The nature of the tale as originated by him was altogether unlike that to which the readers of modern novels had been used.

No plot, with an arranged catastrophe or _denoument_, was necessary.

Some untying of the various knots of the narrative no doubt were expedient, but these were of the simplest kind, done with the view of giving an end to that which might otherwise be endless.

The adventures of a _Pickwick_ or a _Nickleby_ required very little of a plot, and this mode of telling a story, which might be continued on through any number of pages, as long as the characters were interesting, met with approval.

Thackeray, who had never depended much on his plot in the shorter tales which he had hitherto told, determined to adopt the same form in his first great work, but with these changes;--That as the central character with Dickens had always been made beautiful with unnatural virtue,--for who was ever so unselfish as _Pickwick_, so manly and modest as _Nicholas_, or so good a boy as _Oliver_ ?--so should his centre of interest be in every respect abnormally bad.
As to Thackeray's reason for this,--or rather as to that condition of mind which brought about this result,--I will say something in a final chapter, in which I will endeavour to describe the nature and effect of his work generally.