The Old Curiosity Club discussion

NN Chapter 46

Happy November Curiosities

Well, I imagine the last chapter has left us breathless. Nicholas decides that he must lose no time in stating the facts of Smike’s history to the Cheeryble brothers at the end of business the next day. The brothers are very supportive and understanding. They comment on the nature of love and natural feelings of parents and children. They then tell Nicholas that Ralph Nickleby has already been to their office this morning but they confronted him and assure Nicholas that no one shall “hurt a hair on your head, or your mother’s head, or your sister’s head.” Three cheers for the Cherryble brothers. If only they existed in real life.

After this reassurance, Nicholas learns that the brothers have a “confidential and delicate mission” they wish to assign to him. Nicholas learns it concerns the young lady he saw in the employment agency and then their offices. Can you hear Nicholas’s heart beat faster? We learn that her name is Madeline Bray and she is the daughter of a lady that Charles Cherryble loved very dearly but did not marry. Madeline’s mother’s marriage to the other man was not a success and she came a year before her death to Charles Cheeryble for help. Her husband had turned out to be cruel, thoughtless, and avaricious. Cheeryble had not seen Madeline since she was a child until the day she appeared in the Cheeryble’s office. Madeline’s father was in debt to his creditors and had turned bitter and mean towards his daughter. We learn that Madeline has struggled to maintain her father “by the labour of her hands.” When Nicholas inquired whether Madeline’s father is kind to her he is told that “kindness, is not in his nature.”

Thoughts

We are well into the novel and many of the themes and motifs are becoming richer in each chapter. I’m interested in your thoughts on the following points.

To what extent do you see similarities between the life, world, and challenges of Kate and Madeline Bray?

Families and their offspring continue to be featured in the novel. Nicholas’s family, the Bray family, the Crummles, the Squeers, and Smike’s supposed family are have some common threads. What similarities have you noticed? What are the major differences?

We have encountered many forms of marriage in NN. Can you see any common or contrasting themes that run through such marriages as the Mantalini’s, the Squeers, the Crummles, the Browdie’s the Wititterly’s, Baron Grogzwig and others?

To this point in the novel do you get any feel for what Dickens’s own feelings are toward courtship before marriage?


Nicholas sees Mr Bray as being “an unnatural scoundrel” and is more than eager to help the Cheerybles, and, we should acknowledge, himself, by helping Madeline in all ways possible. The plan is that anonymously the Cheerybles will purchase “her little drawings and ornamental work at a high price” and Nicholas is to act as their go-between. Madeline is aware of the plan. Off goes Nicholas to act on behalf his employers, to help Madeline in her hour of crisis, and, it must be noted, to have a free and explained access to Madeline which is what Nicholas had hoped for since the disaster of his former plans with Newman Noggs. Nicholas arrives with “a palpitating heart” and knocks on the door. When Nicholas first sees Madeline she seemed “in his eyes, a thousand times more beautiful than he had ever yet supposed her.” If we as readers ever had any doubt who Dickens would pair with Nicholas our question has been answered. I am happy to see that she had a bird in a cage and even happier to note that Hablot Browne has placed the bird in his illustration of this scene. Birds - cages. Entrapped, prisoners. I love Dickens’s emblematic touches.

Nicholas then sees Mr Bray who looked “haggard” and he has a “thick stick” that he struck upon the floor to get Madeline’s attention. We have seen sticks before in the hands of Squeers and Nicholas. I think Dickens has consciously placed a stick in Bray’s hands as a subtle suggestion that the floor is not all that Mr Bray has struck. When Nicholas presents money to Madeline, her father is quick to demand it be spent on his own needs and comforts. Nicholas takes note of this, but cannot step out of the role he has assumed for the Cheerybles. Mr Bray, in an act of pique and pomposity, demands Nicholas be given a receipt for his purchases. Mr Bray continues to act as if he is a gentleman and a businessman with the only motivation of impressing on Nicholas how important Bray is. With each word, however, we as readers see how horrid he is and how difficult it must be for Madeline to live with her father. As Nicholas leaves, Madeline begs him not to mention what happened in her rooms. Nicholas, for his part, tells Madeline that he “would die to serve [you].” With further promises of faithfulness and devotion, Nicholas leaves Madeline at the top of a staircase.

Thoughts

At last Nicholas has met the beautiful young lady he first saw at the employment agency and then later in the Cheeryble’s office. We learn about her background, how the Cheeryble’s know her, and her present circumstances. Have you been waiting too long for this reveal, and are you satisfied by what has occurred in this chapter?

In what ways does this chapter help solidify the plot in your mind? How might Dickens move forward from this point in his plot?

Smike and now Madeline Bray. What might Dickens be developing in terms of how mistreated children may effected by their past?

NN Chapter 47

This is one of the chapters that, to paraphrase the fat boy from Pickwick Papers, makes my flesh creep. I doubt if we need any more convincing how evil Ralph Nickleby is, but this chapter should put all doubts to rest.

The chapter begins with Newman Noggs complaining about his employer: “I don’t believe he ever had an appetite ... except for pounds, shillings, and pence, and with them he’s as greedy as a wolf.” With this declaration, he prepares to do a bit of shadow boxing to release some of his frustration and anger. Newman then hears Ralph returning to the office with someone and decides to hid in a closet rather than be detained by any of Ralph Nickleby’s requests.

Ralph Nickleby enters the room with someone whose name is Gride who is described as “a little old man, of about seventy or seventy-five years of age, of a very lean figure, much bent, and slightly twisted.” Dickens continues to describe Gride’s clothes, his jewelry, and even the fact that he has lost many teeth. All in all, a rather revolting character who seems to spend much time flattering Ralph. Like Ralph Nickleby, Gride is a man of questionable business ethics. In the scene, Dickens seats Gride on a stool so that he must “look up into the face of Nickleby.” All in all, a wonderfully effective description of an odious character and the fact that Ralph is even more odious. Nickleby senses that Gride must be here for some business reason. Gride continues to heap praise on Nickleby by saying that Ralph is “a giant among pigmies.” Gride then tells Nickleby that he plans to marry “a young, and beautiful girl; fresh, lovely, bewitching, and not nineteen.” Ralph demands to know her name. Gride answers “Madeline Bray.”


Thoughts

Newman Noggs has been a very important minor character in the novel, but the fact he overhears the conversation between Gride and Nickleby is perhaps his most important function so far. What are your feelings about Nogg’s role so far in the novel? What other minor characters have impressed you to date in terms of their description, their interactions with major characters, their role in advancing the plot, or any other point of interest you have as a reader?

I found the description of Gride to be truly remarkable. He is physically repulsive and verbally annoying. Once again, Dickens employs a verbal tag to link a person to a unique dialect, pattern of speech, or specific word. Why would Dickens do this? To what extinct do you think the technique is effective? Could such a technique be overused in this novel? Can you recall any other novel that you have read where you found the verbal tag to have been used to great success or been overwhelmingly annoying?

When Gride states that he intends to marry Madeline Bray, I imagine some Curiosities might have gasped in disbelief. What a plot twist! What was your reaction to this latest plot development?

I found some irony in the fact that Newman Noggs has overheard the conversation. This is the young lady Newman was to have followed home for Nicholas. Now she is mentioned as a potential bride for a business associate of his uncle. We now have Ralph Nickleby not only attempting to despoil his niece’s character but also get involved in a scheme to help Gride buy Madeline Bray. What is your response to this turn of events?


Ralph hears Gride’s plan. Gride and Ralph are both owed money by Walter Bray. His daughter Madeline is devoted to her father and is “a slave to every wish, of her only parent.” Walter Bray loves himself more than he loves his daughter. Gride wants Madeline for his wife and wants to strike a deal with Ralph Nickleby by buying the debt Bray owes Nickleby. Nickleby counters with the fact that he wants full price for the debt he holds and, in addition, wants £500 more to help negotiate the union of Bray’s daughter with Gride. Nickleby wants this deal completed the day before the marriage. Gride consents to these stipulations. Off go Ralph Nickleby and Gride to the Bray’s lodgings and Newman Noggs emerges from his hiding place with full knowledge of this despicable plan.


Thoughts

First we had Squeers and the horrid Dotheboys Hall. Now we have Nickleby and his financial house of horrors. For a young author, Dickens seems to contain much anger. How might we account for it?

There seems to be no end to Ralph Nickleby’s desire to make money. In two major incidences we have read about so far, that of Kate and now Madeline, young innocent women are the victims of greed and schemes to make money. To what extent do you think Dickens intended to focus his writing in this manner? What might other reasons be for Dickens’s focus?



When Nickleby and Gride put their proposal to Bray, he plays the role of an aristocrat, a man of high principles and stature. What a sham. Bray’s response to Nickleby and Gride “you have money, and Miss Madeline has beauty and worth. She has youth, you have money. She has no money, you have not youth. Tit for tat - quits - a match” is repulsive. Bray’s feigning of status is as hollow as his present pockets. What is disconcerting are Ralph’s arguments about how often such financial marriages are made to “strengthen some family interest, or secure some seat in Parliament.” So horrid a thought, and yet, sadly, so common and true. Dickens here is at his best. His point is made. It sits for all Victorian readers to read and reflect upon.

