|
Charles Dickens
Iconography. Biography Selected Books Trivia Holy Grail of Dickens Books Dickens Kindle eBooks
The book, Charles Dickens's third novel, tells the story of the widowed Mrs Nicholby and teenage
children, Nicholas and Kate...(scroll down)
DESCRIPTION
The book came about because for many years Dickens had heard rumours of terrible schools in Yorkshire.
With the book he tried to set out and make a change in British
society.
In 1838 Dickins travelled secretly to Barnard Castle in Yorkshire to
investigate the Yorkshire Schools. It was in Barnard Castle graveyard and the sight of a cluster of greystones to dead schoolboys
boys that engendered Dickens's character Smie.
The book was dedicated to be to the actor William
Charles Macready (1793 - 1873).
Nicholas Nickleby was one of Dickens's greatest social triumphs.
The public became curious about these schools and whether they existed, and
journalists descended on Yorkshire to find out. It is said that within two
years of the novel's publication, almost all the schools were closed down. It was really from this year, 1839, that he became a household
name.
In his time as a court reporter, Dickins heard rumours about Mr
William Shaw of Shaw's Academy. He was a notorious
schoolmaster who had been prosecuted in the1820s after several of his pupils
had gone blind. The inspiration for Wackford Squeers has long been srongly rumoured to have come
from his encounter with Shaw.
The novel also focused on another of Dickens's passions, the theatre.
Sourced & abbreviated from the Holy Grail of Dickens Books - Charles Dickens [Hardcover] by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley
|
