The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (play) reception was enthusiastic, critical reception was mixed. Frank Rich in "New York Times" reported dull passages piling up as "dead weight", while John Simon in the "New York Magazine" felt that the work was a "middlebrow enterprise" doing "scant justice" to the novel. In contrast Mel Gussow, again in "The New York Times", noted that ""Nicholas Nickleby" remains true to Dickens – many of the lines are taken directly from the novel, dialogue as well as narration – and to first principles of theater" when describing the RSC's recast production in 1986. Playwright and reviewer Thomas Hischak, writing in retrospect
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947 film) to defend his sister's honour. The cowardly Hawk refuses Nicholas's demand to "step outside" and flees, resulting in a carriage accident in which Hawk is injured. Hawk and Lord Verisopht argue over Hawk's lack of honour, and Hawk kills Lord Verisopht in a duel with pistols. Ralph Nickleby loses 6000 pounds in debt owed him, much to the delight of Noggs, who harbours a hidden desire for revenge against his employer. Nicholas finds employment as a clerk with the benevolent Cheerybles, portly twin brothers whose nephew Frank begins to court Kate. They provide him a cottage in which Nicholas can