“NICHOLAS NICKLEBY”

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22705, 9 May 1939, Page 6

“NICHOLAS NICKLEBY”

GROUP STUDY BY DICKENS FELLOWSHIP A group study of chapters from “Nicholas Nickleby,” the book set for the year by the Dickens House, London, constituted the programme at a meeting of the Dickens Fellowship on Saturday evening. Miss R. L. Dearsley presided. Under the leadership of Mr C. T. Aschman, Miss E. M. Burn, and Miss E. H. Bull, interesting discussion took place on set questions on the literary value of certain passages, leading characters in the book, obvious fallacies in the speeches at the public meeting in support of the Muffin and Crumpet Company, certain well-known and trite sayings, Dickens’s knowledge of human feminine nature as portrayed in the women characters, the inclusion of irrevelant stories in the book, and the possible effect on the prison population of New Zealand by the abolition of compulsory primary education. Mr Aschman said that the description of Newgate was one of the finest dramatic passages in the book.. Dickens’s, choice of words was a particularly happy one. For the more pathetic and quiet sentences, purely Ango-Saxon words were used, while harder-sounding words described the chaotic conditions of Newgate, and all worked up to a splendid climax. Mr R. J. G. Collins claimed that in introducing short stories irrevelant to the main theme of the book, Dickens had imitated Smollett, and had followed the trend of the times. Comments on the women characters were made by Miss J. Brunt and Miss M. Smith, on the actions of the main character in the book by Mr S, R. Knapp, on the character ,o£ Ralph Nickleby by Miss E. M. Burn, on the possible effect on the prison populartion of New Zealand by the abolition of compulsory primary education by Mrs Knapp, and on Dickens’s knowledge *of human feminine nature by Miss E. H. Bull. The president thanked' the group leaders for their preparation of the evening’s programme.