Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

Susan Garner-Jones (University of Liverpool)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

When Charles Dickens wrote

Nicholas Nickleby

, between March 1838 and September 1839, he was a vivacious young author whose creative powers seemed boundless.

Nickleby

would be his third novel to be published but he began it within days of completing his first,

The Pickwick Papers

, having signed a contract for it on 24 November 1837. (His collection of stories,

Sketches By Boz

, was completed before

Pickwick

but was, as its title implies, a series of disconnected interludes rather than a ‘novel' as such.) Four months later, when he actually began writing

Nickleby

, at least half of his second novel,

Oliver Twist

, was still to be completed. By this contract, therefore, Dickens bound himself to producing two full-length novels simultaneously. Thus, between February and October 1838 he was…

5484 words

Citation: Garner-Jones, Susan. "Nicholas Nickleby". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 June 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3280, accessed 29 March 2024.]

3280 Nicholas Nickleby 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.