Nicholas Nickleby

For those of us who love Dickens, this is exactly what we love best: the hearty hero, the evil scoundrel, the benevolent benefactors, humor, social commentary, and, best of all, the vast array of eccentrics. Our hero, Nicholas, fights a cruel uncle, a demeaning and humiliating "teaching" job at a boy's boarding school in Yorkshire and wins (by his own hard work and kind heart) a happy life for himself and nearly everybody he takes a fancy to. You read Dickens for the story, but you also read him for the genius he shows in creating characters. In a page he can make a person more real and more memorable than most authors can manage in an entire book. Robert Whitfield, given this Herculean task, never falters. He juggles armies of accents, ages, and levels of intelligence with never a slip. He covers he gamut from effete snob to exhausted street urchin, and not only manages to keep them all straight, but infuses into every one a distinct personality. This is a feast! D.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

March 26, 2012
This unabridged audio edition of Dickens’s classic novel of poverty, effort, and persistence puts the emphasis on unabridged, clocking in at nearly 40 hours—but dedicated listeners will be rewarded with an engaging and entertaining reading from narrator David Horovitch. In Victorian England, Nicholas Nickleby finds himself penniless after the death of his father. Assisted by his cold and parsimonious uncle, Ralph, Nicholas undergoes an array of trials and adventures—working as a teacher and actor—before finally succeeding in providing for his family. Horovitch wisely doesn’t attempt to update or revise the author’s familiar world. Instead, he reads with a careful tenor and subtly shaded array of voices that perfectly capture Dickens’s prose and characters. Harrumphing and stuttering and tittering, Horovitch turns in a winning performance that fans of the author are sure to enjoy.

Anton Lesser is a one-man theater troupe composed of excellent actors. Dickens was a novelist par excellence. And Perry Keenlyside is a sensitive abridger. Between them, they've created a terrific listening experience. This abridgment of one of Dickens's longer and best-loved works is long enough to feel commodious and short enough to keep one listening. It's also seamless. All the plot points and major characters, from noble Nicholas Nickleby to odious Mr. Squeers, are here. Speaking of characters, Anton Lesser voices them so well that it can be unnerving. Surely, one thinks, that decorous female is read by a different actor than the drawling male aristocrat, but it's all Lesser. And he links the dialogue with interesting, well-paced narration. In between sections, a fine selection of classical quartets. Do listen. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine