There is a new candidate for the man who inspired Charles Dickens’ sadistic and abusive headmaster in Nicholas Nickleby
It is not a claim to fame anyone would relish: the honour of being named as the inspiration for one of Charles Dickens’ most unappealing fictional characters, Wackford Squeers, sadistic headmaster of Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby.
Even now, 180 years since the book came out, the identity of the real school teacher behind the cruel persecutor of Dicken’s young hero is disputed. Scholars remain unsure which of a clutch of venal proprietors of barbaric Victorian boarding schools was the true original.
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