Book Review — The Pickwick Papers
I am reading Charles Dickens novels for the first time. I had, read A Christmas Carol but to be fair, that is really a short story, be it one of the best classic short stories of all time. The Pickwick Papers was originally published as a series in a magazine, like I think with most of his books. Dickens was only 25 at this time, and from the start he became instantly popular.
There is no real plot to The Pickwick Papers. We are allowed to for a year share in the lives of some interesting people, as they travel, interact and we slowly get to know and love these characters. They almost seemed like real, historical people. We are introduced to the world Dickens and his original readers lived in. The horse and carriage, debtor’s prisons, lamps and fireplaces. For many, life was simple and for many hard. During these times, most of the recreation was talking, telling stories with good food and drink. Mr. Samuel Pickwick is the general chairman of the Pickwick Club, whose members are Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathanial Winkle. Together, all four men form a society to report their observations and adventures. From these adventures, lasting more than a year, they have friends such as Mr. Wardle in his hospitable Dingley Dell. Pickwick wick employ’s Sam Weller, a truly loveable character, who is efficient, faithful servant. Yet, in the end Pickwick becomes no longer a boss, but a close friend. Pickwick will also encounter the nefarious, rascal Alfred Jingle with his servant Job Trotter.
Their travels take them to Eatanswill a town whose name Pickwick was changed, to protect its identity, where there are sharp divisions of townspeople who are so divided with the political parties they identify with, that not only do they have two newspapers, they are also separated by the shops, hotels and even the pews in churches are segregated. Pickwick also records strange stories. Dickens must have loved the macabre ghost stories, as people Pickwick and his friends meet tell stories they believed happen with goblins and a strange story of a bagman’s long dead uncle of recounting a meeting ghost mail carriage on a dark night, trying to save a beautiful woman in distress. Yet there are plenty of situations too, the biggest of which Pickwick faces a huge fine of fifteen hundred pounds from backing off on an alleged marriage proposal by his landlady Mrs. Martha Bardell when it was a misunderstanding in her own mind.
I really don’t want to give anything away. Yes, to adjust to Nineteenth Century takes a little getting used to. I admit, I needed to adapt to what I describe as wordy English, with words I needed to learn, and write down. . Children’s author Roald Dahl was quite right when he said that Charles Dickens was a genius. This was a fine novel and I don’t know if there had been or since a more worthy first up book first up book from a major author. When I finished this book, I fully are on the sleeve of the dust jacket that Dickens presented a host of now classic Characters in a series of adventures, displaying his richness and skills of characterization and description. When I finished the book, I was so engaged with the characters that I truly felt like I was leaving some really good friends I would never see again.
Author: Charles Dickens
Minimum Age: 12+
Type of Book: Fiction
Book Length: 801
Published: In monthly parts April 1836 to November 1837. Oxford Illustrated 1948 (1987)
Note: This book review is from Carl Strehlow, a valued member of Coffin Nation. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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