[.ca] Penguin Classics Pickwick Papers (ISBN 0140436111)

A Jovial Lighthearted Romp:
Pickwick Papers is a wonderful book, and no doubt much has been written about it in academic and literary circles. But from a layman's perspective, it is simply a fun read. One would almost think it the work of a great master approaching the end of a career, consciously deciding to lay down the heartache of Great Expectations or the martyrdom of A Tale of Two Cities to take a jovial and whimsical jaunt through the English language and the realm of imagination. Yet the bumbling and somehow delightful misadventures of the Pickwickians fall at the beginning of Dickens' career. Comic relief is offered well before Hard Times sets in. Take an independently wealthy, magnanimous old fellow and surround him with a group of close friends. Send them together on a journey of desire to explore the world about them, meet new people, and experience the fullness of life, and you essentially have the plot of Pickwick Papers. The plethora of characters Dickens introduces along the way add considerable color to the narrative, not only because they come from such a vast array of backgrounds, but because they themselves are colorful in their own right: The first and most obvious example might be that of Mr. Alfred Jingle, the loquacious vagabond rapscallion who rescues the Pickwickians from an altercation with a feisty coach driver. One of Mr. Pickwicks cohorts, Mr. Snodgrass, receives a blow to the eye during the incident, after which Mr. Jingle is pleased to suggest the most efficacious remedies: "Glasses round-brandy and water, hot and strong, and sweet, and plenty-eye damaged, sir? Waiter! Raw beef-steak for the gentleman's eye-nothing like raw beef-steak for a bruise, sir; cold lamp-post very good, but lamp-post inconvenient-damned odd, standing in the open street half an hour with your eye against a lamp-post-eh-very good-ha! ha!" While Pickwick reads the legend of Prince Bladud by candlelight, we find this description of King Hudibras: "A great many centuries since, there flourished, in great state, the famous and renowned Lud Hudibras, king of Britain. He was a mighty monarch. The earth shook when he walked-he was so very stout. His people basked in the light of his countenance-it was so red and glowing. He was, indeed, every inch a king. And there were a good many inches of him too, for although he was not very tall, he was a remarkable size round, and the inches that he wanted in height he made up in circumference." The young surgeon, Benjamin Allen, is described as "a coarse, stout, thick-set young man, with black hair cut rather short and a white face cut rather long \o...\c He presented altogether, rather a mildewy appearance, and emitted a fragrant odour of full-flavoured Cubas." Dickens notes that the casual visitor to the Insolvent Court "might suppose this place to be a temple dedicated to the Genius of Seediness" and whose vapors are "like those of a fungus pit." Seated in this luxuriant ambience, we find an attorney, Mr. Solomon Pell, who "was a fat, flabby pale man, in a surtout which looked green one minute and brown the next, with a velvet collar of the same chameleon tints. His forehead was narrow, his face wide, his head large, and his nose all on one side, as if Nature, indignant with the propensities she observed in him in his birth, had given it an angry tweak which it had never recovered." A final sample from a list of worthy characters too long to mention might be Mr. Smangle, the boisterous whiskered man whom Pickwick encounters in debtors prison: "This last man was an admirable specimen of a class of gentry which never can be seen in full perfection but in such places; they may be met with, in an imperfect state, occasionally about the stable-yards and public-houses; but they never attain their full bloom except in these hot-beds, which would almost seem to be considerately provided by the legislature for the sole purpose of rearing them \o...\c There was a rakish vagabond smartness and a kind of boastful rascality about the whole man that was worth a mine of gold." The book itself is a goldmine full of textures, personas, venues, and idiosyncrasies of a bygone age. These are delight to behold, as the reader is thus invited to enjoy experience and descriptive beauty for their own sakes. Plot largely takes a backseat to the development of relationships, which can be seen as a myriad of subplots contributing to a never-ending story. Numerous vignettes which are incidental to the narrative add another level of richness, and it seems clear that Dickens offers them for an enjoyment all their own. There is something of "l'art pour l'art" throughout the whole work which expresses a love of language and a love of human nature. As Dickens might have summed it up, "All this was very snug and pleasant."

