Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens · 1812–1870 · England

Why it matters

A penniless young man exposes the horrors of Yorkshire's boarding schools before rescuing his sister from a lecherous guardian, in one of Dickens's broadest and most purely entertaining picaresques. Its satire of Dotheboys Hall reportedly helped shut real schools like it down.

At a glance

Episodic picaresque structure and a huge cast, but consistently brisk, comic, and plainly narrated.