Nicholas Nickleby Nicholas Nickleby The story Ralph and Nicholas Nickleby were brothers who grew up on a farm in Devon with their mother and father. When their parents died, Nicholas lived on the farm with the cows and the sheep. Ralph moved to London so that he could make a lot of money. Nicholas fell in love and married his neighbour’s daughter. They had two children, a boy, Nicholas, named after his father, and a daughter, Kate. The children were sent to the best schools. However, the money did not last and they could not afford to pay the bills. Nicholas, the father, worried but he was not able to make money like his brother Ralph. Nicholas died of a broken heart when his son was almost nineteen and Kate was seventeen. The farm had to be sold and Nicholas’s wife took her son and daughter to London. She wrote a letter to Ralph Nickleby and asked him to take care of them. Ralph was unhappy about giving his money to his dead brother’s wife and children. He visited them and showed his nephew an advertisement in the newspaper for the job of assistant schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire. The pay was only five pounds a year and it was very far from London. Ralph told Nicholas that if he got the job, Ralph would help his mother and sister. If he refused the job, he would do nothing for any of them. So Nicholas went with his uncle to talk to the schoolmaster, Mr Wackford Squeers, and he got the job. Nicholas hated life at Dotheboys Hall because Mr Squeers was cruel to the boys, giving them little food and very old clothes. Mr Squeers gave his son, young Wackford, the clothes that belonged to the other boys. Smike, a servant boy at the school, was treated even worse than the others. He was often beaten by Mr Squeers. One day Smike ran away, but he did not get far before Mr Squeers found him. Mr Squeers wanted to teach him a lesson, so he beat Smike violently in front of everyone. Nicholas had had enough. He took the cane from Mr Squeers and beat him badly. Nicholas packed his bags and left Dotheboys Hall forever. When Nicholas, who had no money, was walking back to London, Smike caught up with him and begged Nicholas to take him with him. Back in London, Ralph had moved Nicholas’ mother and sister to a smaller house, which was dirty, cold and dark. He found Kate a job in a dressmaker’s shop, working very long hours. Nicholas found out where his family had moved. When he arrived, his uncle was there. Ralph had received a letter from Mr Squeers’ daughter, telling him that Nicholas almost killed her father and stole one of the boys. Nicholas left London, with Smike, to look for a job. Nicholas and Smike found jobs with a travelling theatre group, working for Mr Vincent Crummles. Nicholas and Smike worked hard, and were very happy. One day Nicholas got a letter from his sister Kate, telling him that she and their mother wanted Nicholas to come back to London. Nicholas returned and was given a job in a firm run by the Cheeryble brothers. They also provided Nicholas, his mother, sister and Smike with a cottage to live in at a low rent. One evening, Mr Squeers and his son kidnapped Smike. But before getting Smike back to Yorkshire, John Browdie, who knew about Mr Squeers’ cruelty, rescued the poor boy. Ralph Nickleby then tried to help Mr Squeers get Smike back, but failed. Squeers agreed to help Ralph get a will from an old woman, by stealing it from her. Mr Squeers was caught and sent to prison. The boys at Dotheboys Hall celebrated and they all escaped the horrible school. Smike was weak and becoming more and more ill, so Nicholas took him to Devon. There, Smike died. Afterwards, Ralph Nickleby discovered that he was the father of Smike. This news shocked him and he realised his life was worth nothing, so he disappeared, never to be seen again. After Nicholas took over the Cheeryble brother’s business, he and his wife, Madeline, and their children visited Smike’s grave often. The family returned to the farm in Devon and lived in peace and happiness. 1 Explorers 6: Nicholas Nickleby Teacher’s Notes This page has been downloaded from www.macmillanenglish.com/young learners © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011 Nicholas Nickleby Introducing the book The contents page The cover l Ask the children to turn to the contents page. Explain that the Contents list tells us what is l Hold up the cover. Read the book’s title to in the book. and with the class. l Ask How many chapters are there? Read the l Talk about the picture. Ask When do you think chapter titles to and with the class. Briefly the story takes place? Why do you think the man explain any unfamiliar words (most will be is holding a book? Where do you think he is? covered in the chapter notes). Ask the children what page each chapter starts on. l Ask What do you think the story is going to be about? l Point out that at the end of the book there is a poem (on page 90) and some information The title page about Victorian schools (beginning on page 92), as well as some information about the author Charles Dickens (on page 96). l Ask questions about each chapter title to stimulate the children’s interest, for example: – Chapter 1: Who do you think you will read about in this chapter? – Chapter 4: Where do the letters come from? – Chapter 6: What city do the Nicklebys move to? l Ask the children to turn to the title page. Ask l Tell the children to do the related activity on Who is the author? page 1 of their Workbook. l Hold up your own book and point to the picture. Ask Does this look like a nice place to You can play the audio download of live? Why (not)? the story at any time you choose. l Ask Would you like to live in this big house? Why See www.macmillanenglish.com/ do you think there is a big fence and gates round younglearners the house? l Explain that the story has been adapted (made simpler) by another writer. 2 Explorers 6: Nicholas Nickleby Teacher’s Notes This page has been downloaded from www.macmillanenglish.com/young learners © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011 Nicholas Nickleby Chapter 1 The Nickleby family history Pages 3 to 11 Active vocabulary advertisement find the verb advertise in advertisement borrow the opposite of lend continue the third syllable ‘ue’ sounds like you decide ‘c’ sounds like ‘s’ expensive three syllables: ex + pen + sive fair rhymes with hair, chair, pair fold change ‘f’ to ‘g’ to make a new word luck add ‘y’ at the end to make this noun an adjective safe the opposite is unsafe wipe rhymes with pipe Passive vocabulary assistant business education fees generous give up lodgings pocket money require risks schoolmaster Before reading l Pre-teach the active vocabulary (see Teacher’s Notes Introduction page 13 and the Glossary on page 52). Use the notes in the table to discuss any interesting features of the words. l Ask the children to do the activities on page 2 of their Workbook to practise the new vocabulary. 3 Explorers 6: Nicholas Nickleby Teacher’s Notes This page has been downloaded from www.macmillanenglish.com/young learners © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011 Nicholas Nickleby l Read the title of Chapter 1 again. Discuss l The story begins in Devon, in the south-west with the children what a family history is. of England. It then continues in London, Ask Who do you think you will read about? where young Nicholas meets his uncle in an l Tell the children to look at the picture on old house on the Strand. The Strand is a big, page 3. Ask How old do you think the two boys busy street in the centre of the city. His uncle are? What is their mother holding? What do you wants him to get a job in Yorkshire, in the think she is saying? Where do you think they north of England, far from London. are? l Dotheboys Hall, in Yorkshire, is a boarding l Tell the children to look at the picture on school for boys. The advertisement for the job page 5. Ask Who do you think the man is? of Assistant Schoolmaster in Chapter 1 is full What do you think he is holding in his hand? of lies, although the reader does not know How does he feel? How does the boys’ mother this in Chapter 1. It is not an ‘excellent feel? school’, boys are not ‘given the best food and comfortable lodgings’, and they are not l Tell the children to look at the picture on given ‘generous pocket money’. It is a school page 6. Ask What is the tall, thin man giving run by a cruel headmaster who steals from the other man? Where are they? Discuss how the boys and makes their lives miserable. the men are dressed. Many of the boys have physical problems or l Tell the children to look at the picture on deformities. Sadly, boarding schools like page 9. Ask What do you think the older man is Dotheboys Hall did really exist in Victorian saying to the young man? How does the young England.