The Largesse Presents: The Book Club for People Who Hate Book Clubs (appearing each Wednesday for a while)

Nicholas Nickleby

Second Installment, Chapters 5-7:  The End of The Beginning of Things

Alright, so the second installment can really be seen as representing the quintessential Dickens:  some good, some bad, lots of funny, and even more precise and revelatory detail.  We move from the sentimental to the slapstick to plain and simple filler to the beginnings of what promises to be cutting social commentary and satire.  That he can do all of this and pull it off with style saves Dickens from the real problems that exist with the two inserted stories in Chapter 6 – “The Five Sisters Of York” and “The Baron of Grogzwig” – and lets us continue on reading with only the slightest of misgivings.

The Largesse Presents: The Book Club for People Who Hate Book Clubs (appearing each Wednesday for a while)

Nicholas Nickleby

First Installment, Chapters 1-4: The Beginnings of Things

So, it’s a bit confusing.  Get over it.  We’re not going to be focusing on the plot right now, anyway.  The key to Dickens is the characters.  People will tell you that he only wrote caricatures, but you can safely ignore those people; they’re assholes who heard some other asshole say that in a class back in college.  Now’s your chance to think for yourself, remember?  So just read already.

The Largesse Presents: The Book Club for People Who Hate Book Clubs (appearing each Wednesday for a while)

So, here’s the thing.  Charles Dickens is not the writer you all hated in high school.  I’m not really sure how this happens, but, of course, it has happened nonetheless.  You probably read Great Expectations or maybe A Tale Of Two Cities, and somehow the vast majority of you came away from the experience thinking that Dickens is boring.  You ignored the hilarity of Wopsle’s attempt at performing Shakespeare or Trabb’s boy stomping down the street and mocking the pretensions of Pip, and you somehow missed the basic human drama of the French Revolution.  The important thing is that you move on from your mistakes and accept that there is a whole new world out there (and in there).