The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, the second volume of the new Oxford Edition of Charles Dickens, is Dickens's third novel, originally published in monthly parts between March 1838 and September 1839. Brilliantly comic, the novel quickly developed a strong strand of social criticism, exploring themes such as love and family, selfishness, work, and charity. It showcases a host of characters, from the earnest and passionate young hero Nicholas, the pathetic Smike, and the brutal schoolmaster Wackford Squeers, to sparkling minor players like John Browdie, Mrs. Squeers, Mr. Mantalini, Mr. Crummles, and the infuriatingly inept Mrs. Nickleby. Solidifying the reputation for comedy and pathos Dickens had established with The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, this novel reached—and delighted—the widest audience Dickens had yet known. The manuscript of Nicholas Nickleby survives only in fragments, with the British Library, the Charles Dickens Museum, and The Rosenbach library holding substantial portions, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Morgan Library also holding pages. This edition is presented in two volumes: the text in Volume I and Essay on the Text and Notes in Volume 2. The editors have closely examined all the surviving manuscript, recovering scores of deletions and recording all variants of wording in the textual apparatus. The text is based on that of the original serial instalments; all emendations from that text are fully documented. All lifetime British editions (the Cheap, the Library, the Illustrated Library, the People's and the Charles Dickens) have been carefully collated, and all verbal variants are recorded.