Madeline, aware of what is occurring, remains silent. I would suggest, however, that Dickens may have embedded some subliminal sexual commentary in the chapter through his word selection. Dickens has Gride observe about Madeline that she is “a dainty morsel” to which Ralph responds “I have no great taste for beauty.” Gride replies “but I have ... . Oh, dear! How handsome her eyes looked when she was stooping over him - such long lashes - such delicate fringe! She - she looked at me so soft.” Gride sees Madeline as a morsel to be consumed.

Ralph responds “with a sneer, and between his teeth - .” Did you notice how this chapter began with a discussion of food and consumption? When Newman Noggs, at the beginning of the chapter, commented of Ralph Nickleby that “I don’t believe he ever had an appetite” he is referring to food. We know that Ralph’s appetite is only for money. He is willing to pimp out Kate to Verisopht and he is only too happy to act as a mediator to put Madeline Bray in the clutches of Gride. The only compliment that Nickleby pays Gride, and it is one cruelty delivered, occurs when he says Gride has “ripe lips and clustering hair.” This phrase seems out of place until it is placed within the context of this chapter’s ending.

Thoughts

To what extent do you see this chapter as the most horrific of all the chapters in the novel thus far?

We have touched on the possible subdued references to sexuality in this novel. Do you see any merit in my comments?

NN Chapter 48

I was happy to see that the epigraph to this chapter stated that Mr Crummles was going to be featured. I was equally saddened that apparently it was to be “Positively his last Appearance on this Stage.” Knowing Crummles as we do, final appearances are often less than final, so let’s see what’s up.

We begin the chapter by learning how much and how far Nicholas has fallen for Madeline and that he was “now conscious of much deeper and stronger feelings.” Nicholas intends to honour his vow to help her in any way he can. On his way home one evening he finds himself reading a “large play-bill hanging outside a Minor Theatre.” Much to his surprise he learns that he sees announced the “Positively ... last appearance of Mr Vincent Crummles of Provincial Celebrity.” Nicholas thinks to himself “surely it must be the same man ... . There can’t be be two Vincent Crummleses.” Indeed, it is THE Vincent Crummles.

Needless to say, Crummles was delighted to see Nicholas (aka. Mr Johnson) again. Nicholas learns that the Crummles are heading to America and that Mrs Crummles is expecting again, for the seventh time. I think this means that they will have more children than final performances. Crummles has hopes that his next child will have the genius for juvenile tragedy or the tight-rope. Nicholas learns that the farewell-supper in honour of the family is that night and he is invited to attend. Then comes what I believe to be a touch of Dickens stepping from the shadows of a writer to standing on a stage himself. First, he observes how theatres mingle the odours of “orange-peel, and gunpowder, which pervaded the hot and glaring theatre.” Surely this is Dickens, the actor and frequenter of the stage talking. Second, and I think much more predominantly, Nicholas finds himself in a rather animated discussion with a playwright who claims that fame occurs when he dramatizes a book “for its author.” Dickens, of course, was one of many novelists who suffered financially when their work was adapted for the stage by pirates who paid no royalty fees, and did not, in any way, recompense the original author. Nicholas, speaking in Dickens’s voice, comments:

“You drag within the magic circle of your dullness, subjects not at all adapted to the purposes of the stage, as he exalted. For instance, you take the uncompleted books of living authors, fresh from their hands, wet from the press, cut hack, and carve them to the powers and capacities of your actors, and the capacity of your theatres, finish unfinished works, hastily and crudely vamp up ideas not yet worked out by their original projector, but which have doubtless cost him many thoughtful days and sleepless nights ...”

I am using the Penguin edition of NN and a footnote to this part of the chapter expands on a personal feud between Dickens and a W.T.Moncrieff who was a playwright and a very bad offender and robber of Dickens’s original work.

Thoughts

Were you glad that Dickens included a chapter that tells the readers what had been happening to the Crummles and what their future was to be?

To what extent were you happy to see Dickens, through Nicholas, make very pointed comments about the plagiarism of his work? That said, should an author frequently use their platform as a writer to make a political, social, economic, or cultural comment so clearly and obviously?

Did you find the Crummles and the “theatrical” episodes of NN to have been a positive addition to the novel? Why or why not?
It’s fair to say, I think, that this discussion put a slight damper on part of the Crummles farewell proceedings. Nicholas presents each of the Crummles and their children with a parting gift. The farewell is heartfelt with a touch of the theatrical (we should expect no less from the Crummles troupe). And so Nicholas, with a wave of his hat, “took farewell of the Vincent Crummles.”


Thoughts


Our novel must be approaching its long glide path to its end as we bid the Crummles a fond farewell. Do you think they may well make yet another appearance, a curtain call, so to speak?

If this is truly a final farewell to the Crummles what did the chapters that featured them contribute to the overall structure of the novel?

In terms of speculation, who do you think Dickens will bid farewell to next? Why?

NN Chapter 49

Our previous chapter was one of partings. In this chapter we turn to matters of the heart and glimmerings of love in the air or, believe it or not, up the chimney. The chapter begins with a tone of sadness, however, as we learn that Smike is in poor health. Naturally, Nicholas is concerned. Nicholas continues to execute his commissions to Madeleine Bray.

Smike’s condition is consumption and the notes in the Penguin Edition state that Dickens’s description “was considered so accurate that it was quoted verbatim in W. Aitken’s “Science and Practice of Medicine, 3rd ed., vol. 1 (1864) and in J. Miller’s “Principles of Surgery, 2nd ed. (1850). Impressive stuff. Upon reading this footnote I went back and reread Dickens’s description. I never knew the exact symptoms of consumption although I did know that many people died from the disease. Dickens’s phrase about this disease that be it “slow or quick, is ever sure and certain” was quite chilling. Given the treatment and past of Smike it is little wonder that he would be susceptible to consumption. Then, in a following paragraph of reflection, Dickens says that Nicholas will look back on this period of his life and dwell with a “pleasant sorrow upon every slight remembrance” of this time in his life. Personally, I found this paragraph powerful. To date, Nicholas has been somewhat prone to outbursts of temper or frustration. He may still show such emotion in future chapters. Yet here, I believe Dickens introduces a more reflective personality. Nicholas is becoming a much more rounded person.

Thoughts

Why might Dickens give the reader such a long and detailed description of consumption? How might Dickens link this description to Smike in the future?

Have you noticed any other instances recently where Nicholas’s character has been expressed in more mature actions, words, and thoughts? If so, why might Dickens be effecting such a change in Nicholas’s character?


The remainder of the chapter turns on a much happier note. Do I detect love in the air? The Cheeryble brothers continue to be kind and supportive of Nicholas. Indeed, we are told that they bestowed upon Nicholas every day some “new and substantial mark of kindness.” The brothers often visit the Nickleby home, as does Tim Linkinwater and Frank Cheeryble who appears at the Nickleby’s door “at least three nights in the week.” Mrs Nickleby notices Frank’s great attentiveness and the fact that Kate appears to blush when Frank or his name is mentioned in Kate’s presence. Mrs Nickleby, of course, assumes Ralph’s attentions are for her. Oh, Mrs Nickleby, your time will come in this chapter.

Miss La Creevy arrives at the Nickleby’s and announces that she has seen Mr Linkinwater with Frank Cheeryble. The Nickleby house seems attractive to many people. We further learn that when young Frank Cheeryble comes to the Nickleby home Smike tends to disappear. We soon learn that “quite a flirtation” sprung up between Miss La Creevy and Tim Linkinwater, Frank and Kate appear to enjoy a mutual opportunity to linger near each other. Whatever love dust may be in the air, our next lover makes a most dramatic entrance. We read that “romantic sounds ... proceeded from the throat of some man up the chimney, of whom nothing was visible but a pair of legs.” I love this part. We now have a scene where timid or temperate lovers are surpassed by Mrs Nickleby’s vegetable throwing lover who is attempting to come down their chimney to see her. Dickens makes much of this delightful scene. How could anyone not enjoy such a great setting? It reminds me of the grand frivolity of some sections of The Pickwick Papers. Mrs Nickleby rushes to explain that she has, in no way, encouraged such attention. Frank Cheeryble and Tim Linkinwater are speechless. Little wonder.

Assuming the role of a knight in shining armour, Frank asks if Mrs Nickleby “expected this old gentleman.” One wonders if Frank thought this was the normal and expected manner of Mrs Nickleby’s nocturnal visitor arriving at the house.


Thoughts


There was a convention of suitors, lovers, and hopeful romantics in this chapter. What was your favourite pairing, situation, and event?

In what ways has Dickens advanced the motifs and the combinations of lovers in this chapter?

Do you think the vegetable and chimney gentleman will become accepted by Mrs Nickleby by the end of the novel? Why or why not?

Our chapter winds down to a somber note as Nicholas and Kate visit Smike in his room. They find he has not undressed even though he has been in his room for hours. Smike will not tell them why he is feeling such melancholy except to comment that “My heart is very full;- you do not know how full it is.” The chapter ends with Smike looking at Kate and Nicholas “as if there was something in their strong affection which touched him very deeply.”


