3.69 AVERAGE


REVIEW TO FOLLOW
funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Odustala na 16%. Jedina dobra stvar ovdje bila je uistinu kvalitetan prijevod. Mislim da su od autora prve polovice 19. st. ipak treba prednost dati spisateljicama jer su mi njhove knjige daleko kvalitetnije i upečatljivije. Ovo bi trebalo biti humoristično. Meni je bilo dosadno do bola: zgode i nezgode članova nekog gospodskog kluba. Repetativno, mlako i dosadno.
Ovo bi vam se moglo svidjeti ako volite klupsku atmosferu, roman koji funkcionira tako da se svaka zgoda može čitati kao kratka priča i ako želite uživati u kvalitetnom prijevodu i ljepoti hrvatskog jezika pred spavanje. Inače, ne preporučujem.

The sitcom of Victorian literature
funny lighthearted slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Gen'l'm'n-capital thing-this book-very!

I thoroughly enjoyed it! After many failed attempts at reading Dickens, I found something wonderful. It annoys me greatly that I may now have to look again at his writings, after skipping the first chapter, of course.

Reading Dickens' works has always reminded me of committing to all existing seasons of a long-running television show. This has never been more true than in the Pickwick Papers, his first major work collected into novel form.
Do not sit down to read this as you would a regular novel. This is episodic writing and it is long. But if you view each chapter as that week's installment, as the original audience did, it becomes a much more manageable read.
As television shows can attest to, having such a long-running story brings its unique challenges. At times, the plot lags. New episodes seem unnecessary and characters return that you have a hard time remembering from their original appearance.
And yet, Mr. Pickwick is such a lovely creation and the cast of characters surrounding him so entertaining, on the whole, that this is a lovely read. As the book closes and everyone settles into new forms of livelihood, mostly thanks to Pickwick's generosity, I nearly shed a tear. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Mr. Pickwick himself, even though I had been anticipating the end of the book for quite some chapters.
Though I will never meet Mr. Pickwick in real life, I feel honored to have known him through the pen of Dickens and am ever grateful and edified for the experience.

3 stars

“If I have done but little good, I trust I have done less harm, and that none of my adventures will be other than a source of amusing and pleasant recollection to me in the decline of life.”

The Pickwick Papers is Dickens’ first novel, published in serial format for the enjoyment of the masses. It was certainly an entertaining and humorous collection of anecdotes, although it lacks the depth that he would later develop in his subsequent works.

The structure of the novel retains a sense of its serial nature- it is constructed of collected stories and episodic incidents. The characters therefore were not solid and believable, but rather served as carriers for Dickens’ humour. Yet this humour didn’t fail to create a fun and engaging experience.

“There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.”

Beneath Dickens’ theatrical displays of comedy, there are glimpses of the acuteness with which he observes social issues. Despite not occupying a sense of urgency, he exposes the presence of corruption and neglect within society, sometimes through explicit confrontation and other times through subtle mockery.

Dickens’ humour did, for the most part, rely on stereotypes. Female characters were unfortunately incredibly underwhelming- they were reduced to the roles defined by their male relatives, and their sympathy was dependent upon their submission to men.

Within this novel, amongst the splendour of his humour and the awareness of its flaws, we can glance at the magnificence Dickens will grow into assuming.