You'll always be richer for the experience...:
Dickens' first novel, THE PICKWICK PAPERS, is as long and meandering as the Amazon River. But as with a trip up the Amazon, THE PICKWICK PAPERS will most likely leave you simultaneously weary to the bone, unprecedentedly enthused, and certain in some indefinable way that you'll always be richer for the experience. The non-plot involves a strung together series of misadventures and humanistic serio-comic sketches of Mr. Pickwick, an aging but still vital retiree, and the young men who form the Pickwick Club, a sort of informal gentleman's club that wonders around England, getting its members in one improbable fix after another. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a Mr. Pickwick in their lives: an uncomplicatedly giving, decent, larger than life father figure who radiates bands of human warmth like a sun in evening clothes. It's an obvious pleasure for the Pickwickians to orbit around their benefactor and follow him wherever his undiminished sense of adventure leads. THE PICKWICK PAPERS is an extremely satisfying read--in many way despite itself. It doesn't really go anywhere, and it doesn't presume to critique the human condition in a profound manner, but the sheer looseness and easy-goingness of it all proves itself in many places unexpectedly transcendent. Probably the best parts of the PICKWICK PAPERS are those that detail the friendship between the aging Mr. Pickwick and the his protege, Sam Weller, a young world-weary up-start who spits out pithy, telling one-liners like a roomful of Woody Allen imposters trying to prove who's the real deal. Sometimes the most satisfying art is the kind that takes you by the hand and walks you down this way a little ways and over that way some, and doesn't lead on that you're going anywhere or doing much of anything important, and leaves you sort of surprised by the depth of the experience you've just had.

Hilarious, delightful:
Charles Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers in his early 20s, but the writing is first rate and as witty as any seasoned author could have done in his place! Like many of Dickens's works, Pickwick was published in monthly installments, or "numbers" as they were called then. Although Dickens originally intended to end the story at the twentieth number, the popularity of the series (and the resultant income) convinced Dickens to double the length to forty numbers. The end result is a large offering that'll take you a while to get through (~750 pages in the excellent Penguin edition, which I read). Despite its length, Pickwick never tries your patience. It's delightfully humorous from beginning to end. Samuel Pickwick is the bumbling, middle-aged, wealthy namesake of this novel. He's the leader of a small group of single men that gets into all sorts of mischief, both physical and social. Booze is rampant. Apparently liquor back then was much more a part of daily life than today; everywhere these guys go they party and get drunk. They get into trouble with the law, women, unsavory characters, and more. Characterization is superb. This is one of the few novels I've read for which I can actually say that I got to know the characters. In most books I've read, the characters remain two-dimensional and the plot is what carries the story. In Pickwick, the *characters* are the essence of the story and the novel wouldn't be memorable at all if a lesser author were attempting to breathe life into these people. The Penguin edition includes a decent collection of endnotes to help explain unfamiliar portions of the text. Nevertheless, there were still quite a few words and concepts peculiar to early 19th century England that I didn't grasp. This edition also has maps of southern England and a key to the specific locations that the Pickwickians visit. In addition, two appendices reprint some of the announcements and prefaces that Dickens wrote in relation to the work. Highly recommended, particularly if you enjoy classic literature! Dickens's later works overshadow this gem due to their maturity, but Pickwick beats them all in enthusiasm, humor, and wit.

I loved the book:
This is a refreshing change from the rest of Dickens novels as it is a fun and comical adventure about a group of men who more often than not end up in a pickle together. If you like to laugh and enjoy humor, this is the novel for you! I enjoyed every minute of it and had trouble putting it down. And who couldn't adore a fella like Sam Weller?

Dickens's most light-hearted novel:
Charles Dickens's first novel, Pickwick Papers follows the adventures of the Pickwick Club as they involve themselves in comic mishaps and misunderstandings. His travels as a newspaper reporter acquainted Dickens with the coaches, coaching houses, and inns of England which he uses as settings in Pickwick Papers. Gradually he abandons the use of the club format and attempts to create a plot. Dickens's fame and popularity were forever established with the introduction of his greatest comic character, Sam Weller. In addition Pickwick Papers contains some of the author's best characters: Mr Pickwick, Dickens's most interesting title character; the strolling actor Jingle and his friend Job Trotter; Sam's father Tony Weller who battles with the red-nosed Rev Stiggins; and the Fat Boy. Memorable scenes include Christmas in the country, a Parliamentary election, and the famous court trial, which Dickens frequently recited on his reading tours.