Thoughts


In your opinion, what is in Smike’s heart and mind?

NN Chapter 50

In chapter 50 we have two more characters leave its pages. I, for one, disliked them greatly, but found they played a major role in furthering the plot and especially developing the characters of Ralph, Nicholas, and Kate Nickleby. I am speaking, of course, of Lord Verisopht and Sir Mulberry Hawk. Along with their exit I presume we will have seen the last of Pyke and Pluck as well. While these two were cads and free-loaders, they did amuse me. Have we seen any other characters who were able to confound Mrs Nickleby with such enjoyable results?

I found Chapter 50’s beginning a masterpiece of style. Dickens creates a picture-perfect setting. One can feel and sense and see the little race-course perfectly. The people and the place come alive to us. It’s at a time like this I wish I had an audio version. If you did listen to this chapter please let us know if it is as wonderful in an audio format as it is to read.

I also really enjoyed how Dickens transitions the reader from a larger view of the Hampton race-course to one that is more specific. How perfect is the sentence “It is into one of these booths that our story takes its way.” The reader feels he has just been invited by Dickens himself to experience a new focus. The focus of the booth is then also narrowed as Dickens’s words seeks out various individuals within the gambling booth. Next, as our eyes become accustomed to the booth, we observe Sir Mulberry Hawk “with whom were his friend and pupil, and a small train of gentlemanly-dressed men, of characters more doubtful than obscure.”

There is much interest in Hawk since he has not been in public since his confrontation with Nicholas. It appears that Hawk has never forgotten his thrashing and plans to remedy his injury and, no doubt, his reputation. Lord Verisopht is unsettled to hear that Hawk has plans for revenge, and presses Sir Mulberry for details. When none are forthcoming, Lord Verisopht strengthens somewhat and tells Hawk that he will prevent any violent recriminations against Nicholas. Hawk retorts that “I advise no man to interfere in the proceedings that I choose to take, and I am sure you know me better than to do so.” Hawk resolves to not only punish Nicholas but to make Verisopht pay for his attitude as well. Hawk has nothing but contempt for Verisopht. Indeed, Hawk hates Verisopht. Hawk and Verisopht leave the race-course, dine “sumptuously” and the “wine flowed freely.” Then they went to another party with “hot rooms, and glaring lights [and a] giddy whirl of noise and confusion.” Amid the cacophony of sight, sound, and liquor a fight breaks out and Hawk claims that Verisopht struck him.

Thoughts

Did you notice how Dickens drew his readers into this chapter? Beginning with a large panorama, we move slowly to the gambling tent, then inside, then to the characters of Hawk and Verisopht. As these movements occur we slowly begin to see an increase in the action and movement of Hawk and Verisopht. Then these individuals become irritated, then words are spoken, then wine, noise and a cacophony of action end with a physical assault.

How effective was Dickens in writing this setting in your opinion? What part of the setting did you find most/least enjoyable?

It is obvious that Verisopht has respect and true affection for Kate. To what extent does this effect the way you see him in comparison to Hawk?

Hawk has suffered one thrashing from Nicholas. How could this help explain his volatile anger and desire for revenge on Verisopht?


Hawk demands satisfaction from Verisopht for striking him. A duel appears to be the only way these men can resolve their differences. As we are told “a blow has been struck, and there is but one course, of course.” No one disagrees. The seconds are selected, the location chosen, and all that needs to be done is the meeting of the two combatants. Little else need be said. Both men fire “as nearly as possible at the same instant.” Verisopht is shot. He dies. Sir Mulberry Hawk flees the scene. The sun comes up. Two more of the characters in the novel have ended their time with us.

Thoughts


What do you think Kate’s feelings will be when she learns that a duel has been fought over her honour?

In the chapters we read this week Dickens has begun to narrow the cast of characters for us. First, the Crummles and the theatre troupe have left for America. In this chapter we have seen the characters of Hawk, Verisopht, Pyke and Pluck head into the wings of the novel’s theatre. Such events suggest that Dickens is clearing the stage so the major characters will have more room to evolve. Which character or groups of characters do you think will leave the pages of the novel next? Why?

Given the actions of Sir Mulberry Hawk towards Lord Verisopht do you have more sympathy for Verisopht or did he get what he deserved?

Hawk and Verisopht were quick to adopt the idea of a duel to solve their differences. Earlier in the novel Nicholas gave both Squeers and Sir Mulberry Hawk a beating. Xan raised the point of why there were no repercussions for Nicholas because of his actions to Hawk. Do you think, now that Hawk has his health again, he would have challenged Nicholas to a duel?

Peter wrote: "This is one of the chapters that, to paraphrase the fat boy from Pickwick Papers, makes my flesh creep...."

Me, too, Peter. Gride's overt lasciviousness made my skin crawl. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from Dickens. He showed his readers every disgusting desire Gride had, while mentioning only her eyelashes! Those Victorians were masters of innuendo.

I just loved the opening of this chapter, with Noggs grumbling about missing his meal, and being so hungry, then hiding in a closet when he hears Ralph approaching. It was so very human and honest! I'm trying to imagine Dickens at his desk, knowing he has to have Noggs overhear this conversation, and trying to determine how to make it happen. This was such a simple solution, but beautifully executed, in my opinion.

That said, I was frustrated when Dickens introduced yet another new character in a novel that is already heavily populated. I admit, it made my brain hurt a bit. I'm still trying to figure out the last associate of Ralph's whom he (and we) met a few chapters ago, and now we have Gride. At least Gride's place in the story seems more straightforward. But we have been dealt a whole new group of characters with Gride, the Brays, and the other guy whose name isn't coming to me. I hope the remaining chapters won't introduce any other new characters.

Peter wrote: "NN Chapter 46..."

Peter, as is so often the case, I enjoyed your summary of this chapter almost more than the chapter itself because you point out things I missed in my own reading. I so appreciate your insight and keen observations.

Was anyone else annoyed by Nicholas's expressions of adoration for Madeline? My gosh -- all he needed was a zucchini to toss in her direction! Madeline should have been thinking, "Geez, I've got enough problems with my bitter old father... I don't need a stalker whom I've never met before professing his 'love' for me!" Surprisingly, this doesn't seem to bother her. She's so grateful, I suppose, and trusts that the Cheerybles would only send someone upstanding that she's not the least bit creeped out by his declarations.

Peter wrote: "NN Chapter 48... Mr Crummles ...Positively his last Appear..."

In terms of speculation, who do you think Dickens will bid farewell to next? ..."

I was surprised that Nicholas didn't bring Smike along for his farewell with the acting troupe. Are we to assume he was too sick to join the party?

This makes me think we may be saying goodbye to Smike before much longer. I look forward to learning how Dickens will tie the loose ends of Smike's story together. I hope he won't disappoint me!

As you may remember, I'm not a fan of the "story within a story" and I think I put off reading NN all these years because I knew there was a theater troupe in the story, and I didn't like the idea of reading the plots of the plays they were producing, etc. I have been pleasantly surprised that there was so little of this, and that I found many of their scenes good comic relief -- particularly the infant phenomenon. :-) I couldn't tell you most of their names at this point, or much about most of them, but when they strut their hour upon this particular stage, I found them to be entertaining.

Peter wrote: "In chapter 50 we have two more characters leave its pages. I, for one, disliked them greatly, but found they played a major role in furthering the plot and especially developing the ..."

The end of this chapter really took me by surprise! We saw a glimpse of Verisopht's backbone when Hawk was laid up, but I never thought he'd have the nerve to confront him again once he was ambulatory. A sad ending to Verisopht's story! Have we seen the end of Hawk? Seems like there should be at least one more encounter between him and the Nicklebys.

Peter's summation of Dickens' description of the race-course gave me a greater appreciation of it, but I've always preferred action and dialogue to descriptive passages, and this was no exception. I found our stroll through the attractions to the tent very tedious, and was relieved to finally get back to the meat of the story. FYI, Peter, I was listening to this bit in the car, and actually grumbled out loud to the reader to get on with it!

Mary Lou wrote: "Peter wrote: "In chapter 50 we have two more characters leave its pages. I, for one, disliked them greatly, but found they played a major role in furthering the plot and especially developing the ...."

Hi Mary Lou

I always enjoy reading your thoughts and comments. Within them is much to consider and reflect upon. As to you grumbling in your car, I am sure it was a reasonably polite grumble.

For myself, I do enjoy Dickens’s descriptions of setting. While they do tend to stretch out a bit, I find his language and the manner in which he cascades ideas, thoughts and words and then links or joins everything to another part of the text amazing. How he kept all the chapters rolling along I will never understand, but I will enjoy poking around them with you and our fellow Curiosities.

Peter wrote: "Dickens has Gride observe about Madeline that she is “a dainty morsel” to which Ralph responds “I have no great taste for beauty.” Gride replies “but I have ... . Oh, dear! How handsome her eyes looked when she was stooping over him - such long lashes - such delicate fringe! She - she looked at me so soft.” Gride sees Madeline as a morsel to be consumed..."

