in this situation. He does not feel as others do, but there is some glimmer of of light which showed her in his eyes in a better and purer aspect than any he had ever experienced before.
“I wish … I had never done this”
However, he instantly reasons that it will keep “the boy” close, and that he will profit from it. After all, this is not much worse than mothers always do, match-making for their daughters. Kate might shed a few tears and be humbled, but she would suffer no true harm from this.
“‘Yes,’ said Ralph, aloud, as he locked his iron safe. ‘She must take her chance. She must take her chance.’”
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Dickens’s Locations while he Writes
While Nicholas has been in Portsmouth, Charles Dickens was spending September 1838 in the Isle of Wight (where Miss Petowker and Mr Lillyvick will honeymoon.) So he wrote both these episodes on site as it were, passing through Portsmouth as he wrote about it, before staying in Ryde.
Then at the end of October and the first week of November 1838, Charles Dickens and Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) toured the Midlands, stopping briefly at Manchester, where they met two people (view spoiler) who were the originals for two delightful characters who will be introduced shortly.
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The installment we have just finished was published in November 1838, and - incredibly enough since we are less than halfway through - that was when the first dranatisation went to stage - well before Charles Dickens had worked out what would come next!
It was written by Edward Stirling and produced by Frederick Yates (a name I think we recognise from one or other of his plays) at the Adelphi Theatre. It ran for over 100 performances! Charles Dickens himself went to see it on 21st November, and wrote to Yates that he thought it “admirably done in every respect”. I think this may well have been the performance where he apparently got out of his seat, and lay down on the floor in his box, to appreciate it more!
Since they only had what we have read up to now, i.e. less than half the novel, to me, this is further confirmation that Nicholas Nickleby is a set of adventures in the 18th century tradition. From about now on, it begins to burgeon into what we think of as more of a Victorian novel, with intriguing plot lines, social concerns and larger story arcs.
But for those 100+ performances of Nicholas Nickleby, audiences were quite happy with what they had right then, and weren’t looking for any more. It’s hard for us to get a handle on, as most of us are used to reading fully formed and structured novels, and are already wondering what has happened to various characters, and wanting to know what will happen to so-and-so.
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I think with all the mention of “sneering” in this chapter, it’s clear that it would take a miracle to melt Ralph Nickleby’s cold heart. When he finally “locked his iron safe” that made me think his heart was as iron too, and I also liked the devilish reference to his “hard, horny hand” which Lord Frederick Verisopht squeezes. Yet he regrets what he has done …
I feel sorry for him duped by both Sir Mulberry Hawk and Ralph Nickleby. They are not going to let him alone until they have drained all his money.
But my main worry is for Kate, who has nobody on her side.
Enjoy the day off! There's plenty to read here 😊
Great chapter, summary and background knowledge, Jean! I marked the same quotes as you did.Mrs Nickleby suddenly turning up, announced by Noggs, while the two nobilities were still with Ralph, is a real coup de théâtre very similar to those in the best plays by Molière!
She is typically the one we would rather not see in such a situation, as she is able to reveal anything even if she is not invited to do so.
Claudia wrote: "Mrs Nickleby ... is typically the one we would rather not see in such a situation, as she is able to reveal anything even if she is not invited to do so.Nicholas' and Kate's dearly departed (and much maligned) father must have been a saint of patience and God's gift to parenting and fatherhood. I say that, because, goodness knows, I have yet to see a single redeeming quality in their mother or any indication that her son's and daughter's good qualities and intelligence would owe anything to her. Indeed, I would characterize her as a money-grubbing gold-digger with nary a redeeming feature or a spark of intelligence that would allow her to further her aims of accruing wealth or marrying Kate off to a suitable husband.
Have to agree Paul. She doesn’t seem to have any redeeming features at all. Even her tears are for herself.I was struck by that briefest of hesitations Ralph had after serving up Kate to those two men, all as part of his financial scheme. He was able to control those qualms quickly enough though (e did acknowledge them.
We certainly got a true glimpse of her character when she proceeded to bash her husband for taking her advice. She could easily bring her daughter to ruin, but then she would blame her entirely for the fall.
