The Pickwick Papers

Not so much a story as a collection of quixotic tales involving the four members of the Pickwick Club, an organization of gentlemen dedicated to experiencing worldly adventures. However, their pursuit of "novel experiences" (appreciating puns is a Dickens prerequisite!) often goes hilariously awry: a picnic that lands them in the middle of two advancing armies at a military re-enactment, various humiliations at the hands of willful horses, romantic rivals, and a jaunty swindler named Mr. Jingle (among other aliases), a wrong turn in a dark hall that places Mr. Pickwick in a most embarrassing situation, a tragically misunderstood conversation that lands Mr. Pickwick in the middle of a breach of promise suit with his housekeeper, Ms. show more Bardell.

Along the way we are introduced to a host of delightful characters: the Pickwickians themselves (Mr. Tupman, the unsuccessful lady's man; Mr. Snodgrass, the tortured poet unbothered by the inconvenience of actually writing poetry; Mr. Winkle, the comically inept sportsman); Sam Weller, the unerringly loyal and practical cockney Jeeves to Mr. Pickwick's Wooster; and a host of supporting characters with names like Serjeant Buzfuz, the Honorable Horatio Fizkin, and Count Smorltork, each of whom Dickens has endowed with joyfully entertaining eccentricities.

The genesis of this work was an assignment Dickens accepted, early in his career, to provide narratives to accompany a set of engravings depicting the misadventures of a group of inept gentlemen-sportsmen. Dickens, however, vastly exceeded his brief, creating a set of stories so compelling that the illustrations ultimately had to be updated to suit his narratives. The Pickwick Papers then became a cultural phenomenon, spawning theatrical performances, knockoffs, and merch, entering the public consciousness in much the same way that his A Christmas Carol did later. If nothing else, Pickwick Papers illustrates that, even at the dawn of his career, Dickens' talent for creating memorable characters and crafting biting social satire was already well-developed. All that's lacking here is the sentimentality that infuses his later works, which isn't necessarily a bad thing: consider this an opportunity to enjoy Dickens at his wittiest, without any distracting waifs or tragic love stories.

Found this to be thoroughly delightful and most definitely destined for the "books I look forward to re-reading" shelf in my library! show less

It is remarkable that a two hundred year old book can still amuse. The Pickwick Papers' good humour shines across two centuries. It is readable and humane and it contains all the seeds of the Dickens we know as the Victorian literary giant.

It is, however, scarcely a novel and not Victorian at all. It is a novel made out of a serial and it has the same relationship to a novel as a Netflix Original has to a film made for the cinema which is not a deprecatory remark. There is many a boxed set that is vastly superior to the average art movie.

As to its period, Mr. Pickwick and his curious friends - Tupman, Winkle and Snodgrass - as well as the loyal man-servant Sam Weller (and his father and cronies), the 'villains' Mr. Jingle and the show more tearful Job Trotter and all the rest are Georgian characters.

We write of the seeds of the Victorian Dickens but only as the seeds of Victorian culture also lie in the Georgian. We see 'Bleak House' in the legal shenanigans and 'Christmas Carol' in one of the tales ('the goblin and the sexton') but we also see a society that would be recognisable to Austen.

Or rather we see Jane Austen's world of love, longing, property and propriety through the eyes of a bunch of young males rather than those of a young woman. There is lot of drinking and roistering and, of course, misunderstandings, the basis of much romantic comedy.

Above all, we see Dickens' sentimental personal ideology coming through as the actions rather than just the voice of Mr. Pickwick himself. Pickwick is wealthy and untroubled but he stands on principle (to the point of imprisonment) and is given to Christian charity.

Despite all the harms done, not so much to him as to his good friends, Pickwick not merely forgives Jingle and Trotter but generously helps them on their way to a better life. It is not that he thinks they will necessarily be better but it is more decent to believe that they can improve than not.

One of the enjoyments of the book is the gentle satire of so much in English society but without rancour even when rancour might be justified - rotten borough politics, the inquity of debtors' prisons (a hobby horse of Dickens), antiquarian presumption, predatory lawyers.

Dickens was writing for an audience that wanted good humour and comedy rather than to be nagged about abuses. There is no fundamental critique of society - Dickens was never going to do the job of Karl Marx - but he appeals to English 'fair play', Christian values and justice.

Dickens also satirises with yet more gentleness village life, 'society' at Bath, the working classes, maiden aunts, landladies and medical students (who have barely changed in two centuries). In doing this, he gives us a persuasive vision of what it might have been like to live in the 1820s.

The serials were published and written in 1836/37 but the events happen a decade earlier so we are already looking at world that readers might look on with the beginnings of nostalgia. Much of the story is centred on coaching trips and the railway was just beginning to make its mark a decade on.

The flaw in the book is one arising from serialisation - the intrusion of 'entertaining' tales to amuse readers until they had been hooked sufficiently that the tales were no longer needed. The stories are interesting from a cultural point of view but not always very good.

Yes, after a slow start, Dickens learns his trade quickly and writes as well as we would expect but the stories are just popular in-filling with the ghastly and ghostly or the fantastic that look poor against the material being produced by, say, Poe across the Atlantic and contemporaneously.