Yuck! I agree about the innuendo. I see many parallels to when Kate was harassed by Hawk at Ralph's mansion. When Kate started reading, Hawk said something like, "is that to display the eyelashes?" What is it with the bad guys and eyelashes? Both scenes mixed food and lust too.

Alissa wrote: "Peter wrote: "Dickens has Gride observe about Madeline that she is “a dainty morsel” to which Ralph responds “I have no great taste for beauty.” Gride replies “but I have ... . Oh, dear! How handso..."

Hi Alissa

Yes. I think food and the consumption of it are both frequently linked to sexual suggestion in books. The woman’s body is something to be possessed and consumed by a male.

I am Canadian and one of our best authors is Margaret Atwood who wrote a novel titled “The Edible Woman.” Here is a link for you.

The Edible Woman

As always, Peter, your chapter summaries are very insightful and thought-provoking! I do agree that Dickens's descriptive passages are quite a treat in that they manage to create an atmosphere and also to give us a vivid impression of the setting. I was able to see the race-course and the raucous festivities in front of my inner eye. Still, I can also understand readers who are impatient for the action and the dialogue to go on - no matter how inveterate a fan of descriptions I am (provided they are given in an expressive and original style, which we can give Dickens credit for).

What I really start to dislike at this point is the way Dickens starts new sub-plots while, at the same time, he is putting other sub-plots to rest in a most awkward way. We see him introduce the old usurer Arthur Gride - and with him a new plot of a long-forgotten inheritance that only Gride has got wind of. At this stage, one may rightly ask how he has come to know about this. Introducing Gride and all the paraphernalia concerning his courtship of Madeline fills one entire chapter. If I were sarcastic, I'd say that Dickens wanted to fill some pages, or that he somehow had to account for that old villain's interest in the young woman - but, of course, I gently forbear being sarcastic.

At the same time, while he is introducing Gride, he has Sir Mulberry and Verisopht come back from abroad and then come up with that duel to give those two characters short shrift. Okay, a conflict between the Lord and his scrounger was on the cards because of their disagreeing about Hawk's treatment of Nicholas, but still, I could not help thinking that the whole chapter was written with a sense of not knowing how else to dispense with those two characters nor how to use them any further. They had already gone for France, and I had the impression that the only reason Dickens got them back was to kill off Lord V. and to have Sir M. leave the country for good. - This time, at least, Dr. Payne from PP would have been satisfied with the outcome of the whole affair, but I wasn't. Dealing with this villain and his dupe, who had both played quite an important role in the novel, in such a desultory manner is a thing that the Dickens of DaS and the novels following this one would never have done. It shows the young writer's difficulties with coming to terms with his plots.

And unluckily, Mary Lou, there will be yet another character introduced after Arthur Gride. Wait till next week ;-)

Mary Lou wrote: "Was anyone else annoyed by Nicholas's expressions of adoration for Madeline? My gosh -- all he needed was a zucchini to toss in her direction! Madeline should have been thinking, "Geez, I've got enough problems with my bitter old father... I don't need a stalker whom I've never met before professing his 'love' for me!" "

Yes, I was! But I was not surprised, knowing what a soft spot our Nick has for theatrical language and hammy climaxes. Fancy telling a woman who has never spoken two words with you that you would die to do her a service. She may take you at your word, even though the service merely be to have peace and quiet again.

I was very annoyed at how Mr. Bray treats his daughter - and I like Peter's idea that the stick with which he beats the ground can be seen as a sign that he even beats or used to beat his daugther, and probably also his wife. At the same time, I cannot see any reason why I should follow the narrator's obvious admiration for a young woman who submits herself to the tyranny of a self-seeking, petulous invalid simply because this man happens to be her father. This kind of father is not any better than those fathers (like Snawley) who leave their children with Mr. Squeers to get rid of them. In fact, he is probably worse because he keeps his daughter near him to sell her to a lecherous old crocodile, ensuring himself a life away from the necessity of seeing her pine under the duress of her new life.

There is no real merit in Madeline's readiness to sacrifice herself, although I know that in the eyes of many a Victorian reader this was regarded as exactly the thing a daughter was supposed to do.

Peter wrote: "Newman Noggs has been a very important minor character in the novel, but the fact he overhears the conversation between Gride and Nickleby is perhaps his most important function so far."

The irony, however, is that - unlike the reader - Newman Noggs has no idea that the young lady whose future is bartered away here it the very lady that Nicholas adores because as yet Newman is ignorant of the name of Nicholas's beloved one, or isn't he?

Peter wrote: "Once again, Dickens employs a verbal tag to link a person to a unique dialect, pattern of speech, or specific word. Why would Dickens do this? To what extinct do you think the technique is effective? Could such a technique be overused in this novel?"

Dickens's endeavour to give most of his characters individual speaking patterns - and he is often extremely good at it, getting better and better in the course of his career - is probably due to the fact that those novels were serialized in monthly instalments and that those patterns made the characters memorable to the reading public. There were considerable time spans between individual numbers, the dramatis personae was usually very extensive so that a lot of characters had to be remembered, and not everyone could read on their own but had the instalments read out to them, and those might have been reasons why Dickens decided to make his characters differ from each other by particular speech habits. Besides, it's also more realistic.

However, some of these idiosyncrasies could also become annoying. I did not particularly enjoy Mr. Browdie's dialect but what I really hated and still hate is Mr. Mantalini's demd demnition way of speaking.

Tristram wrote: "If I were sarcastic, I'd say that Dickens wanted to fill some pages,

I'm glad you're not.

Nicholas Makes His First Visit to Mr. Bray

Chapter 46

Phiz

Text Illustrated:

It is not to be supposed that he took in everything at one glance, for he had as yet been unconscious of the presence of a sick man propped up with pillows in an easy-chair, who, moving restlessly and impatiently in his seat, attracted his attention.

He was scarce fifty, perhaps, but so emaciated as to appear much older. His features presented the remains of a handsome countenance, but one in which the embers of strong and impetuous passions were easier to be traced than any expression which would have rendered a far plainer face much more prepossessing. His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone, but there was something of the old fire in the large sunken eye notwithstanding, and it seemed to kindle afresh as he struck a thick stick, with which he seemed to have supported himself in his seat, impatiently on the floor twice or thrice, and called his daughter by her name.

‘Madeline, who is this? What does anybody want here? Who told a stranger we could be seen? What is it?’

‘I believe—’ the young lady began, as she inclined her head with an air of some confusion, in reply to the salutation of Nicholas.

‘You always believe,’ returned her father, petulantly. ‘What is it?’

By this time Nicholas had recovered sufficient presence of mind to speak for himself, so he said (as it had been agreed he should say) that he had called about a pair of hand-screens, and some painted velvet for an ottoman, both of which were required to be of the most elegant design possible, neither time nor expense being of the smallest consideration. He had also to pay for the two drawings, with many thanks, and, advancing to the little table, he laid upon it a bank note, folded in an envelope and sealed.

‘See that the money is right, Madeline,’ said the father. ‘Open the paper, my dear.’

‘It’s quite right, papa, I’m sure.’

‘Here!’ said Mr. Bray, putting out his hand, and opening and shutting his bony fingers with irritable impatience. ‘Let me see. What are you talking about, Madeline? You’re sure? How can you be sure of any such thing? Five pounds—well, is that right?’

‘Quite,’ said Madeline, bending over him. She was so busily employed in arranging the pillows that Nicholas could not see her face, but as she stooped he thought he saw a tear fall.


Commentary:

After the two large-group scenes for May, Phiz elects to produce compositions that focus on the relationships between three characters in each of the June (Part 15) etchings. Here, Nicholas, acting as the agent for the Cheerybles (who have bought drawings from her in order to support her), visits Madeline Bray and her invalid father, who is within the "Rules" of the King's Bench Prison, St. George's Fields, for a debt incurred to Ralph Nickleby. As he enters the room, Nicholas is surprised to see that the object of his employers' financial assistance is none other than the beautiful young lady who attracted his attention earlier. Her artistic creations have funded Bray's renting of the apartment and the purchase of such elegant furnishings as the harp (shown right) and a piano (presumably too large an object to be worked conveniently into the picture). Phiz has used cross-hatching to suggest the dimness of the interior, but has otherwise not suggested the dilapidated nature of Bray's residence. As in the letterpress, as Nicholas enters the upstairs front room, Madeline is seated at a table by the window (not shown, but a source of light, left) drawing, while her father, scarcely fifty yet emaciated, sits propped up by pillows in an easy chair. The scene realized, therefore encompasses almost a whole page in this forty-sixth chapter, "Throws some Light upon Nicholas's Love; but whether for Good or Evil the Reader must determine" (Part 15, June 1839).

"No matter! Do you think you bring your paltry money here as a favour or a gift"

Chapter 46

Fred Barnard

Household Edition

Text Illustrated:

‘See that the money is right, Madeline,’ said the father. ‘Open the paper, my dear.’

‘It’s quite right, papa, I’m sure.’

‘Here!’ said Mr. Bray, putting out his hand, and opening and shutting his bony fingers with irritable impatience. ‘Let me see. What are you talking about, Madeline? You’re sure? How can you be sure of any such thing? Five pounds—well, is that right?’