In reading this deeply disturbing chapter, where Verissopht and Hawk are laying stares for Kate, I'm reminded that that it's not only the villains of this world who wreak havoc through their deliberate actions. Quite often it's the foolish and timid who, through their incompetence or negligence bring ruin upon those who are so unfortunate as to depend upon them to act prudently. Mrs. Nickleby is one of those who, the the immortal words of G&S's Grand High Executioner "never would be missed" if she should suddenly exit this mortal coil! She perhaps comes across as being a bit stupid but in reality she's a a lazy-minded rationalizer an avoider and a buck-passer of the worst kind.
I also had a similar reaction to Paul regarding Mrs Nickleby. I was imagining poor Kate's life, spending her days as a companion to Mrs Wittiterly and her evenings with her mother. They both seem like complaining, self-centered women. Meanwhile, her uncle and his gambling, alcoholic clients won't think twice about ruining her life.
Me too! I feel like Mrs. Nickleby is a greater threat to Kate than anyone else, at this point, precisely because she should be able to count on her help. *sigh*
Jim wrote: I'm reminded that that it's not only the villains of this world who wreak havoc through their deliberate actions. Quite often it's the foolish and timid who, through their incompetence or negligence bring ruin upon those who are so unfortunate as to depend upon them to act prudently.So true Jim! Mrs Nickleby is unable to offer her daughter any sensible advice nor support, but she is also extremely dangerous because of her being easily flattered, her naivety and her strong tendency to revealing too many things better kept private.
Jim, your characterization of Mrs Nickleby is perfect: "a lazy-minded rationalizer an avoider and a buck-passer of the worst kind." Yes!This chapter made me feel all kinds of ick. It's only redeeming moment, for me, was this: "To say that Ralph loved or cared for--in the most ordinary acceptation of those terms--any one of God's creatures, would be the wildest fiction. Still, there had somehow stolen upon him from time to time a thought of his niece which was tinged with compassion and pity; breaking through the dull cloud of dislike or indifference which darkened men and women in his eyes, there was, in her case, the faintest gleam of light--a most feeble and sickly ray at the best of times--but there it was, and it showed the poor girl in a better and purer aspect than any in which he had looked on human nature yet."
He has love for his niece, but his greed and selfishness wins. It's so sad to see.
I haven't commented on this installment until now because life has gotten busy! I've kept up with the reading, though. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful guidance while we read, Jean!
Kelly wrote: "He has love for his niece, but his greed and selfishness wins. It's so sad to see."I think the group agreed with my characterization of Nickleby's conduct and motives vis-à-vis Kate as tantamount to pimping her for his own financial gain.
But now I'll go one step further. Mrs Nickleby clearly has love for her daughter but she too is motivated by greed, selfishness, self-interest and airy hopes for future grandeur. In short, she too is guilty of pimping her own daughter.
I'm now wondering what both Kate's and Nicholas's reactions, giving their intelligence and maturity, their rapidly advancing worldliness, and their personal strength, will be to their circumstances and to Mrs Nickleby's and Mulberry Hawk's efforts to ensnare Kate.
We can only hope that the glimmer of regret Ralph has will manifest itself later if Kate gets into a sticky situation. I would like to think he could have a redemption moment.I think we have already talked about this, so pardon me if we have, but, it seems to me that Kate is surrounded by people who are also acting because they are either doing things for ulterior motives (Ralph taking Verisopht for his money) and Mrs. Nickleby’s constant jabbering for her own benefit to make her appear more than she is. These types of actors are the worst.
The actors Nicholas is surrounded by now are genuine and motivated by entertaining and joy, it seems. I would take this group over the others any day!
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For more information and to decide if this is correct usage, the definitive work is Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, which was written just after this, in the 1840s. It is a huge work in which he documented and described the state of working people in London. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_...
Charles Dickens knew of Henry Mayhew as a writer when writing Nicholas Nickleby i.e. as early as 1838. While editing "Bentley's Miscellany" he had published a piece of comic fiction titled "Mr. Peter Punctilio: The Gentleman in Black' by Henry Mayhew, and will have been aware that they shared the same social concerns.
Pimps certainly did exist, right from the 16th century onwards. If you scroll down and read the section "Procuresses, Pimps, and Panders", I think you will see that "pimp" is a specific term, which can hardly be used of either Ralph Nickleby or Mrs Nickleby! https://www.victorianlondon.org/crime...
Ralph Nickleby has been signalled as a villain in numerous ways, but we have seen (and I have quoted) several instances where even he has tender feelings. We are specifically told "‘I wish,’ thought Ralph, ‘I had never done this.'"
