ABSTRACT
Though much of Nicholas Nickleby is set in London, the design by Phiz for the wrapper of the monthly parts of Nicholas Nickleby, with a spacious middle area with the title and the name of ‘Boz’ and ‘Phiz’, is not city based. Like Phiz’s allegories, London in Nicholas Nickleby exists in different grotesque modes. Ralph Nickleby’s apartment and office, where Newman Noggs works, is in the ironically named Golden Square, Soho, in one of whose adjoining streets Blake had been born in 1757. Douce blames the Dance of Death on 'monkish bigotry and superstition' (Douce, 1833: 4), as if preparing the way for the Five Sisters narrative; but there is more vivacity in Death than this allows. These two had collaborated in The Microcosm of London (1811), The Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812 with more in 1820 and 1821), and The Dance of Life (1817) (Wark, 1966). es life comically ironical.