‘Quite,’ said Madeline, bending over him. She was so busily employed in arranging the pillows that Nicholas could not see her face, but as she stooped he thought he saw a tear fall.

‘Ring the bell, ring the bell,’ said the sick man, with the same nervous eagerness, and motioning towards it with such a quivering hand that the bank note rustled in the air. ‘Tell her to get it changed, to get me a newspaper, to buy me some grapes, another bottle of the wine that I had last week—and—and—I forget half I want just now, but she can go out again. Let her get those first, those first. Now, Madeline, my love, quick, quick! Good God, how slow you are!’

‘He remembers nothing that she wants!’ thought Nicholas. Perhaps something of what he thought was expressed in his countenance, for the sick man, turning towards him with great asperity, demanded to know if he waited for a receipt.

‘It is no matter at all,’ said Nicholas.

‘No matter! what do you mean, sir?’ was the tart rejoinder. ‘No matter! Do you think you bring your paltry money here as a favour or a gift; or as a matter of business, and in return for value received? D—n you, sir, because you can’t appreciate the time and taste which are bestowed upon the goods you deal in, do you think you give your money away? Do you know that you are talking to a gentleman, sir, who at one time could have bought up fifty such men as you and all you have? What do you mean?’

‘I merely mean that as I shall have many dealings with this lady, if she will kindly allow me, I will not trouble her with such forms,’ said Nicholas.

‘Then I mean, if you please, that we’ll have as many forms as we can, returned the father. ‘My daughter, sir, requires no kindness from you or anybody else. Have the goodness to confine your dealings strictly to trade and business, and not to travel beyond it. Every petty tradesman is to begin to pity her now, is he? Upon my soul! Very pretty. Madeline, my dear, give him a receipt; and mind you always do so.’

While she was feigning to write it, and Nicholas was ruminating upon the extraordinary but by no means uncommon character thus presented to his observation, the invalid, who appeared at times to suffer great bodily pain, sank back in his chair and moaned out a feeble complaint that the girl had been gone an hour, and that everybody conspired to goad him.

‘When,’ said Nicholas, as he took the piece of paper, ‘when shall I call again?’

This was addressed to the daughter, but the father answered immediately.

‘When you’re requested to call, sir, and not before. Don’t worry and persecute. Madeline, my dear, when is this person to call again?’

‘Oh, not for a long time, not for three or four weeks; it is not necessary, indeed; I can do without,’ said the young lady, with great eagerness.

‘Why, how are we to do without?’ urged her father, not speaking above his breath. ‘Three or four weeks, Madeline! Three or four weeks!’

‘Then sooner, sooner, if you please,’ said the young lady, turning to Nicholas.

‘Three or four weeks!’ muttered the father. ‘Madeline, what on earth—do nothing for three or four weeks!’

‘It is a long time, ma’am,’ said Nicholas.

‘You think so, do you?’ retorted the father, angrily. ‘If I chose to beg, sir, and stoop to ask assistance from people I despise, three or four months would not be a long time; three or four years would not be a long time. Understand, sir, that is if I chose to be dependent; but as I don’t, you may call in a week.’

The Consultation [between Arthur Gride and Ralph Nickleby]

Chapter 47

Phiz

Dickens and Phiz begin to utilize Newman Noggs as more than a mere accessory to Ralph Nickleby, placing him in the position of an eavesdropper on the conspiratorial conversation between the covetous, grasping, aged moneylender, Arthur Gride, and the scheming Ralph Nickleby in this forty-seventh chapter, "Mr. Ralph Nickleby has some confidential Intercourse with another old Friend. They concert between them a Project, which promises well for both" (Part 15, June 1839). The plot the two are concocting involves Gride's intention to marry the beautiful Madeline Bray, not out of lust but greed, for if she marries her husband will come into a substantial property (twelve-thousand pounds). Nickleby agrees to apply pressure to her father by offering to wipe out Bray's debt if he consents to the unequal marriage. Phiz suggests the seventy-five-year-old Gride's malignant disposition by his misshapen, over sized head. The particulars of his dress, however, Phiz neglects since Dickens has provided a detailed description of these:

He wore a grey coat, with a very narrow collar, an old-fashioned waistcoat of ribbed black silk, and such scanty trousers as displayed his shrunken spindle-shanks in their full ugliness. The only articles of display or ornament in his dress, were a steel watch-chain to which were attached some large gold seals; and a black ribbon into which, in compliance with an old fashion scarcely ever observed in these days, his grey hair was gathered behind. His nose and chin were sharp and prominent, his jaws had fallen inwards from loss of teeth, his face was shrivelled and yellow, save where the cheeks were streaked with the colour of a dry winter apple; where his beard had been, there lingered yet a few grey tufts which seemed, like the ragged eyebrows, to denote the badness of the soil from which they sprung. The whole air and attitude of the form was one of stealthy cat-like obsequiousness; the whole expression of the face was concentrated in a wrinkled leer, compounded of cunning, lecherousness, slyness, and avarice.

Such was old Arthur Gride, in whose face there was not a wrinkle, in whose dress there was not one spare fold or plait, but expressed the most covetous and griping penury, and sufficiently indicated his belonging to that class of which Ralph Nickleby was a member. Such was old Arthur Gride, as he sat in a low chair looking up into the face of Ralph Nickleby, who, lounging on the tall office stool, with his arms upon his knees, looked down into his; a match for him, on whatever errand he had come.

Was presently conducted by a robber, with a very large belt and buckle round his waist

Chapter 48

Fred Barnard

Household Edition

Text Illustrated:

In this pensive, wayward, and uncertain state, people are apt to lounge and loiter without knowing why, to read placards on the walls with great attention and without the smallest idea of one word of their contents, and to stare most earnestly through shop-windows at things which they don’t see. It was thus that Nicholas found himself poring with the utmost interest over a large play-bill hanging outside a Minor Theatre which he had to pass on his way home, and reading a list of the actors and actresses who had promised to do honour to some approaching benefit, with as much gravity as if it had been a catalogue of the names of those ladies and gentlemen who stood highest upon the Book of Fate, and he had been looking anxiously for his own. He glanced at the top of the bill, with a smile at his own dulness, as he prepared to resume his walk, and there saw announced, in large letters with a large space between each of them, ‘Positively the last appearance of Mr. Vincent Crummles of Provincial Celebrity!!!’

‘Nonsense!’ said Nicholas, turning back again. ‘It can’t be.’

But there it was. In one line by itself was an announcement of the first night of a new melodrama; in another line by itself was an announcement of the last six nights of an old one; a third line was devoted to the re-engagement of the unrivalled African Knife-swallower, who had kindly suffered himself to be prevailed upon to forego his country engagements for one week longer; a fourth line announced that Mr. Snittle Timberry, having recovered from his late severe indisposition, would have the honour of appearing that evening; a fifth line said that there were ‘Cheers, Tears, and Laughter!’ every night; a sixth, that that was positively the last appearance of Mr. Vincent Crummles of Provincial Celebrity.

‘Surely it must be the same man,’ thought Nicholas. ‘There can’t be two Vincent Crummleses.’

The better to settle this question he referred to the bill again, and finding that there was a Baron in the first piece, and that Roberto (his son) was enacted by one Master Crummles, and Spaletro (his nephew) by one Master Percy Crummles—their last appearances—and that, incidental to the piece, was a characteristic dance by the characters, and a castanet pas seul by the Infant Phenomenon—her last appearance—he no longer entertained any doubt; and presenting himself at the stage-door, and sending in a scrap of paper with ‘Mr. Johnson’ written thereon in pencil, was presently conducted by a Robber, with a very large belt and buckle round his waist, and very large leather gauntlets on his hands, into the presence of his former manager.

Mr. Crummles was unfeignedly glad to see him, and starting up from before a small dressing-glass, with one very bushy eyebrow stuck on crooked over his left eye, and the fellow eyebrow and the calf of one of his legs in his hand, embraced him cordially; at the same time observing, that it would do Mrs. Crummles’s heart good to bid him goodbye before they went.

‘You were always a favourite of hers, Johnson,’ said Crummles, ‘always were from the first. I was quite easy in my mind about you from that first day you dined with us. One that Mrs. Crummles took a fancy to, was sure to turn out right. Ah! Johnson, what a woman that is!’

