[Literature] Charles Dickens: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby #12/456

In addition, Dickens removed a number of intensifying adjectives (‘this heartless scheme’ (1839), ‘this scheme’ (1848, 1867); ‘insolence and the coarsest pride’ (1839), ‘insolence and pride’ (1848, 1867)) and adverbs (‘turned contemptuously away’ (1839), ‘turned away’ (1848, 1867); ‘he muttered doggedly’ (1839), ‘he muttered’ (1848, 1867)). He also regularly substituted the less explosive term ‘Heaven’ for ‘God’. Punctuation was generally tightened, and the characters’ use of Yorkshire and Cockney dialect standardized. Dickens also made explicit the identity of the laundress for whom Mr Mantalini works (see note 2, chapter 64), probably in response to letters from puzzled readers.

The 1848 Cheap Edition was hardly revised at all for the Charles Dickens Edition of 1867. Dickens’s most notable alteration here was the substitution from chapter 26onwards of‘Lord Frederick’ for ‘Lord Verisopht’: Dickens had obviously come to feel the lord’s satirical second name impeded the reader’s belief in the character change he undergoes. As throughout the Charles Dickens Edition, Dickens added running titles to each right-hand page, and these are reproduced in appendix 2.

The text presented here is that of the 1839 edition, which has been collated with the texts of the two later editions. All significant textual variants are listed in appendix 3. It incorporates the improved punctuation and standardized dialects of the 1848 edition, and spelling has been modernized throughout.

The divisions of the original instalments are indicated by asterisks at the close of the final chapter of each monthly part, and by Roman numerals before the title of each chapter that begins a new instalment.

NOTES

1.A facsimile of the original monthly parts, including most of the adverts placed in ‘The Nickleby Advertiser’, is available from Scolar Press (London: 1973).

SELECTED FURTHER REDADING

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