Book Review: Nicholas Nickleby

The story of Nicholas Nickleby can best be summed up by a line from the book of Job: "He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves." Our protagonist, Nicholas, provides the sharpest contrast imaginable to the antagonist of our tale, Nicholas' uncle, Ralph Nickleby.  


Suffering the recent loss of his father, Nicholas, along with his mother and sister sought the benevolence of Uncle Ralph, little knowing that this man had sold his soul, along with anything and anyone that fell into his clutches, in his never ending pursuit of wealth. 


Naive of his true character, this poor but worthy family found themselves inexorably entangled in Ralph's web of deceit and destruction. Seeking only to find a way to support his mother and sister, young, innocent Nicholas accepted a position "found" for him by his uncle at a boy's school in Yorkshire. As desperately as he hated leaving his mother and Kate, he believed this job would allow him to provide for their needs. When he arrived, however, he found that the "students" were actually prisoners of the wicked schoolmaster, Mr. Squeers. His charges, unbeknownst to their families, were barely given food enough to survive and were beaten regularly. 


Nicholas, hoping against hope that help would somehow arise, held out as long as he could, offering the boys there the only kindness they were shown. The situation became completely intolerable and Nicholas finally decided that, to save the life of Mr. Squeers' favorite victim, he had to intervene. As Mr. Squeers began again to beat the poor boy known as Smike, Nicholas stopped him and beat off the much larger Mr. Squeers. Nicholas and his rescued young charge escaped the school and made their way back, on foot, to London. 


Once there, he began to understand the true depth of his uncle's depravity and wicked schemes. The revelation to Nicholas that his uncle actually assisted with the "school" of Mr. Squeers and the dawning revelation that his "benevolence" in helping Nicholas receive the job was only an attempt by his uncle to remove the need for any financial outlay on his part in support of his sister-in-law and her children brought Nicholas to the point of becoming openly adversarial toward Ralph Nickleby. 


The rest of the tale involves a large number of characters and side stories, all of which weave an intricate picture of the far reaching effects of a man bent on the accumulation of wealth at any cost. Any cost at all. 


No matter what traps Ralph laid for his young nephew, the virtue and honor of Nicholas caused many of the poor wretches that had been for so long held under the thumb of his uncle to become forever devoted to the brave hero of the story. The very ones Ralph had used up to accomplish his evil plans for so many years were the ones who joined with Nicholas to bring about the ultimate downfall of the wicked man. 


I look forward to our four youngest reading this book. Its 800+ pages are filled with stark contrasts between good and evil, honor and guile, nobility and baseness. 


When I began this book on my Kindle (another free download), I had no idea how long it was. Had I known, I might not have started it when I did. I'm glad I didn't know. :)


#36 in the "Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge."