The real Squeers was no Dickens brute, claims descendant - Telegraph The real Squeers was no Dickens brute, claims descendant By Charlotte Edwardes 12:00AM BST 22 Apr 2001 THE great-great-grandson of the man Charles Dickens used as the model for his evil Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby is attempting to clear his ancestor's name. Gregor Fisher as the Dickens villain, with family, in a recent ITV adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby William Shaw, the headmaster of Bowes Academy in Yorkshire in the 1830s, was far from the brute that Dickens depicted in his novel, according to Ted Shaw, 68, a retired engineer. He was a kind and good man who actively cared for his pupils' welfare, says Mr Shaw who argues that William Shaw was actually a victim of Dickens's "sensationalist and inaccurate reporting". The findings, the fruit of 50 years research, will be revealed at a lecture in York on Tuesday and have already been greeted with excitement by historians of the era. Mr Shaw also plans to publish a book.

Tony Williams, the joint secretary of the Dickens Fellowship, said the research would improve understanding of both the Yorkshire schools and of the way Dickens's investigated his work. "Mr Shaw has done a tremendous amount of research and is extremely interesting to listen to on the subject," he said. Squeers, the headmaster of the infamous Dotheboys Hall, is one of literature's most reviled villains. When the novel was published in 1838 the reading public was horrified by the conditions that schoolboys endured and at the callousness of parents who dispatched their children to such institutions. The similarities between William Shaw were immediately obvious: they shared initials, profession and both man and character wore a patch over one eye. The outcry resulting from the publication of the book was so great that the Bowes Academy, and a number of other boarding schools, were forced to close and Shaw was ostracised by society for the rest of his life. Mr Shaw told The Telegraph: "My great-great- grandfather was nothing like Wackford Squeers as people believe.

He was a kindly man who put the interests of his pupils first and in return was well-loved by them." Dickens visited the Bowes Academy, near Barnard Castle, Co Durham, in the 1830s while touring the North of England to research the novel. He met Shaw and also used much of the prosecution evidence in a trial in 1823, when Shaw was convicted of negligence after eight boys in his care went blind. "Dickens took a lot of evidence from the trial and adapted it to suit his own interests," said Mr Shaw. "Medicine has moved on - at the trial the cause of blindness was put down to poor diet when in fact it was probably trachoma brought back from the Napoleonic wars. "I have found records that show that William Shaw employed Dr Benning, a top ophthalmologist, in an attempt to cure the boys - those are not the actions of an uncaring headmaster." Dickens also ignored the testimonies in court from pupils and parents paying tribute to the school, said Mr Shaw. Letters from old boys also indicate that pupils were fairly treated and nourished.

Another pupil, George Ashton Taylor, widely regarded as the model for Smike, the pupil and slave regularly beaten by Squeers, did die prematurely, but it was not unusual among teenagers at the time to die of natural causes, said Mr Shaw. "The people of the area knew the truth. They were upset when the school closed and a number of jobs were lost," he added. "Nicholas Nickleby is a wonderful novel but it is a work of fiction. Dickens was a reporter who sensationalised and exaggerated the facts to get a good story." Mr Shaw's research began when, as a 15-year-old, he cycled from his home in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, to look at the parish records of Barnard Castle, where Bowes Academy once stood. The building has now been renamed Dotheboys Hall and converted into flats. Mr Shaw has succeeded Dickens's great-great-grandson Christopher as the life president of the Dickens Fellowship, and will use the occasion of his first lecture to try to set the record straight about his ancestor, recently portrayed by Gregor Fisher in a two-part ITV adaptation of the novel.

David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page Nicholas Nickleby FAQ & Email Cheap boarding schools in Yorkshire were advertised in the London papers with an emphasis on 'no holiday' and were a convenient place to dispose of unwanted or illegitimate children. Dickens and his illustrator Hablot Browne (phiz) traveled incognito to Yorkshire on a fact-finding mission in January 1838. There they encountered William Shaw, headmaster of Bowes Academy, in whose school several boys had died or went blind from mistreatment and neglect. Visiting a cemetery in the area Dickens found the graves of many of the students of these schools and one in particular Dickens said "put Smike into my head". Smike was the abused inmate of Dotheboys Hall, the fictional school he based on Shaw's Bowes Academy in Nicholas Nickleby. The fictional headmaster of Dotheboys Hall, Wackford Squeers, was based on William Shaw. The ignorance of the schoolmaster Squeers is more than a comic exaggeration. Edgar Johnson, in his biography of Dickens, notes that as late as 1851, 2.5 per cent of the schoolmasters and mistresses in private schools signed their census returns with a mark.

Three Actors Herb Moskovitz examines Dickens' love of the theatre. The theater is central to the plot of Nicholas Nickleby and Dickens dedicated the novel to his friend, distinguished actor and theater manager William Macready . Dickens' life during the serialization of Nicholas Nickleby Mar 1838 - Sep 1839 Wikipedia - Nicholas Nickleby The Cheeryble Brothers The story of the benevolent brothers who aid Nicholas and his family resulted in Dickens getting hundreds upon hundreds of applications for loans, gifts, and other requests for aid to be forwarded to the originals of the Cheeryble brothers. In the preface to the Cheap Edition of Nicholas Nickleby in 1848 Dickens claimed that the brothers were based on real persons "with whom I never interchanged any communication in my life". Paul Davis in The Penguin Dickens Companion says that the brothers were based on William and Daniel Grant, Manchester calico merchants whom Dickens met in 1838. Squeers' Advertisement in the London Papers "EDUCATION.

-- At Mr Wackford Squeers's Academy, Dotheboys Hall, at the delightful village of Dotheboys, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, Youth are boarded, clothed, booked, furnished with pocket-money, provided with all necessaries, instructed in all languages living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry, the use of the globes, algebra, single stick (if required), writing, arithmetic, fortification, and every other branch of classical literature. Terms, twenty guineas per annum. No extras, no vacations, and diet unparalleled. Mr Squeers is in town, and attends daily, from one till four, at the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill. N.B. An able assistant wanted. Annual salary 5 pounds.

A Master of Arts would be preferred." Dickens Describes the Boys at Dotheboys Hall Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men, deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together; there were the bleared eye, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, and every ugliness or distortion that told of unnatural aversion conceived by parents for their offspring, or of young lives which, from the earliest dawn of infancy, had been one horrible endurance of cruelty and neglect. There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering; there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its helplessness alone remaining.

Excerpt: There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire, one Mr Godfrey Nickleby: a worthy gentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment, who in her turn had taken him for the same reason. Thus two people who cannot afford to play cards for money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love. Nicholas Nickleby | Charles Dickens Info Charles Dickens Info Nicholas Nickleby Nicholas Nickleby Nicholas Nickleby was the third novel of Charles Dickens. The first installment was published on March 31, 1838 and the last installment was published on October 1, 1839. Nicholas Nickleby – Dickens’s Life At The Time In early 1838 Dickens and Hablot Browne, the illustrator for Nickleby, travel to Yorkshire to see the boarding schools for themselves. On March 6th of that year Dickens’s daughter Mary is born.

The first installment of Nicholas Nickleby is published on March 31, 1838. In January of 1839 Dickens begins writing Barnaby Rudge . On October 1, 1839 the final installment of Nickleby is published. On October 29th of that year Dickens’s daughter Kate is born. Yorkshire Boarding Schools One of Dickens’s goals in writing Nicholas Nickleby was to expose the ugly truth about Yorkshire boarding schools. In the preface to the novel Dickens has this to say about Yorkshire schoolmasters: Traders in the avarice, indifference, or imbecility of parents, and the helplessness of children; ignorant, sordid, brutal men, to whom few considerate persons would have entrusted the board and lodging of a horse or a dog; they formed the worthy cornerstone of a structure, which, for absurdity and a magnificent high-minded laissez-aller neglect, has rarely been exceeded in the world. In the novel Nicholas is sent to teach at Dotheboys Hall. It is a school where there are no holidays, no trips home for the abused and neglected pupils of Mr. Wackford Squeers.

Sadly schools like Dotheboys Hall really did exist. In early 1838 Dickens and Hablot Browne, the illustrator of Nicholas Nickleby, visited Yorkshire to get a first hand look at the situation. It was a very short visit, just two days, but it was enough to gather all the material they needed. During their visit they called on William Shaw, the headmaster of Bowes Academy. In 1823 Shaw had been prosecuted for neglect after two pupils became blind because of beatings and poor nutrition. The situation improved somewhat after the investigation. However even after the investigation it was common for one pupil to die at Bowes Academy every year. Dickens got the idea for Smike as he wandered through a churchyard near Bowes Academy. He read the engravings on the tombstones of the boys who died while attending Bowes and the idea sprang into his mind. Mrs. Nickleby Dickens’s own mother, Elizabeth Dickens, was the model for the always confused, comic Mrs. Nickleby. Luckily for Charles she didn’t recognize herself in the character. In fact she asked someone if they “really believed there ever was such a woman”.

Theme in Nicholas Nickleby An issue raised in Nicholas Nickleby deals with the definition of being a gentleman. What exactly does it take to be a true gentleman? Is it a matter of breeding? Sir Mulberry Hawk, who was determined to ruin Kate Nickleby, was surely not a true gentleman despite his good breeding. Wackford Squeers, the headmaster at Dotheboys Hall, proved that it takes more than position to be a gentleman. Ralph Nickleby illustrated that money alone does not make a gentleman. However in Nicholas Nickleby himself we see that a man is defined by his acts rather than breeding, money or position. It was a harder day’s journey than yesterday’s, for there were long and weary hills to climb; and in journeys, as in life, it is a great deal easier to go down hill than up. However, they kept on, with unabated perseverance, and the hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance will not gain the summit of at last. Nicholas Nickleby Information Wackford Squeers | fictional character | Britannica.com Wackford Squeers fictional character THIS ARTICLE IS A STUB.

You can learn more about this topic in the related articles below. Similar Topics Wackford Squeers, fictional character, the cruel headmaster of Dotheboys Hall in the novel Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39) by Charles Dickens . Learn More in these related articles: Charles Dickens February 7, 1812 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England June 9, 1870 Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. His many volumes include such works as A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great... Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered.

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After his father dies, Nicholas is left to take care of his mother and sister. His uncle is a crook and actively tries to ruin Nicholas' life. Luckily, the novel ends happily, with all of the bad characters either in jail or dead, and both Nicholas and his sister are happily in love with good matches. Like many of Dickens' novels, it was first published in the serial format from 1838 to 1839. Cast of Characters A trademark of Charles Dickens' novels is an extensive cast of characters. It would be impossible to list every character here, but before we can outline the plot, it is important to get to know a few of the more crucial characters. There are essentially five groups of characters, some of whom overlap: the Nickleby family, Ralph Nickleby and his business partners, the Squeers and the other characters who live in Yorkshire and/or are involved with Dotheboys Hall, Nicholas' London associates, and, finally, the Crummles' theater troupe with which Nicholas becomes involved. The Nicklebys Nicholas Nickleby is loyal, honest, young, and, as a result of his youth, often hotheaded.

His sister, Kate Nickleby, has many similar qualities to Nicholas, but is more demure. Their mother, Catherine Nickleby, often serves as comic relief. Ralph Nickleby and Company Ralph Nickleby, Nicholas' uncle, hates him. He is also greedy and most of the people he hangs out with share his bad qualities. One of the few exceptions is Newman Noggs, Ralph's clerk and Nicholas' friend. A few of his other associates are Sir Mulberry Hawk, Lord Verisopht, Mr. Pluck and Mr. Pyke, Arthur Gride, and Brooker. Dotheboys Hall/Yorkshire The Squeers run Dotheboys Hall. Wackford Squeers, Mrs. Squeers, and their two children, Wackford II and Fanny, are all fairly despicable. Mr. and Mrs. Squeers beat the children entrusted to them at Dotheboys. Smike, one of the boys at Dotheboys Hall, is beaten by the Squeers more than the others. Smike is secretly Nicholas' cousin (and the son of Ralph). His parentage is the subject of a lot of scheming and blackmailing in the novel.

John Browdie (the eventual husband of Tilda Price) and Tilda Price (Fanny's best friend for part of the book) are two of the few honorable characters featured in this location. Londoners The Nicklebys' landlady, Miss La Creevy, is a great family friend. Kate Nickleby is employed by Mr. and Mrs. Madame Mantalini for a time, then she's employed by Henry and Julia Wittiterly as Mrs. Wittiterly's companion. Charles and Ned Cheerblye, twin merchants, are two of the most moral characters in London. They do a lot of charity work, employ Nicholas, and help restore his hope in humanity. Their nephew, Frank, loves and marries Kate. He is similar in personality to Nicholas: a good man with a temper, especially over unjust situations. Walter and Madeline Bray used to be rich, but they are in a lot of debt. Walter is not a great father, but Madeline is loyal to him. She and Nicholas love each other. Crummles Theater Troupe Vincent Crummles and Mrs. Crummles, both prone to dramatics, run the Crummles theater troupe.

Vincent is a mentor to Nicholas. Their daughter, Ninetta Crummles, is somewhere between 10 and 18. Her age is vague because of her diet, which stunted her health. She features in every performance. Plot Summary When Mr. Nickleby dies, his wife and two children move to London to be with Mr. Nickleby's brother, Ralph. Ralph, however, hated his brother and hates his wife and children by association. He gets Nicholas an awful job working for Wackford Squeers, who is headmaster at Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted children in Yorkshire. Nicholas is outraged by the way Squeers treats the boys at the school. Squeers goes too far beating Smike one day and Nicholas stops him. Squeers and Nicholas fight. Aided by John Browdie, Nicholas and Smike run away from the school to London. Ralph, meanwhile, makes Catherine and Kate miserable. He moves them into a bad apartment, and while he gets Kate a job working for the Mantalinis, Ralph also uses her beauty to entice his greedy associates to do business with him.

When Hawk tries to attack Kate, Ralph intervenes, but threatens Kate not to tell anyone. When Ralph learns about what Nicholas did at Dotheboys, he disowns Nicholas and orders Catherine and Kate not to help him. Driven out of London, Nicholas and Smike take to the road. Nicholas joins the Crummles theater troupe. Back in London, Kate is fired from her job with the Mantalinis because Miss Knagg is jealous of her youth and beauty. She is briefly employed by the Wittiterlys as a companion for Mrs. Wittiterly. Kate has a falling out with her employers because Mrs. Wittiterly becomes jealous of the attention Ralph's associates are showing Kate, even though Kate does not want it. Ralph's clerk, Newman Noggs, urges Nicholas to come home. Afraid Nicholas will severely beat Hawk for his offenses against his sister, Newman Noggs and the Nickleby's former landlady do not tell Nicholas the specifics immediately. Unfortunately, Nicholas learns of the behavior anyway. He gets in a physical fight with Hawk. The fight gives Verisopht a change of heart and results in a duel between Verisopht and Hawk.

Verisopht is killed in the duel and Hawk flees the country. Nicholas tells his uncle that they are done with him. Nicholas, his sister, their mother, and Smike all move back in with Miss La Creevy. He finds work with the Cheeryble twins. Smike, unfortunately, runs into some bad luck. Ralph's former clerk, Brooker, tries to blackmail Smike about his parentage. Meanwhile, Wackford Squeers moves to London. He targets Smike and kidnaps him. John Browdie learns about the kidnapping and rescues Smike. As a thank you, Nicholas invites John Browdie and his new wife to dinner. × Exhibition explores Charles Dickens' links with County Durham - BBC News BBC News Exhibition explores Charles Dickens' links with County Durham 6 February 2012 Close share panel Image caption Bowes Academy has now been divided into seven flats and has been named Dotheboys Hall An exhibition exploring the links between Charles Dickens and County Durham is on display. The display of documents, photographs and press cuttings looks into Dickens' connections with the Barnard Castle which he visited in February 1838 when he was researching Nicholas Nickleby.

The exhibition at Durham County Record Office coincides with the 200th anniversary of his birth on 7 February. Dawn Layland, Durham County Record Office education archivist, said: "A lot of people don't realise that Dickens had any connection to County Durham... when the novel was published, it had a huge impact on the schools and community of that area." Many people believe that the character of Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby was inspired by William Shaw, who was the headmaster of Bowes Academy in the 1830s. The school was also said to be the basis for the author's depiction of Dotheboys Hall. Charles Dickens visited the town with illustrator Hablot K. Browne to research boarding schools in the north-east of England for the book. These boarding schools were known at the time as "Yorkshire Schools" and had a reputation as being places to send unwanted or illegitimate children for a cheaper rate, with an emphasis on work and no holidays. Dickens and Mr Browne visited a lawyer on their visit, pretending they were trying to find a suitable school for a widowed friend's sons.

Image caption A ledger showing the names and costs from Bowes Academy is on display at Bowes Academy In a letter from Dickens in 1838, he replies to a lady called Mrs. Hall who had written to him saying she thought he had exaggerated the school's treatment of its pupils in the book. He states: "... the rascalities of those York-shire Schoolmasters cannot easily be exag-gerated, and that I have kept down the strong truth and thrown as much comicality over it as I could, rather than disgust and weary the reader with its fouler aspects". He also states the lawyer he met told them the schools were "sad places" and advised them to "fling them in any way upon the mercy of the World - rather than trust them here". It was this reputation that formed the basis of Nicholas Nickleby. Following the publication of the book and its bad exposure of the Yorkshire Schools, most of them were closed down, including Bowes Academy. Dr Tony Williams, associate editor of The Dickensian and honorary life member of The International Dickens Fellowship, says the mistreatment of boys made Dickens angry and he wanted to "exploit" the schools' reputation in his work.

However, Dr Williams says "we must remember these are works of fiction". 'Duly proud' Dickens briefly met William Shaw on 2 February when he went to Bowes Academy but he was quickly ushered away when somebody revealed his identity. It is believed this brief meeting inspired the character of Wackford Squeers, who both share the same initials and also similarities in their appearance. In the same letter from 1838, he mentions his meeting with Mr Shaw, whom he describes as a "scoundrel". Image caption A newspaper article by a former pupil defending Bowes Academy However, William Shaw's family, and in particular his great-great-grandson Ted Shaw, have always defended his character. Mr Shaw will be holding a talk on 19 March at Hamsterley Village Hall as part of the Dickens in Teesdale year-long festival of events. Another connection with the town is the character of Smike, who is said to have been based on the grave of George Ashton Taylor, a boy who died at Bowes Academy. Dickens refers to visiting the boy's grave in a letter: "...

the first gravestone I stumbled on that dreary winter afternoon was placed above the grave of a boy, eighteen long years old, who had died suddenly... died at that wretched place. I think his ghost put Smike into my head, upon the spot." Dickens in Durham is on display at Durham County Record Office until the end of March. The Bowes Museum is also holding a series of events and an exhibition to mark the writer's anniversary, including talks from Dickens' great-great-grandson Gerald Dickens, and the great-great-granddaughter of Hablot Browne, Valerie Browne Lester. Vivien Vallack, head of exhibitions at the museum, said: "We can certainly be duly proud of the part our town and the dale played in helping inspire and create that novel. "Dickens' books are loved worldwide and so on this 200th anniversary it is important to recognise the modest but important part we played in the literary output of one of the world's favourite authors." Dotheboys Hall The Peel Web I am happy that you are using this web site and hope that you found it useful.

Unfortunately, the cost of making this material freely available is increasing, so if you have found the site useful and would like to contribute towards its continuation, I would greatly appreciate it. Click the button to go to Paypal and make a donation. Dotheboys Hall Taken from Nicholas Nickleby: Charles Dickens (1838-9), ch. 3 Mr Ralph Nickleby took a newspaper from his pocket, and after unfolding it, and looking for a short time among the advertisements, read as follows: '" EDUCATION . - At Mr Wackford Squeers's Academy, Dotheboys Hall, at the delightful village of Dotheboys, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, Youth are boarded, clothed, booked, furnished with pocket-money, provided with all necessaries, instructed in all languages living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry, the use of the globes, algebra, single stick (if required), writing, arithmetic, fortification, and every other branch of classical literature. Terms, twenty guineas per annum. No extras, no vacations, and diet unparalleled.

Mr Squeers is in town, and attends daily, from one till four, at the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill. N.B. An able assistant wanted. Annual salary 5 pounds. A Master of Arts would be preferred." 'There!' said Ralph, folding the paper again. 'Let him get that situation, and his fortune is made.' 'But he is not a Master of Arts,' said Mrs Nickleby. 'That,' replied Ralph, 'that, I think, can be got over.' 'But the salary is so small, and it is such a long way off, uncle!' faltered Kate. 'Hush, Kate my dear,' interposed Mrs Nickleby; 'your uncle must know best.' [From Ch 9]. Squeers, arming himself with his cane, led the way across a yard, to a door in the rear of the house. 'There,' said the schoolmaster as they stepped in together; 'this is our shop, Nickleby!' It was such a crowded scene, and there were so many objects to attract attention, that, at first, Nicholas stared about him, really without seeing anything at all.

By degrees, however, the place resolved itself into a bare and dirty room, with a couple of windows, whereof a tenth part might be of glass, the remainder being stopped up with old copy-books and paper. There were a couple of long old rickety desks, cut and notched, and inked, and damaged, in every possible way; two or three forms; a detached desk for Squeers; and another for his assistant. The ceiling was supported, like that of a barn, by cross-beams and rafters; and the walls were so stained and discoloured, that it was impossible to tell whether they had ever been touched with paint or whitewash. But the pupils - the young noblemen! How the last faint traces of hope, the remotest glimmering of any good to be derived from his efforts in this den, faded from the mind of Nicholas as he looked in dismay around!

Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men, deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together; there were the bleared eye, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, and every ugliness or distortion that told of unnatural aversion conceived by parents for their offspring, or of young lives which, from the earliest dawn of infancy, had been one horrible endurance of cruelty and neglect. There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering; there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its helplessness alone remaining; there were vicious-faced boys, brooding, with leaden eyes, like malefactors in a jail; and there were young creatures on whom the sins of their frail parents had descended, weeping even for the mercenary nurses they had known, and lonesome even in their loneliness.

With every kindly sympathy and affection blasted in its birth, with every young and healthy feeling flogged and starved down, with every revengeful passion that can fester in swollen hearts, eating its evil way to their core in silence, what an incipient Hell was breeding here! And yet this scene, painful as it was, had its grotesque features, which, in a less interested observer than Nicholas, might have provoked a smile. Mrs Squeers stood at one of the desks, presiding over an immense basin of brimstone and treacle, of which delicious compound she administered a large instalment to each boy in succession: using for the purpose a common wooden spoon, which might have been originally manufactured for some gigantic top, and which widened every young gentleman's mouth considerably: they being all obliged, under heavy corporal penalties, to take in the whole of the bowl at a gasp.

In another corner, huddled together for companionship, were the little boys who had arrived on the preceding night, three of them in very large leather breeches, and two in old trousers, a something tighter fit than drawers are usually worn; at no great distance from these was seated the juvenile son and heir of Mr Squeers - a striking likeness of his father - kicking, with great vigour, under the hands of Smike, who was fitting upon him a pair of new boots that bore a most suspicious resemblance to those which the least of the little boys had worn on the journey down - as the little boy himself seemed to think, for he was regarding the appropriation with a look of most rueful amazement. Besides these, there was a long row of boys waiting, with countenances of no pleasant anticipation, to be treacled; and another file, who had just escaped from the infliction, making a variety of wry mouths indicative of anything but satisfaction. The whole were attired in such motley, ill-assorted, extraordinary garments, as would have been irresistibly ridiculous, but for the foul appearance of dirt, disorder, and disease, with which they were associated.

'Now,' said Squeers, giving the desk a great rap with his cane, which made half the little boys nearly jump out of their boots, 'is that physicking over?' 'Just over,' said Mrs Squeers, choking the last boy in her hurry, and tapping the crown of his head with the wooden spoon to restore him. 'Here, you Smike; take away now. Look sharp!' Smike shuffled out with the basin, and Mrs Squeers having called up a little boy with a curly head, and wiped her hands upon it, hurried out after him into a species of wash-house, where there was a small fire and a large kettle, together with a number of little wooden bowls which were arranged upon a board. Into these bowls, Mrs Squeers, assisted by the hungry servant, poured a brown composition, which looked like diluted pincushions without the covers, and was called porridge.

A minute wedge of brown bread was inserted in each bowl, and when they had eaten their porridge by means of the bread, the boys ate the bread itself, and had finished their breakfast; whereupon Mr Squeers said, in a solemn voice, 'For what we have received, may the Lord make us truly thankful!' - and went away to his own. Nicholas distended his stomach with a bowl of porridge, for much the same reason which induces some savages to swallow earth - lest they should be inconveniently hungry when there is nothing to eat. Having further disposed of a slice of bread and butter, allotted to him in virtue of his office, he sat himself down, to wait for school-time. He could not but observe how silent and sad the boys all seemed to be. There was none of the noise and clamour of a schoolroom; none of its boisterous play, or hearty mirth. The children sat crouching and shivering together, and seemed to lack the spirit to move about.

The only pupil who evinced the slightest tendency towards locomotion or playfulness was Master Squeers, and as his chief amusement was to tread upon the other boys' toes in his new boots, his flow of spirits was rather disagreeable than otherwise. After some half-hour's delay, Mr Squeers reappeared, and the boys took their places and their books, of which latter commodity the average might be about one to eight learners. A few minutes having elapsed, during which Mr Squeers looked very profound, as if he had a perfect apprehension of what was inside all the books, and could say every word of their contents by heart if he only chose to take the trouble, that gentleman called up the first class. Obedient to this summons there ranged themselves in front of the schoolmaster's desk, half-a-dozen scarecrows, out at knees and elbows, one of whom placed a torn and filthy book beneath his learned eye. 'This is the first class in English spelling and philosophy, Nickleby,' said Squeers, beckoning Nicholas to stand beside him. 'We'll get up a Latin one, and hand that over to you.

Now, then, where's the first boy?' 'Please, sir, he's cleaning the back-parlour window,' said the temporary head of the philosophical class. 'So he is, to be sure,' rejoined Squeers. 'We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby; the regular education system. C-l-e-a- n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, der, winder, a casement. When the boy knows this out of book, he goes and does it. It's just the same principle as the use of the globes. Where's the second boy?' 'Please, sir, he's weeding the garden,' replied a small voice. 'To be sure,' said Squeers, by no means disconcerted. 'So he is. B-o-t, bot, t-i-n, tin, bottin, n-e-y, ney, bottinney, noun substantive, a knowledge of plants. When he has learned that bottinney means a knowledge of plants, he goes and knows 'em.

That's our system, Nickleby: what do you think of it?' 'It's very useful one, at any rate,' answered Nicholas. 'I believe you,' rejoined Squeers, not remarking the emphasis of his usher. 'Third boy, what's horse?' 'A beast, sir,' replied the boy. 'So it is,' said Squeers. 'Ain't it, Nickleby?' 'I believe there is no doubt of that, sir,' answered Nicholas. 'Of course there isn't,' said Squeers. 'A horse is a quadruped, and quadruped's Latin for beast, as everybody that's gone through the grammar knows, or else where's the use of having grammars at all?' 'Where, indeed!' said Nicholas abstractedly. 'As you're perfect in that,' resumed Squeers, turning to the boy, 'go and look after MY horse, and rub him down well, or I'll rub you down.

The rest of the class go and draw water up, till somebody tells you to leave off, for it's washing-day tomorrow, and they want the coppers filled.' So saying, he dismissed the first class to their experiments in practical philosophy, and eyed Nicholas with a look, half cunning and half doubtful, as if he were not altogether certain what he might think of him by this time. 'That's the way we do it, Nickleby,' he said, after a pause. Nicholas shrugged his shoulders in a manner that was scarcely perceptible, and said he saw it was. 'And a very good way it is, too,' said Squeers. 'Now, just take them fourteen little boys and hear them some reading, because, you know, you must begin to be useful. Idling about here won't do.' Mr Squeers said this, as if it had suddenly occurred to him, either that he must not say too much to his assistant, or that his assistant did not say enough to him in praise of the establishment.

