There’s comic incompetence in the behaviour of Nicholas’s father, who listened to his wife’s advice only once in his life – she suggested he should invest what money he had – and was so shocked by the ruin this brought on him and his family that ‘he solemnly commended them to One who never deserted the widow or her fatherless children … and observed, that he thought he could fall asleep.’ Before this, his suggestion that his brother Ralph would help them after his death is presented as evidence of how his mind is ‘wandering.’ So what do we get? Comic nastiness? Maybe, but not only that. He was finishing off Oliver as he began Nicholas Nickleby, and the task he seems to have set himself was to combine the campaigning spirit of the novel he was still working on – in his Preface to Nickleby he writes of ‘the monstrous neglect of education in England’ – with the comedy of the one that made his name. He had been writing two novels simultaneously for a while – he had begun Oliver Twist some months before finishing Pickwick – and, after finding time to edit somebody’s memoirs, he was back to the simultaneous production-line. He was only just 26 when he started to write this, having made his name with The Pickwick Papers. Squeers … is gruff and violent towards his young charges….’ Ok. He gets Nicholas a low-paying job as an assistant to Wackford Squeers, who runs the school Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire. This is from Wikipedia: ‘Ralph Nickleby, a cold and ruthless businessman, has no desire to help his destitute relations and hates Nicholas, who reminds him of his dead brother, on sight. Probably not something I would watch again, but not something I regret seeing.If you read a summary of these early chapters – I just did – it sounds almost unbearably bleak. I think it could have done without some scenes. The movie was a bit too long for my liking. I wanted to go through the screen and beat Mrs. Smike's story is really sad and I think Bell did such a great job in the roll. I got some annoyed glances but I can't help I'm a bit awkward with emotional crap, oh well. It was all in the most inappropriate moments, which happens a lot. I ended up with quite the opposite of that. I'm not sure why I thought this was going to be a fun and silly period film.

The story really isn't what I was expecting. To prove that point, I almost forgot she was in it until I saw her picture reminding me she was indeed part of the cast. I think everyone did an amazing job in their parts. Their characters were the only interesting ones of the bunch. I really loved him and Jamie Bell's performances. I haven't seen him in many movies though. Nicholas Nickelby was a film I was looking forward to watching since it has Charlie Hunnam in it (such a hottie).

Nicholas nickleby sparknotes