Mysterious Appearance of the Gentleman in Small-Clothes

Chapter 49

Phiz

Commentary:

Although the oral tale may well be much older, the tale of the three little pigs it first appeared in print in 1849, in James Orchard Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tales. Consequently, Dickens and Phiz are not necessarily alluding to the children's story of the braggadocio wolf caught in the chimney in this forty-ninth chapter, "Chronicles the further proceedings of the Nickleby family, and the sequel of the adventure of the gentleman in the small-clothes" (Part 16, July 1839). The subplot involving Mrs. Nickleby's demented suitor offers suitable comic counterpoint to the more serious, "business" aspect of marriage (Ralph Nickleby's plotting with Arthur Gride against the Brays to acquire Madeline's inheritance). The identification of a uni-dimensional character by some detail of costume, facial distinction, or habitual phrase had been a standard "short-hand" method of characterization for Dickens ever since The Pickwick Papers. A secondary comedic feature is Mrs. Nickleby's chagrin that her "suitor" seems to have shifted his attention to Miss Le Creevy. The figures in the illustration, set in the Nicklebys' cottage, are Mrs. Nickleby (left); Kate Nickleby and Frank Cheeryble, nephew of the merchant brothers; their clerk, Tim Linkwater (centre), holding thetongs as he pinches the stranger's ankles to ascertain that they are real and not the appendages of a dummy; and the lower extremities of the lunatic neighbour (in the fireplace, the disembodied head having appeared already in plate 26):

Advancing to the door of the mysterious apartment, they were not a little surprised to hear a human voice, chaunting with a highly elaborated expression of melancholy, and in tones of suffocation which a human voice might have produced from under five or six feather-beds of the best quality, the once popular air of '"Has she then failed in her truth, the beautiful maid I adore!" Nor, on bursting into the room without demanding a parley, was their astonishment lessened by the discovery that these romantic sounds certainly proceeded from the throat of some.man up the chimney, of whom nothing was visible but pair of legs, which were dangling above the grate; apparently feeling, with extreme anxiety, for the top bar whereon to effect a landing.

A sight so unusual and unbusiness-like as this, paralysed Tim Linkinwater, who after one or two gentle pinches at the stranger's ankles, which were productive of no effect, stood clapping the tongs together, as if he were sharpening them for another assault, and did nothing else.

"This must be some drunken fellow," said Frank. "No thief would announce his presence thus."

As he said this, with great indignation, he raised the candle to obtain a better view of the legs, and was darting forward to pull them down with very little ceremony, when Mrs. Nickleby, clasping her hands, uttered a sharp sound, something between a scream and an exclamation, and demanded to know whether the mysterious limbs were not clad in small clothes and worsted stockings, or whether her eyes had deceived her?

"Yes," cried Frank, looking a little closer. "Small-clothes certainly, and — and — rough grey stockings, too. Do you him, ma'am?"

The Last Brawl between Sir Mulberry and His Pupil

Chapter 50

Phiz

The action here, as in Phiz's riot scenes for Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities, swirls around a central vortex, here the savage mask of Sir Mulberry Hawk, impassioned, irrational, and vengeful. Infuriated still by his being reproved and injured by Nicholas before he decamped for Belgium to recover, Sir Mulberry assaults his dupe, Lord Frederick Verisopht, after the latter has begun to see his former friend in a more reasonable and realistic light. Dickens's rhetoric of debauched combat amidst a crowd of inebriates is well matched by Phiz's exuberant composition, capturing effectively in the second medium the spirit of "Tumult and frenzy" in the letterpress:

It was nearly midnight when they rushed out, wild, burning with wine, their blood boiling, and their brains on fire, to the gaming-table.

Here, they encountered another party, mad like themselves. The excitement of play, hot rooms, and glaring lights, was not calculated to allay the fever of the time. In that giddy whirl of noise and confusion, the men were delirious. Who thought of money, ruin, or the morrow, in the savage intoxication of the moment? More wine was called for, glass after glass was drained, their parched and scalding mouths were cracked with thirst. Down poured the wine like oil on blazing fire. And still the riot went on. The debauchery gained its height; glasses were dashed upon the floor by hands that could not carry them to lips; oaths were shouted out by lips which could scarcely form the words to vent them in; drunker losers cursed and roared; some mounted on the tables, waving bottles above their heads, and bidding defiance to the rest; some danced, some sang, some tore the cards and raved. Tumult and frenzy reigned supreme; when a noise arose that drowned all others, and two men, seizing each other by the throat, struggled into the middle of the room.

A dozen voices, until now unheard, called aloud to part them. Those who had kept themselves cool, to win, and who earned their living in such scenes, threw themselves upon the combatants, and, forcing them asunder, dragged them some space apart.

"Let me go!" cried Sir Mulberry, in a thick hoarse voice. "He struck me! Do you hear? I say, he struck me. Have I a friend here? Who is this? Westwood. Do you hear me say he struck me!"

"I hear, I hear," replied one of those who held him. "Come away, for to-night!"

"I will not, by G—" he replied. "A dozen men about us saw the blow."

"To-morrow will be ample timer" said the friend.

"It will not be ample time!" cried Sir Mulberry. "To-night at once, here !" His passion was so great, that he could not articulate, but stood clenching his fist, tearing his hair, and stamping on the ground.

Commentary:

The downfall of Hawk and his gull, Verisopht, is depicted in "The last brawl between Sir Mulbery and his pupil" (ch. 50). Its setting is described by Dickens in vivid but visually unspecific terms, in a passage which begins, "The excitement of play, hot rooms, and glaring lights, was not calculated to allay the fever of the time. In that giddy whirl of noise and confusion the men were delirious" (ch. 50). The description reminds one of Plate VI, the gambling den, of A Rake's Progress, although such a sense of confusion is more evident in Hogarth's murky painting of the subject than in the precise lines of his engraving. But whether or not Dickens had Hogarth's gambling hell in mind, Phiz's overturned chairs and gamblers (not in Dickens' text) recall rather Hogarth's A Midnight Modern Conversation. although he does derive directly from the text, the man standing on the table, forming the apex of the pyramidal design, gives the whole scene something of the composition of the latter Hogarth engraving, whose apex is a similarly standing man, gesticulating with a glass.

The fevered chaos of Dickens' description is reflected in the playing cards suspended in mid-air and the unstable position of the fallen man at lower right; the solid band of figures across the center of the design also suggests something of the feverish atmosphere. We remain, however, faced with a serious question as to how well the general mode in which Phiz works suits Dickens' more subjective and impressionistic passages. Without referring explicitly to this problem, one critic has gone so far as to argue that there is a disparity between the fantastic and dreamlike subject matter of such an artist as Cruikshank and the very precise, controlled nature of his etched line; I believe the problem to be more complicated than this critic seems to recognize, but something of his argument could certainly be applied to Phiz as illustrator of Dickens (Stoehr, p. 276). Without claiming that each and every illustration accords with the mode of the particular passage being illustrated, I think it is possible to show that (at least through Little Dorrit) Browne strove to conceive methods that would fit with his author's stylistic development. In "The last brawl between Sir Mulbery and his pupil" both the possible allusion to Hogarth and the way Browne chose to deal with the crowd especially in the dark tonality of the central band of figures indicate that his methods were far from static, even if they were at this stage dominated by a caricature mode.


Hogarth's A Midnight Modern Conversation illustration

Two men, seizing each other by the throat, struggled into the middle of the room

Chapter 50

Fred Barnard

Household Edition

Text Illustrated:

They dined together, sumptuously. The wine flowed freely, as indeed it had done all day. Sir Mulberry drank to recompense himself for his recent abstinence; the young lord, to drown his indignation; and the remainder of the party, because the wine was of the best and they had nothing to pay. It was nearly midnight when they rushed out, wild, burning with wine, their blood boiling, and their brains on fire, to the gaming-table.

Here, they encountered another party, mad like themselves. The excitement of play, hot rooms, and glaring lights was not calculated to allay the fever of the time. In that giddy whirl of noise and confusion, the men were delirious. Who thought of money, ruin, or the morrow, in the savage intoxication of the moment? More wine was called for, glass after glass was drained, their parched and scalding mouths were cracked with thirst. Down poured the wine like oil on blazing fire. And still the riot went on. The debauchery gained its height; glasses were dashed upon the floor by hands that could not carry them to lips; oaths were shouted out by lips which could scarcely form the words to vent them in; drunken losers cursed and roared; some mounted on the tables, waving bottles above their heads and bidding defiance to the rest; some danced, some sang, some tore the cards and raved. Tumult and frenzy reigned supreme; when a noise arose that drowned all others, and two men, seizing each other by the throat, struggled into the middle of the room.

A dozen voices, until now unheard, called aloud to part them. Those who had kept themselves cool, to win, and who earned their living in such scenes, threw themselves upon the combatants, and, forcing them asunder, dragged them some space apart.

‘Let me go!’ cried Sir Mulberry, in a thick hoarse voice; ‘he struck me! Do you hear? I say, he struck me. Have I a friend here? Who is this? Westwood. Do you hear me say he struck me?’

‘I hear, I hear,’ replied one of those who held him. ‘Come away for tonight!’

‘I will not, by G—,’ he replied. ‘A dozen men about us saw the blow.’

‘Tomorrow will be ample time,’ said the friend.

‘It will not be ample time!’ cried Sir Mulberry. ‘Tonight, at once, here!’ His passion was so great, that he could not articulate, but stood clenching his fist, tearing his hair, and stamping upon the ground.

‘What is this, my lord?’ said one of those who surrounded him. ‘Have blows passed?’

‘One blow has,’ was the panting reply. ‘I struck him. I proclaim it to all here! I struck him, and he knows why. I say, with him, let this quarrel be adjusted now. Captain Adams,’ said the young lord, looking hurriedly about him, and addressing one of those who had interposed, ‘let me speak with you, I beg.’