The children were arranged in a semicircle round the new master, and he was soon listening to their dull, drawling, hesitating recital of those stories of engrossing interest which are to be found in the more antiquated spelling-books. In this exciting occupation, the morning lagged heavily on. At one o'clock, the boys, having previously had their appetites thoroughly taken away by stir-about and potatoes, sat down in the kitchen to some hard salt beef, of which Nicholas was graciously permitted to take his portion to his own solitary desk, to eat it there in peace. After this, there was another hour of crouching in the schoolroom and shivering with cold, and then school began again. Nicholas Nickleby: Amazon.co.uk: Charles Dickens: Books Nicholas Nickleby Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock. Customers also viewed these available items Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Apple To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. or Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Product details Publisher: Oxford University Press (1996) ASIN: B0017GN1OI By R. S. Stanier on 7 Aug. 2002 Format: Paperback What can you say? Dickens writes brilliantly. This entertaining saga follows the handsome eponymous hero through the slings and arrows that follow him into adulthood. All I had heard about before was Wackford Squeers and Dotheboys Hall, but that is mostly over by the end of the first quarter. As usual, the plot is a bit pointless but the characters are fantastic, and I thought the cameo role for the villain Mulberry Hawk led to some of the best bits of writing in the book, in particular the description of a drunken argument that leads to a duel.

Dickens is such a good writer that he can toss off sensational bits of writing like this on bits of the plot that are far from crucial. His talent just can't be contained. This, though, is the ignore the main part of the drama as Nickleby fights to overcome the injustices that assail his family. The book certainly has some powerful moments, as well as genuinely funny comic interludes. Of the characters, Smike is the most tragically drawn and perhaps the most famous: I am not sure that authors today would treat mental impairment the same way, but that is perhaps a failure of today's readers and writers. I suppose I don't think this novel has the depth of later work like "David Copperfield", which covers similar material, but it is still leagues ahead of most things you will read. Thoroughly enjoyable and full of humanity. 9781904633846: Nicholas Nickleby (Collector's Library) - AbeBooks - Dickens, Charles: 1904633846 About this title Left penniless after his feckless father's death, young Nicholas Nickleby has no choice but to make his own way in the world.

For the sake of his mother and sister, he is forced by his hard-hearted uncle to take a post as an assistant master at Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted boys, run by the cruel and tyrannical headmaster, Wackford Squeers. But this is only the beginning of Nicholas's adventures in this most entertaining of Charles Dickens's novels. We follow the progress of Nicholas and his slow-witted companion Smike on their travels and encounter a supporting cast of delectable characters including the rambunctious Crummles theatre company and their talented performing pony, the dastardly Sir Mulberry Hawk, the delightful Mrs. Nickleby, the preposterous Kenwings, and many more. Like many of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterized by his criticism of cruelty and social injustice, but is above all one of the greatest comic masterpieces of nineteenth-century literature. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. From the Publisher: Hodder Headline Audiobooks presents abridged readings of some of the finest in drama, classic literature, popular fiction, poetry, children¹s stories, and religious and inspirational works.

Among Hodder Headline¹s outstanding cast of readers and performers are Kenneth Branagh, Juliet Stevenson, Simon Callow, Stephen Fry, and Dame Judi Dench. Each set of cassettes is beautifully packaged and shrink-wrapped. From the Publisher: Circumstances force Nicholas to enter the nightmarish world of Dotheboys Hall, a school run by the malevolent Wackford Squeers. When he leaves to seek his rightful inheritance, he travels southwards, encountering a troupe of theatrical artistes. The self-confidence he acquires is to stand him in good stead. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Question: Wackford Squeers, headmaster of "Dotheboys Hall", appears in which book by Charles Dickens?
Answer: Nicholas Nickleby