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Dubliners by J.Joyce (riferimento a 'Eveline' e 'The dead')

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“Dubliners” is a collection of fifteen short stories written by James Joyce in which the author analyses the failure of self-realisation of inhabitants of Dublin in biographical and in psychological ways. The novel was originally turned down by publishers because they considered it immoral for its portrait of the Irish city. Joyce treats in “Dubliners” the paralysis of will in four stages: childhood, youth, maturity and public life. The paralysis of will is the courage and self-knowledge that leads ordinary men and women to accept the limitations imposed by the social context they live in. In “Dubliners” the style is both realistic - to the degree of perfectly recreating characters and idioms of contemporary Dublin - and symbolic – giving the common object unforeseen depth and a new meaning in order to show a new view of reality. Joyce defines this effect “epiphany” which indicates that moment when a simple fact suddenly explodes with meaning and makes a person realise his / her condi
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Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

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Nicholas Nickleby book cover 


Title: Nicholas Nickleby

Author: Charles Dickens

Main works: “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist”, “Hard Times”, “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “Barnaby Rudge”, “Bleak House”, “Little Dorrit”, “Great Expectations”, “The Old Curiosity Shop” and “A Tale of Two Cities”.

Education: Wellington House Academy

Subgenre: historical novel

Setting: London, Yorkshire and Devon


Information about the writer

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, on 7th February 1812 and died on 9th June 1870 in Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent.

For most of his life, he lived in or near London.

His family was poor and had many debts; therefore, Charles Dickens had to go out to work in a shoes factory at the age of twelve.

He never forgot this difficult time and many of his books describe the problems of poor people, in particular poor children, and the wide differences between the rich and the poor.

When Dickens was older, he started working for a newspaper and then he wrote some of the most famous novels in English: “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist”, “Hard Times”, “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “Barnaby Rudge”, “Bleak House”, “Little Dorrit”, “Great Expectations”, “The Old Curiosity Shop” and “A Tale of Two Cities”.


Plot

When old Mr. Nick Nickleby died at home in Devon, he left many debts behind him.

Therefore, Nicholas Nickleby, Mr. Nick Nickleby’s son, went to London with his mother and his sister, Kate.

He hoped for help from his uncle Ralph Nickleby because he was in the London finance business and he knew many people, but his uncle was interested in making money.

Nicholas took a teaching job at Dotheboys Hall, a cruel and terrible school belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Wackford Squeers.

The boys had not real lessons, but they did jobs for Squeers in the school and its garden all day. Mr. and Mrs. Squeers loved making the boys there suffer, especially to a taller boy, Smike because he was older than the other boys.

Nicholas and Smike became friends and Nicholas will help poor boy to escape from school.

One day, Smike ran away his bedroom and Mr. Squeers, angry, went out to find him. Next morning, Nicholas heard a coach and, inside it, he looked poor boy.

When Mr. Squeers saw him, he took poor boy and put him in the cellar to torture him with a whip.

Fortunately, after many situations and difficulties, Nicholas and Smike succeeded to run away from Dotheboys Hall and they went to Nicholas’s house, in London.

Some days later, Nicholas went to the Employment Office to look for a job.

He found a job as accounts clerk for two rich and polite twins, Charles and Ned Cheeryble.

The Nickleby Family and Smike moved into the little house in Bow. They were very happy.

One night, Mr. Squeers kidnapped Smike and they went to an Inn, but with the help of John Browdie, Mr. Squeers’s friend, Smike escaped from the Inn.

When poor boy returned home, he was cold, dirty and exhaust so that he will have a consumption, which it will lead him to death.

One day, while Nicholas was working, he saw a beautiful lady, Madeline Bray, and he fell in love.

Next, he discovered that Madeline’s father had many debts and he was very ill so that an old moneylender, Mr. Arthur Gride, would have agreed to cancel Bray’s debts, if Bray gave him Madeline’s hand in marriage.

Nicholas was very angry and went to Bray’s house to prevent the marriage. Therefore, it happened.

In the meantime, Ralph Nickleby, Nicholas’s uncle, received a letter: he lost £10.000 in a bad investment and he was suddenly poor.

Therefore, he killed oneself.

Mr. Squeers went to prison for his criminal ways and Dotheboys Hall is closed.

Nicholas Nickleby get married with Madeline and Kate married Frank Cheeryble, the Cheeryble brothers’ nephew.


Characters

Nick Nickleby: Nicholas’s father;

Nicholas Nickleby: he is Nick’s son, he is nineteen years old, and he is a brave, polite, generous boy;

Kate Nickleby: Nicholas’s sister ;

Ralph Nickleby: he worked in London finance business, he is Nicholas’s uncle and he is unscrupulous, arrogant and stingy man;

Mr and Mrs Squeers: they manage Dotheboys Hall, a cruel school where boys had no real lessons, but they did jobs for Squeers Family and if they don’t do jobs, Mr Squeer will torture them;

Smike: a poor boy that worked for Squeers Family; he is Nicholas’s friend and they escape together from Dotheboys Hall;

Charles and Ned Cheeryble: they are cheerful, honest, rich, easy going and generous twins; they engage Nicholas as accounts clerk;

Madeline Bray: a beautiful lady that she must pay debts of her ill father through gain of selling of her pictures;

Frank Cheeryble: Cheeryble brothers’ nephew.


Personal comment

This novel is very interesting and charming.

Charles Dickens, in this novel, talk about the society and economic situation of 19th century and, with mastery of language and shrewdness, he emphasis the incommunicability between the social classes at the time.

In fact, he is the “founder” of social novel, which he describes the life of socially disadvantaged social classes and denounces event of prejudice, and overwhelmed.

I have read other novels by this author as well “David Copperfield”, “A Christmas Carol”, “Oliver Twist” and “Hard Times”.

Charles Dickens is one of my favorite writers for the social and cultural themes that he deals and, with the same genius and sensitiveness, he conveys to the reader the condition and facts of the time.
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