The person addressed stepped forward, and taking the young man’s arm, they retired together, followed shortly afterwards by Sir Mulberry and his friend.

All the light and life of day came on; and amidst it all, and pressing down the grass whose every blade bore twenty tiny lives; lay the dead man

Chapter 50

Fred Barnard

Household Edition

Text Illustrated:

The two shots were fired, as nearly as possible, at the same instant. In that instant, the young lord turned his head sharply round, fixed upon his adversary a ghastly stare, and without a groan or stagger, fell down dead.

‘He’s gone!’ cried Westwood, who, with the other second, had run up to the body, and fallen on one knee beside it.

‘His blood on his own head,’ said Sir Mulberry. ‘He brought this upon himself, and forced it upon me.’

‘Captain Adams,’ cried Westwood, hastily, ‘I call you to witness that this was fairly done. Hawk, we have not a moment to lose. We must leave this place immediately, push for Brighton, and cross to France with all speed. This has been a bad business, and may be worse, if we delay a moment. Adams, consult your own safety, and don’t remain here; the living before the dead; goodbye!’

With these words, he seized Sir Mulberry by the arm, and hurried him away. Captain Adams—only pausing to convince himself, beyond all question, of the fatal result—sped off in the same direction, to concert measures with his servant for removing the body, and securing his own safety likewise.

So died Lord Frederick Verisopht, by the hand which he had loaded with gifts, and clasped a thousand times; by the act of him, but for whom, and others like him, he might have lived a happy man, and died with children’s faces round his bed.

The sun came proudly up in all his majesty, the noble river ran its winding course, the leaves quivered and rustled in the air, the birds poured their cheerful songs from every tree, the short-lived butterfly fluttered its little wings; all the light and life of day came on; and, amidst it all, and pressing down the grass whose every blade bore twenty tiny lives, lay the dead man, with his stark and rigid face turned upwards to the sky.

Kim wrote: "All the light and life of day came on; and amidst it all, and pressing down the grass whose every blade bore twenty tiny lives; lay the dead man..."

I wasn't expecting an illustration of dead Lord Verisopht, but it makes an impression. So does the quote by Dickens about every blade of grass bearing twenty tiny lives. Now, what could he mean by that?

Peter wrote: "Alissa wrote: "Peter wrote: "Dickens has Gride observe about Madeline that she is “a dainty morsel” to which Ralph responds “I have no great taste for beauty.” Gride replies “but I have ... . Oh, d..."

The Edible Woman--sounds interesting. Thanks for the link, Peter.

Too bad Lord Verisopht had to die immediately after improving his personality. I liked him, but not Hawk. I would have preferred that Verisopht lived, but he had to escape his debts and his being used somehow. I wonder if Mantalini's fake death (another man in debt) was a foreshadowing or parallel plot to Verisopht's fate.

I loved the description of the drunken party. It gives a sense of chaos, danger, and self-destruction:

In that giddy whirl of noise and confusion, the men were delirious. Who thought of money, ruin, or the morrow, in the savage intoxication of the moment? More wine was called for, glass after glass was drained, their parched and scalding mouths were cracked with thirst. Down poured the wine like oil on blazing fire. And still the riot went on. The debauchery gained its height; glasses were dashed upon the floor by hands that could not carry them to lips; oaths were shouted out by lips which could scarcely form the words to vent them in; drunken losers cursed and roared; some mounted on the tables, waving bottles above their heads and bidding defiance to the rest; some danced, some sang, some tore the cards and raved.

Tristram wrote: "At the same time, I cannot see any reason why I should follow the narrator's obvious admiration for a young woman who submits herself to the tyranny of a self-seeking, petulous invalid simply because this man happens to be her father. This kind of father is not any better than those fathers (like Snawley) who leave their children with Mr. Squeers to get rid of them..."

Good comparison, Tristram. I wasn't impressed by Madeline's subservience either. Self-sacrifice is good when it's for a good cause, but when it's for an ogre like her father, it's not that admirable. Not that she has much choice, but still, a little grumbling now and then or dreaming of a better life would be more realistic.

Peter wrote: "Smike and now Madeline Bray. What might Dickens be developing in terms of how mistreated children may effected by their past?..."

Perhaps that they turn out meek and kind, but we know that that's true only for a percentage of them, and that for another percentage they grow up cold and hard. A more modern interpretation would be that the abused become dependent and show great deference to their abusers. But I don't think that's what Dickens is doing. He has this idealized view of the world.

I admit to being slightly confused at the start of this chapter, 46, so much so that I looked back to make sure I hadn't forgotten to read chapter 45. I attribute this to listening instead of reading NN. I'm not nearly as attentive a listener as I am a reader, and besides, it's a heck of a lot easier to reread passages than to re-listen to them.

Having said that, this turned out to be a good chapter that moved the plot along. I do so like how Victorian men and women fall so easily and quickly in love with one another. Neither romance nor long engagements nor any notion of getting to know one another appear to be cultural norms at this time. There must have been a lot of lousy marriages back then.

One other point: Nicholas's declaration of his undying love for Madeline upon first being introduced to her is hilarious and very, very forward. I would have thought the appropriate reaction would have been for Madeline to demand he leave and never return. But then Nicholas knows she's in no position to assert herself and say any such thing. I doubt Dickens meant it that way, but that's how I saw it.

I wonder if Dickens thought a person's character was preordained? In other words, regardless of being treated harshly or kindly as a child, there are those children who will grow up to be good and those who will grow up to be bad. Sometimes it looks that way. But Dickens also believed Jesus was the great moral teacher, which kind of hints that he thought christian morality was learned.

Mary Lou wrote: "Was anyone else annoyed by Nicholas's expressions of adoration for Madeline? My gosh -- all he needed was a zucchini to toss in her direction! Madeline should have been thinking, "Geez, I've got enough problems with my bitter old father... I don't need a stalker whom I've never met before professing his 'love' for me!"

Lol, this is why I like posting before reading what others have said about the same chapter. Couoldn't agree more Mary Lou.

Kim wrote: "Nicholas Makes His First Visit to Mr. Bray

Chapter 46

Phiz

Text Illustrated:

It is not to be supposed that he took in everything at one glance, for he had as yet been unconscious of the presenc..."

Thanks Kim. Finally, another bird cage! This time it is placed strategically and symbolically in the top left above both Madeline and the harp. Phiz’s illustration gives us a great divide and commentary on the Bray household. In the illustration we see, on the left, a reasonably well-dressed Madeline. The harp, as the commentary states, suggests that not every cent has gone to fuel Mr Bray’s drinking habits. Also, above the harp we have a bird cage which acts as an emblem to suggest how Madeline is captured in her role as daughter and provider. The bird, like Madeline, is not free.

On the right side of the illustration we have Mr Bray close to the fireplace, his bottle, his chair, which is much more comfortable than Madeline’s, and his stick. He has comforts; she has work. Each are in their own separate spheres in the illustration.

The illustration begs the question of whether Madeline would ever have the time to enjoy the leisure to play the harp. The caged bird above the harp is the silent, but effective answer. Notice the focus of each character’s gaze. Madeline looks at her father. Thus, Mr Bray is in control of Madeline. Bray looks at Nicholas, the intruder, who is entering through the door into Bray’s domain. Meanwhile, Nicholas is looking at Madeline, the young lady he (and Noggs) have been in search of for many chapters.

Kim wrote: "All the light and life of day came on; and amidst it all, and pressing down the grass whose every blade bore twenty tiny lives; lay the dead man

Chapter 50

Fred Barnard

Household Edition

Text I..."

Barnard has effectively captured the end of the Hawk - Verisopht relationship. They had recently returned from France to enjoy more drinking and debochery in England, but have fallen out over Kate Nickleby. A duel, a death, and then Hawk takes flight back to the continent. The sun rises, and Verisopht is alone, abandoned by his supposed friend.

A very somber but effective illustration.

I liked Lord Verisopht and hate Hawk more every time I read the book. What I can't remember anymore is if I liked Verisopht the very first time I read the book, or if it only began after I knew how it would end for him. If only he had never known horrible Hawk.

Alissa wrote: "Tristram wrote: "At the same time, I cannot see any reason why I should follow the narrator's obvious admiration for a young woman who submits herself to the tyranny of a self-seeking, petulous inv..."

It's nice to see I am not alone with that sentiment. As for the blades of grass bearing twenty lives each, I'd say this is meant in the way that the lawn was, in fact, teeming with animal life and while those insects were alive, Lord Verisopht, a man, was no longer. A stark contrast, pointing to the insignificance of human plans in the face of eternity. Maybe, Dickens also had the Bible in mind: "As for man, his days are like grass."

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "I would have thought the appropriate reaction would have been for Madeline to demand he leave and never return. But then Nicholas knows she's in no position to assert herself and say any such thing. I doubt Dickens meant it that way, but that's how I saw it."

This idea can also be linked with what you said about abused persons often becoming dependent and submitting to their abusers. This is clearly the case with Madeline: Her father exploits her to ensure that his every wish and whim are tended to, and she derives gratification from this situation by seeing herself as a most dutiful daughter. - Can you imagine what kind of wife a woman like that is going to be? It's quite clear that Nicholas can "surprise" her with such a stormy (and disturbing) declaration of love.

