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Nicholas Nickleby first appeared as a serial novel in nineteen monthly instalments between 1838 and 1839, published by Chapman and Hall. It was Charles Dickens’ third novel, but he wrote it at the same time as he was completing his second novel, Oliver Twist. He had struck a best-selling formula with his first novel – The Pickwick Papers – an episodic narrative issued in monthly parts, and he stuck to this publishing format, selling 50,000 copies a month of each instalment, which cost one shilling per issue and two shillings for the final double issue.

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Nicholas Nickleby, the handsome, warm-hearted, enterprising son of a widow whose husband’s death left her and her two children impoverished as the result of unwise speculations. Through the grudging influence of his uncle, a shrewd, miserly London businessman, he secures a post as an assistant master at Dotheboys Hall, a wretched school for boys, at a salary of five pounds a year. Finding conditions at the school impossible to tolerate, he thrashes Wackford Squeers, his employer, quits the place in disgust, and returns to London in the company of Smike, a half-starved, broken-spirited drudge, now his loyal friend, whom he saved from the schoolmaster’s brutality. After being cleared of a false charge of thievery brought by his uncle and the vindictive Squeers, he sets out again in the hope of bettering his fortune. He becomes an actor in a traveling troupe but is called back to London on behalf of his sister Kate, who has become the victim of the unwelcome attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Frederick Verisopht, two notorious rakes. After disabling one of her pursuers, he finds work with the generous Cheeryble brothers, and his fortunes improve, so that he is able to provide a home for his mother and sister. He falls in love with Madeline Bray and rescues her from marriage to an elderly miser. After the romantic and financial complications of this situation have been unraveled, Nicholas and Madeline are married.

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Kate Nickleby, Nicholas's refined, pretty sister. After her arrival in London, she first finds work with a dressmaker and later becomes a companion to Mrs. Julia Witterly, a vulgar, silly middle-class woman; meanwhile, her uncle uses her as a snare to entrap two lustful noblemen. After Nicholas goes to work for the Cheeryble brothers, her future becomes secure. In love with Frank Cheeryble, the nephew of her brother’s benefactors, she marries him when she is convinced at last that the young man is truly in love with her.

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Smike, Ralph Nickleby’s lost son, who had been abandoned by a former clerk to the harsh care of Wackford Squeers. Flogged and starved until he resembles a scarecrow, he runs away from Dotheboys Hall to share the fortunes of Nicholas Nickleby. When Nicholas joins a theatrical troupe, Smike plays the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet. Recaptured by Squeers, he escapes with the aid of John Browdie, a stout-hearted Yorkshireman, and finds sanctuary with Nicholas once more. He falls in love with Kate Nickleby, despairingly because he is dying of tuberculosis. After his death it is revealed that he was the son of Ralph Nickleby.

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Characters: Smike, Squeers & Nicholas
[At the assembly to see Smike flogged for running away]

Dialogue 1

Characters: Smike, Squeer & Nicholas
[At the assembly to see Smike flogged for running away]

Mr. Squeers : Is every boy here? Get back! You too Nickleby!

[to Smike]

Mr. Squeers : And you. Have you anything to say?

Smike : [Crying]  Please, sir, spare me.

Mr. Squeers : I'll spare you. I'll flog you to within an inch of your life, and I'll spare you then.

[Squeers strikes him once, Smike cries out in pain]

Nicholas : Stop! This must not go on. I will not allow it.

Mr. Squeers : You dare to challenge my authority! Stay back!

Nicholas : Touch him at your peril! I will not stand by and see it done.

Mr. Squeers : You will do as you're told!

Nicholas : If you raise the devil within me, the consequences shall fall on your own head! Once I begin, God help you!

[Nicholas grabs the stick and starts hitting Squeers with it]

Mr. Squeers : Stop! No, please, wait!

Nicholas : I do not know why, but I am going to show you what you have never shown any boy in this room... Pity.

[Nicholas cuts down Smike and helps him out]

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Characters: Nicholas & Smike

Smike : Tomorrow where will you go?

Nicholas : Perhaps to Liverpool. I could find work on a ship. Do not be anxious. Before I do anything I will get you to your home. Where is it?

Smike : You are my home.

Nicholas : [affectionately]  Smike.

Smike : Please may I go with you to sea? I will be your faithful, hardworking servant, I will. Promise I will. I want only to be near you.

Nicholas : Smike, the wall that separates us shall never be set by me. And I promise you, from this night forward, the world shall deal by you as it does by me.

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Characters: Nicholas & Smike

Nicholas : [on the Squeers treating Smike badly because he is friends with Nicholas]  You will do better when I am gone.

Smike : [alarmed]  Gone? When are you going?

Nicholas : I would go tomorrow if I could.

Smike : Tell me, is the world as bad as this place?

Nicholas : [smiles]  Oh no.

Smike : Should I ever meet you there?

Nicholas : Well, yes I'm sure at...

Smike : No, no tell me. Tell me that I should be sure to find you.

Nicholas : [affirmatively]  You would and I would help you and aid you. I would not bring fresh sorrow on you as they have done here.

.

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Characters: Kate,  Nicholas
Kate: [crying, throwing herself on her brother’s shoulder] Nicholas, do not say so, my dear brother. You will break my heart. Mama does not mean it!

Nicholas: [softly] But Kate, I never meant to stay among you. So what if I go? We shall not forget each other apart, and better days will come. One day we will be together! Be a woman, Kate [whispering].

Kate:  [crying inconsolably]No, no, I will not, but you will not leave us. Think of the good times! Please don't go!

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I am Catherine Nickleby: People call me Kate. I am Nicholas's younger sister. I do not fear hard labour to earn my keep. If needed, I can be just as strong willed as my brother Nicholas. Ask Sir Mulberry Hawk, he knows a thing or two about it. I love Frank Cheeryble. He is the one who makes me really happy and don't make me feel bad .

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I am Nicholas Nickleby. I am a Charles Dickens’ hero. My father died when I was young and left me and my family poor. I am honest and steadfast, but my youth and inexperience of the world has also made me violent, naïve, and emotional. I love my friends and family and fiercely defy those who wrong the ones I love.

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He is Workford Squeer. Behind his back, people call him cruel, one-eyed, Yorkshire "schoolmaster". He runs Dotheboys Hall, a boarding school for unwanted children. He mistreat the boys horribly, starving them and beating them regularly. Nicholas once beat him badly in retaliation for the whipping of Smike. To avenge Nicholas’s attack, He travelled to London after his recovery, and partook in more bad business. To fulfil his grudge against Nicholas he became a close partner in Ralph's schemes to fake Smike's parentage and later to change the will that would make Madeline Bray an heiress. He was arrested during the last of these tasks and sentenced to be transported to Australia.

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I am Smike. I live in Squeers's care. I am 18 years old and perpetually ill. Nicholas gave me the courage to run away, but I couldn’t. Nicholas then saved me and we became travelling partners and close friends. I love Kate, but she is in love with Frank Cheeryble.
Now, let me share a secret with you as I battle this dread disease. My father was Ralph Nickleby, yes that cruel man.