Nicholas Nickleby (published in 1839), written by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is more famous for the novels such as Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, novels that deal with life, with despair, with happy endings after struggle, and so on. At the same time, Charles Dickens is less known for the comedies he wrote, and he wrote a fair number of them such as "The Pickwick Papers" (his first novel), and "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby". The book, like his other books, was presented in serial form through 1838 and 1839, in a total of 19 serial releases (the length of each serial release was 32 pages). This book, although not so widely know as his other books, has received a fair amount of praise, and has been used for different adaptations for film, the stage, and for television multiple times. As for criticism, the book has a large number of characters, and the criticism of the book develops from the opinion that not sufficient space has been given by Dickens to develop the story of these characters.
The novel was written during the time that Dickens was writing Oliver Twist, and showed that there was a reversion back to comedy in the form of this novel.



The novel carries on with Dickens quest against social injustice of the British society of that time, and shows specifically the injustice against boys at a all-boys boarding school run by Wackford Squeers (and as mentioned by Dickens, this behavior seemed so realistic that Dickens was threatened by legal action by many people running boarding schools who felt that Dickens was portraying their boarding schools).
The story is about Nicholas Nickleby, an impulsive and given to anger young man, whose father died leaving the family penniless and leaving Nicholas responsible for his mother and sister. He has a rich uncle, Ralph, but Ralph does not like Nicholas, although he has a soft corner for Kate, the sister of Nicholas. Given that Ralph feels some responsibility for the family, he gets employment for Nicholas and Kate in other that they can support the family; and Nicholas gets employment at a Yorkshire boarding school for poor boys called "Dotheboys Hall" run by Wackford Squeers where the boys are badly mistreated, and Nicholas retaliates against this treatment.