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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
lighthearted
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:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It is a mix of funny short stories with boring ones. If you never read Charles Dickens I wouldn't recommend start with this one. I liked the ending, it was very fitting. If this book was shorter I would give a higher rating since some parts were very well paced and good but unfortunately most of it was not. For me who already loves Charles Dickens, it was an interesting experience reading his first major work.
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There’s one major thing that’s lacking here and it’s editing. This book could have easily been half the length. So many chapters hold very little relevance to the actual trajectory of the plot.
The jail plot line at the end was also a super weird change in mood.
The jail plot line at the end was also a super weird change in mood.
challenging
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
The Pickwick Papers was not written to be a novel, does not aspire to be a novel, and cannot be read as a novel. It is also not an anthology, a travelogue, or a fix-up—though it has elements of each. No, what it most resembles is a TV show.
Seriously. There’s even a Christmas special.
What I mean by this is that, instead of a plot, The Pickwick Papers has a series of episodes, which cover almost as many genres as there are pages. The main thread—the adventures of Mr. Pickwick and company through the English countryside—is a sort of pastoral comedy, but Dickens, drawing from Don Quixote and The Canterbury Tales, interpolates it incessantly with ghost stories, penny dreadfuls, swashbuckling yarns, contes cruels, and even a smattering of poetry.
This is not because the book is meandering or tangential. It is simply that, without an overarching narrative, there is no more reason for Dickens not to divagate from the Pickwickians than there is for him to work his pen elsewhere, for he abandons nothing in doing so. What we gain in return is a work that is highly funny (if not consistently so), beautifully written (if not quite up to Dickens’ best), and sometimes moving (if not for the reasons that it should be).
Still, no matter how witty and inventive it may be, The Pickwick Papers has nothing to bundle itself together. Unlike Don Quixote, which has unifying themes and recurring tropes, or The Canterbury Tales, which has a framing device and a panoramic perspective, the episodes of The Pickwick Papers have nothing in common, save for various running jokes and subplots.
But this is, after all, merely a debut. One of the greatest writers of the century had a long way to go before his oeuvre would evolve into the label of its own, “Dickensian,” and was only just beginning to cultivate its unmistakable elements—polluted cityscapes and pleasant countryside, corrupt lawyers and honest tradesmen, florid eloquence and glottal Cockney.
The Pickwick Papers, as Dickens in embryo, has all the shortcomings of prenatal development. Yet it is also Dickens in a wildly different form than anything else he would come to write, and that alone makes it worthy to imbibe.
Seriously. There’s even a Christmas special.
What I mean by this is that, instead of a plot, The Pickwick Papers has a series of episodes, which cover almost as many genres as there are pages. The main thread—the adventures of Mr. Pickwick and company through the English countryside—is a sort of pastoral comedy, but Dickens, drawing from Don Quixote and The Canterbury Tales, interpolates it incessantly with ghost stories, penny dreadfuls, swashbuckling yarns, contes cruels, and even a smattering of poetry.
This is not because the book is meandering or tangential. It is simply that, without an overarching narrative, there is no more reason for Dickens not to divagate from the Pickwickians than there is for him to work his pen elsewhere, for he abandons nothing in doing so. What we gain in return is a work that is highly funny (if not consistently so), beautifully written (if not quite up to Dickens’ best), and sometimes moving (if not for the reasons that it should be).
Still, no matter how witty and inventive it may be, The Pickwick Papers has nothing to bundle itself together. Unlike Don Quixote, which has unifying themes and recurring tropes, or The Canterbury Tales, which has a framing device and a panoramic perspective, the episodes of The Pickwick Papers have nothing in common, save for various running jokes and subplots.
But this is, after all, merely a debut. One of the greatest writers of the century had a long way to go before his oeuvre would evolve into the label of its own, “Dickensian,” and was only just beginning to cultivate its unmistakable elements—polluted cityscapes and pleasant countryside, corrupt lawyers and honest tradesmen, florid eloquence and glottal Cockney.
The Pickwick Papers, as Dickens in embryo, has all the shortcomings of prenatal development. Yet it is also Dickens in a wildly different form than anything else he would come to write, and that alone makes it worthy to imbibe.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
There is no genius like that of Charles Dickens. He was that beam of sunlight amongst the gray shadows of this world that he wrote about in this book. He may be famous for his opening lines, but to me, the two things that Dickens most excelled at were his characters and the second half of his books. Which may sound strange, but in my opinion, while the first half of any of his books is really good reading, the second half is, well, genius. The way he intricately wove all of these seemingly disparate storylines together and brought them all to a completely satisfactory ending - wrapping up every characters' journey with a thoroughness that leaves no lingering questions in the reader's mind - it's pure magic. I'm so glad that he was cherished so highly for his gifts while he was still alive - it would have been sad to me to think that he spent his life not knowing how much joy he brought to the lives of others, or how powerfully his words served to show us just what good humanity can do, if only we are filled with a little charity and love for our fellow man.