Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens, 1838-39 ★★½

Great Characters, But a Bit of a Mess

Everything that’s right – and wrong – about early Charles Dickens comes to roost in his third novel, less celebrated now but as popular then as anything he wrote. If Nicholas Nickleby often misses the mark for today’s reader, that speaks more to time’s passage than lack of talent.

A big takeaway from reading Nicholas Nickleby, far more than its story or characters: Dickens’s boundless imagination.

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens, 1837-39 ★★★½

Waif Takes on the Big Bad City

A cruel disposition can be a positive quality when writing a novel. Case in point: Oliver Twist.

Charles Dickens’ torture test for his titular boy hero saves his book from mawkish excess and, along with its brilliant depiction of a harsh urban landscape, imparts readability and drive, not to mention a steady undertow of savage black humor. The result, marred at times by bathos and coincidence, is a bracing change-up from the author whose prior, first novel was the whimsical, often-pastoral The Pickwick Papers.

The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens, 1836-37 ★★★★

Where's the Love for Mr. Pickwick?

Few novelists burst out of the gate with such energy and creativity, or garner such immediate popular acclaim, as did Charles Dickens. Reading The Pickwick Papers makes the case for instant greatness. It remains a marvel in terms of distance traveled, people met, and milieus satirized.