This is not the attitude of a pimp! There is no emotional component in the job of a pimp, or a procuress. "Pimping out" is a modern concept. We can see that Ralph Nickleby wants the money, and continuing custom from aristocrats, but it is more complicated than that. There is no doubt that he is a blackguard, but his job is money-making, not hiring out prostitutes. We've also been told several times that he has a soft spot for Kate.
Ralph also says "match-making mothers do the same thing every day" and this is at the heart of what Mrs Nickleby is doing. She is not a procuress! She is a typical middle class woman of her time, (more accurately impoverished gentry) trying to find the best match for her daughter. 19th century novels are full of them, but it does not accord with our modern views, and so we might be allowing ourselves to condemn her for the wrong reasons. What we should be objecting to is that she is going about it in a very naive and silly way, and being duped; not the fact that she is trying to find a good match for Kate.
We also see that both Ralph and Mrs Nickleby are selfish - even self-serving in Ralph's case - and if they can additionally profit by their matchmaking, they will.
We saw as early as chapter 1 that Mrs Nickleby blamed her husband for losing their money - even though it was she who had told him to invest. Then when Ralph came to see her, she again laid all the blame on her deceased husband. Because of her solipsism, everything centres on her, and she is likely to change her inner narrative and thereby change history to suit herself. Our view of how much of this is knowing and deliberate on her part may vary at different points of the novel; Mrs Nickleby is far more complex than would at first appear.
This does not mean to say we approve of either of these two in their actions regarding Kate! Everyone has quite rightly expressed indignation to various degrees. We can all see the dangers, and I think we share a common reaction of being appalled, as Charles Dickens intends us to be. However, he has built it up and told us very carefully how this is all happening. Charles Dickens has not over-simplified, and neither should we.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Pimping?For more information and to decide if this is correct usage, the definitive work is Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, which was written just a..."
I bow to your infinitely greater knowledge of Dickens' probable intent in the creation and description of Ralph Nickleby's and Mrs Nickleby's "villainy". Granted that Dickens would have been unlikely to use the term "pimping", but I will re-iterate that my comment was based on my personal interpretation of that conduct coupled with my MODERN understanding of the term. Indeed, in my initial comment on the subject I used the phrase, "in modern parlance".
That said, I think we can all ultimately agree that Ralph's and Mrs Nickleby's conduct is based purely on self-interest and financial gain. In my mind, that conduct rests somewhere between disgusting and purely evil. Thus far, I have seen little reason to mitigate my visceral reaction to those motives based on the fact that their is some measure of love or caring for Kate lurking in the background. They are just two nasty pieces of work at this point.
Whether they will remain so at the conclusion of the novel remains for Dickens to disclose to us. I wonder if he even knew at the time he sent this installment off to print and publication??
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Fair point Paul! But it needs to be said every time. We just need to be clear and not be beguiled by it into making more assumptions. 🤔
"Whether they will remain so at the conclusion of the novel remains for Dickens to disclose to us. I wonder if he even knew at the time he sent this installment off to print and publication?"
Another good point. I think he had an inkling of something, but there are certainly surprising events to come e.g. characters based on ones he had not yet met, all the theatrical parts, and yes, some who change from what we might assume them to be. Yes, I think he surprised himself sometimes and had a devil of a job "wrapping it all up" (in modern parlance 😆)
Edit (added) It's useful to also bear in mind that Charles Dickens was deliberately trying to write a novel, for the first time. So his characters should not appear as one-sided and caricatured as you are representing them, but more nuanced. So not motivated "purely on self-interest and financial gain" - although there is a certain amount of self-deception - and we can interpret how much differently. I think he succeeds in creating nuanced characters - especially Mrs Nickleby, who is a bit of a conundrum - but perhaps not as well as in his later works.
Bionic Jean wrote: "So his characters should not appear as one-sided and caricatured as you are representing them, but more nuanced. So not motivated "purely on self-interest and financial gain" - although there is a certain amount of self-deception - and we can interpret how much differently. I think he succeeds in creating nuanced characters - especially Mrs Nickleby, who is a bit of a conundrum"A very calm, studied, and intelligent gray comment to temper my much more black and white reaction, something to which I'm very prone. Thanks for pointing it out :-) !
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Installments 4 - 11 : Chapters 24 - 36
Film 1947. Stanley Holloway as Vincent Crummles, Derek Bond as Nicholas Nickleby