Tristram wrote: "his idea can also be linked with what you said about abused persons often becoming dependent and submitting to their abusers. "

I guess the question to ask is how Kate would have reacted in Madeline's place? Is an intended comparison being made between Kate and Madeline? Kate finds herself in a position similar to Madeline's, especially in her relationship to her uncle, yet she finds the strength to push back. Madeline is too meek and compliant. Of the two, Madeline is the abused child.

Men controlling women or attempting to control women seems to be a subplot of NN. Thinking about Nancy in OT too.

Chapter 47

The narrator refers to Gride as Ralph's friend, but Ralph immediately disabuses us of such a notion by saying Gride has not paid a visit out of friendship but out of a need for something. Does Ralph have friends in the true meaning of that word? I think not.

Ralph represents a kind of person, sometimes a "businessman," sometimes a bully, who has and wants no friends . . . and . . . no one wants to be his friend. Friends get in the way of Ralph's business, and he won't have that. Ralph is a kind of early Scrooge.

===================

Isn't Ralph well experienced to perfectly describe Mr. Bray's character? He notes that even if Bray loved his daughter their relationship would be defined by how much more he loved himself. Who would know better than Ralph? Maybe Squeers? Hawk? Bray himself? Ralph and Gride plotting over Bray's impending demise has the feel of two vultures picking over the bones of a third.

But how good a businessman can Ralph be? He lends money to people who can't pay it back. Bray. Mr. Mantalini. I mean he's allowed Bray, an invalid with the personality of pure piss, to get 1,000 pounds in debt to him. Did he know Gride would be such a fool?

"Madeline, your hand here!" Wow! What I said in my previous post is getting hard to ignore.

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Tristram wrote: "his idea can also be linked with what you said about abused persons often becoming dependent and submitting to their abusers. "

I guess the question to ask is how Kate would have ..."

Xan

You raise an important issue about how men are portrayed as controlling, or attempting to control woman in this novel. Kate and Madeline, as you say, are important characters to consider. Yes. I think Kate’s spirit is much stronger than Madeline’s. Madeline appears to almost enjoy the role of dutiful daughter, even if it is a very self-defeating role. I believe there is a clear suggestion that Madeline has been abused either physically or psychologically.

Kate, on the other hand, has a far greater feeling of self-worth, will never play the role of helpless female, and will not shirk from speaking clearly and strongly to those who offend her. Sir Mulberry Hawk learned that Kate has talons as well.

Kate is, in many ways, the mother to her own mother. When we consider the other young ladies in the novel such as Fanny or Matilda Price, Kate has much more character and conviction. I do not think that Kate would have accepted the role Madeline has assumed with her father.

As to how good a businessman Ralph Nickleby is I think he very successful. His own home is clearly elegant, his standing and power over the likes of Sir Mulberry Hawk is evident, and Gride clearly fawns over Ralph. Now, I found that fawning attitude to be rather melodramatic, and perhaps Gride knew how to play his role in order to get what he wanted from Ralph Nickleby, but it is made evident from their postures in the letterpress and illustration that Ralph is superior.

As you note, it appears that Ralph has made a couple of clunkers in his loans to both Bray and Mantalini, but I wonder if it matters to Ralph. I wonder if those like him thrive in the richness of how others will fawn and bow and scrape to him as much as they will pay him back in cold hard cash.

Money and power are a toxic mix. I think Ralph enjoys that type of drink.

Peter,

Good points. You make me wonder if perhaps Ralph enjoys lending money to a few whom he knows can't pay it back. That makes him their master and them subject to his whims in a way a person who can pay back a loan never will be. If so, Ralph is a sadist, a man who all too much enjoys the deliciousness of making someone crawl to him.

Is this why he employs Noggs in his home? So he can gloat ever day over his breaking him?

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Peter,

Good points. You make me wonder if perhaps Ralph enjoys lending money to a few whom he knows can't pay it back. That makes him their master and them subject to his whims in a way a person w..."

Hi Xan

I think your idea about Ralph’s reasons for employing Noggs makes sense. Newman Noggs plays an important role in the novel as a friend, confident, and method of Dickens advancing the plot in regards to the Nickleby’s and more is soon to come. Nevertheless, I like your psychological profiling of him. We know that Noggs has slipped down the social scale. What better person for Ralph to hire? Noggs knows business, but Nickleby must certainly feel he is superior. We see this dynamic on more than one interaction between them in the novel.

Peter wrote: "I am using the Penguin edition of NN and a footnote to this part of the chapter expands on a personal feud between Dickens and a W.T.Moncrieff who was a playwright and a very bad offender and robber of Dickens’s original work."

I was wondering what was up with that. That was a pretty obvious example of authorial intrusion. So writers are stealing from a 24-year-old writer huh! Dickens should have been flattered.

"Histrionic Expedition!" What an interesting phrase.

I know the word only in its cutting meaning: "Quit the histrionics, will you!?!" But it turns out it has an equally benign meaning and is a synonym for "theater" or "drama" with no childish connotations attached to it. Learn something new everyday.

All Roads Lead To London!

Tristram wrote: "As always, Peter, your chapter summaries are very insightful and thought-provoking! I do agree that Dickens's descriptive passages are quite a treat in that they manage to create an atmosphere and ..."

I am with the we-don't-need-Gride contingent. If I were Dickens's editor, I'd say cut Gride and make Ralph pursue Madeline instead. After all, the real reason Gride wants to marry her, voluptuous eyelashes notwithstanding, is because he's discovered she has some secret property, which is exactly why Ralph would want to marry her. So why do we need two Ralphs? Maybe there's something coming that I just don't see yet.

I did see Smike's illness coming, and I have to say I feel indignant about it. While I agree it makes sense he would have consumption given his past, I don't think that's why he dies--he was doomed from the moment he fell for Kate, 'cause that's The Rules. Ugh, why? Are there any admirable characters in Dickens for whom an unrequited love affair isn't a death sentence?

Julie wrote: "Are there any admirable characters in Dickens for whom an unrequited love affair isn't a death sentence?"

Actually, duh. That would be (view spoiler)[Pip. Who has two of them. (hide spoiler)].

I've been thinking, and have not yet thought of one, but I will continue thinking... oh, maybe not Uriah Heep... he loved Davey's wife, but I don't remember any crisis of spirit or body threaten him. Must go back. Kathleen

Tristram wrote: "As for the blades of grass bearing twenty lives each, I'd say this is meant in the way that the lawn was, in fact, teeming with animal life and while those insects were alive, Lord Verisopht, a man, was no longer."

I read it that way too, but I don't think it works as an image even though it was a good idea. There may be twenty crawlies on every blade of grass out there--probably more--but it's not how people perceive grass, unless there's a plague of locusts on or something.

I think this is Ralph's lowest moment yet, spoken as he tries to persuade Bray to marry Madeline off to Gride:

‘What is it now, I say,’ pursued the wily usurer, ‘or what has it a chance of being? If you died, indeed, the people you hate would make her happy. But can you bear the thought of that?’

‘No!’ returned Bray, urged by a vindictive impulse he could not repress.

‘I should imagine not, indeed!’ said Ralph, quietly. ‘If she profits by anybody’s death,’ this was said in a lower tone, ‘let it be by her husband’s. Don’t let her have to look back to yours, as the event from which to date a happier life.

Shudders. Bray is so craven and Ralph is so willing to encourage and profit from it. It doesn't look like Ralph's going to be redeemable at all.

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Tristram wrote: "his idea can also be linked with what you said about abused persons often becoming dependent and submitting to their abusers. "

I guess the question to ask is how Kate would have ..."

When doing the recaps for this week's chapters, I came across a passage that illustrates what you say, Xan. It also allows us to form an opinion on what the author himself might have thought about Madeline. But let's wait until tomorrow because otherwise there will be spoilers here.

Ralph is most certainly a very interesting character, and although he is an out-and-out evildoer, he intrigues me with a will to make more sense of him. One thing I can say is that he knows a lot about human nature and is a very good psychologist. The way he treats Mr. Bray, for instance, is - as Julie remarks - perfectly in tune with Bray's character. Ralph is a brilliant reader of characters. He knows about most people's weaknesses and also about how best to exploit them. However, his knowledge is always spot on with selfish people like himself - Bray, the Mantalinis, Miss Knag, the Squeerses, Hawk and Verisopht, and Gride. When, however, he has to deal with Nicholas, he often imputes to him base or selfish motives for acting the way he does. For example, he says that Nicholas has taken Smike with him because he wanted to seem a caring person. Now, I don't know if Ralph really believes what he is saying here, in which case he would be not such a good psychologist after all, as being unable to understand the nobler motivations certain people have - or if he decides to misconstrue Nicholas's motives in order to justify his own opposition to Nicholas.

Ralph, being a psychologist of malice and baseness, however, clearly shows why he has no friends, namely because his view of human nature is very pessimistic and bleak. We might also say that often people see in other people what is in themselves - but that's probably just a saying coined by fools who want to make a merit of their own optimism ;-)