Nicholas Nickleby , livre ebook

Original by Charles Dickens
Retold by Pauline Francis
ReadZone Books Limited


First published in this edition 2017
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ISBN 978-1-78322-732-7
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Chapter One    A Fresh Start
Chapter Two    Dotheboys Hall
Chapter Three Sister and Mother
Chapter Four   Trouble in Yorkshire
Chapter Five    Nicholas Seeks His Fortune
Chapter Six     Kate Speaks Out
Chapter Seven London at Last
Chapter Eight The Fight for Smike
Chapter Nine   An Arranged Marriage
Chapter Ten    The Terrible Truth
Introduction
Charles Dickens was born in 1812, the second of eight children. When he was twelve years old, his father went to prison because he owed money. Charles went out to work to help his family. He never forgot the terrible time when he was poor, and later used his experiences in some of his stories.
In his twenties, Charles found work writing about London life for newspapers and magazines. Some of these articles were published in a book called The Pickwick Papers . This is how Charles Dickens became famous at the age of twenty-four.
Nicholas Nickleby was published as a novel in 1838. It tells the story of Nicholas Nickleby who goes to work as a school master in a Yorkshire boarding school, thinking he will make his fortune to provide for his newly widowed mother and his sister. But the school is run by the cruel Mr Squeers and his wife, a dreadful place of “ dirt, disease and disorder ”. How can Nicholas Nickleby stop this cruelty? How can he find his place in the world?
It is a novel full of comedy and cruelty, and includes more minor characters than any of his other novels.
Charles Dickens wrote many famous novels, including David Copperfield , A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations . He died in 1870 at the age of fifty-eight and is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
CHAPTER ONE
A Fresh Start
When Nicholas Nickleby was only eighteen, his father suddenly died after the loss of all his money. His widow threw herself at the mercy of her brother-in-law, and travelled from Devonshire to London with her two children, Nicholas and Kate. Ralph Nickleby, a mean-minded moneylender who had little love for his dead brother or anybody else, was not pleased to see them. He unfolded his newspaper and showed Mrs Nickleby this advertisement:

EDUCATION:
Mr Squeers’s Academy, Dotheboys Hall, Yorkshire
Youths are boarded, fed, clothed and educated. No extras.
No vacations.
Assistant wanted. Annual salary £5.
Mr Squeers is in London and can be met at the Saracen’s Head Inn between 1-4 pm.

‘There Nicholas,’ his uncle said. ‘Let us get you that situation and your fortune will be made.’
‘But he is not qualified to teach,’ his mother said.
‘And the salary is so small and Yorkshire is so far away,’ his sister, Kate, cried.
‘Nicholas, my dear,’ his mother continued. ‘I wish you would say something.’
‘Yes, mother, yes,’ Nicholas replied. ‘I am thinking. If I do get this post, what would become of you and my sister?’
‘I shall find a way in which they can live independently,’ his uncle replied.
‘Well, then,’ Nicholas said brightly and shaking his uncle’s hand. ‘I am ready to do anything you wish. Let us try our fortune with Mr Squeers at once. He can only refuse.’
‘Oh no, he will not do that,’ his uncle said. ‘Mr Squeers will take you on my recommendation. Make yourself of use to him and you could rise to become a partner.’
‘Or a young nobleman being educated there might appoint me as his tutor when he leaves and he might even fall in love with Kate and marry her,’ Nicholas went on. ‘Eh, uncle!’
His uncle snarled in reply.
The young and innocent Nicholas was so overcome by this idea of a happy family that he burst into tears.
His uncle reminded him that they ought to go at once to secure this happy future and the two of them set out for the Saracen’s Head Inn.

***

The Inn was a dark and dismal place in the crowded city, not far from Newgate prison. Mr Squeers, who was in his fifties, had the look of a villain about him, partly because he had only one good eye and the skin on the blind side of his face was puckered. His hair was flat and shiny, except at the front, where it was brushed up. He wore ill-fitting clothes. His voice was harsh and his manners coarse.
Mr Squeers was not in a good humour. He had to return to Yorkshire the next day and so far, he had found only five new pupils to take with him.
‘Here is my nephew!’ Ralph Nickleby cried. ‘Hot from school himself, with his head full of learning and nothing in his pocket.’
‘He won’t suit me,’ Mr Squeers said.
‘Is it because I am young and have no qualifications?’ Nicholas asked.
His uncle took Mr Squeers to one side and a couple of minutes later, Mr Squeers announced that Nicholas could have the post.
‘Your uncle’s recommendation has done it,’ he said.
Nicholas shook his uncle’s hand warmly.
‘Mr Squeers is certainly an odd-looking man,’ he thought. ‘But what of it? Many famous and learned people are.’
‘We set off for Yorkshire at eight tomorrow morning,’ Squeers was saying. ‘Be here at a quarter to eight, Mr Nickleby. Your uncle has kindly paid your fare.’
Nicholas could hardly find the words to thank his uncle who asked him to take some papers back to his house to give to his clerk, Newman Noggs. Noggs was a thin, strange-looking man who stared closely at Nicholas and asked what his uncle had done for him.