Nicholas Nickleby

Nickolas is a young man of 'impetuous temper and little or no experience' who saves his family from dire misfortune at the hands of his villainous uncle, Ralph. And all around him is a great gallery of Dickensian types, who range from the farcical - the Mantalinis, the Lillyvicks and the Crummles family of travelling actors - the pathetic - Smike, the maltreated schoolboy - to the downright wicked - Sir Mulberry Hawk and Wackford Squeers, the infamous haedmaster of Dotheboys Hall.