The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby , appearing in twenty numbers from
April, 1838, to October, 1839, returns to the comic exuberance and vitality of
Pickwick Papers. Dickens is exposing the cruelty and exploitation of children in
the Cheap Schools in Yorkshire, immortalized in the portrayal of Wackford
Squeers at Dotheboys Hall. In Nickleby Dickens brings together the serious
issues of social reform he addresses in Oliver Twist with the rollicking humor
and vast landscape of humanity he presents in Pickwick Papers . The public
responded enthusiastically with sales reaching fifty thousand.
Fearing the public might weary of long novels like Pickwick and Nickleby in
twenty monthly installments, Dickens decided to embark on a publication
resembling the Spectator , which would come out weekly and allow him--with the
help of others--"to write amusing essays on the various foibles as they arise"
and to introduce new characters, along with Pickwick and Sam Weller, to comment
on passing events.
Thus was born Master Humphrey's Clock (1840-41), a weekly magazine, the first
number of which sold seventy thousand copies. However, as sales dropped off due
to the lack of a sustained story, Dickens introduced the story of Little Nell in
The Old Curiosity