But this was an opportunity for Dickens. The success of Pickwick Papers was not going to be assured at the start. A certain nervousness about how to please his audience is forgivable and, in the end, the story hangs together very well with everything tied up neatly if quickly at the end.

We should also mention the excellent illustrations by Seymour, Buss and, above all. Phiz. I could not find my edition on Goodreads so I must note that all the illustrations and an excellent and succinct afterword by Ned Halley were in my Macmillan Collectors Edition (2016).

Above all, if you can put aside the tale interruptions (which die off after a while), I suspect you will grow to love the cast of characters, each with their own mix of virtues and flaws and be rather sorry that, after well over 1,000 pages, Mr. Pickwick decided to retire. show less

A delight. This farrago of adventures and characters is surely the best way in to appreciate Dickens’ richness of invention, of description, of comedy and fun. I’d read through it in a rush in my 20s, not really taking in the entertainment; now, as the 2024 General Election prompted me to recall the comical election scene Pickwick encounters at Eatanswill, I read through the book slowly and appreciatively, taking almost a year to get through the many chapters. A slow read if you do it that way, but worth the time and effort. Dickens, in *his* 20s when he wrote this, is coming of age as a writer of power and confidence, and you can still sense him stretching himself and enjoying it. It’s the distant 1830s, before Victorian dynamism show more and railways had blasted though the old ways, and so there’s a good deal of social history in the details of the story. But it’s never an objective account in that everything is refracted through Dickens’ essential positivity, his appreciation of the joys of life, often just small pleasures or comforts: the plentiful drink, the enjoyment of food, the varieties of clothing, decor, transport, etc. Often Dickens drops these interesting details into amusing asides. The “cobbler was a sallow man, all cobblers are“ he tells us. Likewise, “The travellers' room at the White Horse Cellar is of course
uncomfortable; it would be no travellers' room if it were not.” Such casual observations or witticisms are found every few pages, striking or funny even now 2 centuries on. Dickens tosses in skits or silliness to draw the story out, but also to draw out the fun, to indulge himself and his inventiveness. A triumph of jollity. show less

This felt long, but was very enjoyable. Initially I thought Dickens was going to make Mr Pickwick pompous and dull, but he became more and more admirable and endearing. There is plenty of ridiculousness and characters who are generally humorous (e.g. the Wellers), and I laughed aloud to the scene which leads to Mr Pickwick being sued for breach of promise. The chapters set in Fleet (debtors') prison contained more of Dickens' biting social justice criticism and were very sad.

I found the insertion of stories told by characters (which had nothing to do with anything really) slowed the main narrative down, and I do prefer the more intricately plotted later novels, but I'm glad I read this.

Dickens's first published novel (1836-37) and what an absolute comic masterpiece this was and still is. Pickwick and Sam Weller are incredibly memorable creations and one of the best comedy double acts in English literature. There are numerous other memorable characters in this novel which, though slightly rambling, does have a central plot other than Pickwick and his companions' peregrinations across the country, that of the slapstick accusation against him of breach of promise by the widow Mrs Bardell and her unscrupulous lawyers, Dodson and Fogg, for which our hero is tried, found guilty, refuses to pay the fine and is in consequence sent to the Fleet prison. This provides Dickens with the opportunity to expose another evil of his show more time, that of the condition of poor debtors, those unable to pay their way in the prisons of the time, where food and lodging had to paid for by the prisoners, thus meaning that the poor debtors rotted and starved, unless charitable persons outside took pity on them (rich prisoners could afford to pay for luxury and comfort so had a much easier time of it inside). Indeed the whole concept of imprisoning people for debt seems absurd, as they by definition cannot then even try to repay their debts. An absolute gem of a novel that set Dickens on the road to well deserved fame and literary immortality. show less

Dickens' second important book (after Sketches by Boz), and first novel, The Pickwick Papers is a real delight. A comic travelogue that reminds me of a cross between Pynchon's Mason and Dixon and a particularly silly Jeeves short story, it's a book in which only the most minor things go wrong, characters' lives are primarily about meditation and misunderstanding, and one can easily understand why it caused a sensation in 1836, and how Dickens came about at just the right time to capture the public spirit with his own twist on the sentimental literature of the era. I probably wouldn't recommend this for newcomers to Dickens, who should go on to read his next work, Oliver Twist, but once you know you enjoy works from this era, this is a show more kind of warm sip of brandy for the soul. show less

This book makes me want to outlaw the teaching of classics to schoolchildren and hide all the Dickens on a high shelf with the porn so that there's half a chance that kids might read it. This is hilarious stuff. Who knew that they got to be classics for a reason? I approached this book with no small amount of trepidation, and in next to no time was laughing out loud. It's one thing to be reading alone and smile at a funny bit, but to be laughing, no, whooping helplessly, is another thing entirely. DH was sure he hated Dickens, any and all Dickens, so I read to him some of the elder Weller's philosophy on marriage. He kept trying not to laugh, but it was hopeless. This is really funny stuff. And Dickens was a mere lad of 24 when he wrote it.