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A review by sallycacchi
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Overall I enjoyed the Pickwick Papers a lot, however I would not recommend as someone's first experience of Dickens.
The Pickwick Papers is Dicken's first novel and was published in serial form, a few chapters at a time over more than a year. As such it does not follow the plot structure of a modern novel. Additionally the plot and style of the book changed over the publication period so the book may not feel as cohesive as modern works, or even later works by Dickens.
Knowing all of this definitely helped me to enjoy the book, and I think is important to understand before starting to read.
The book follows "adventures" of Mr Pickwick, on older wealthy gentleman, and 3 younger friends around the South of England in the 1820s (I think!). The book is genuinely very funny, and had me chuckling along with some of the situations the characters find themselves in, and some of the dry humour of the minor characters in the book.
The book paints a vivid picture of life (for a certain class of person) of the time and it made me wish I could go back in time for a day to experience an old fashioned coaching inn and travel by coach.
The characters in the novel are numerous but as Dickens writes his characters as caricatures fairly straightforward to keep distinct. The characters evolve over the course of the novel which takes place over a couple of years, which feels realistic to life.
There are some parts of the novel I found to be a bit dull and slow going. There is a section in a debtors prison, which some readers loved, for me the stakes were not high enough and I found the situation mildly tedious and the tone very different to the rest of the novel.
Some of the prose is beautiful, for example,
"There is no month in the whole year, in which nature wears a more beautiful appearance than in the month of August. Spring has many beauties, and May is a fresh and blooming month, but the charms of this time of this time of year, are enhanced by their contrast with the winter season. August has no such advantage. It comes when we remember nothing but clear skies, green fields and sweet-smelling flowers---when the recollection of snow, ice, and bleak winds has faded from our minds as completely as they have disappeared from the earth,---and yet what a pleasant time it is. Orchards and corn-fields ring with the hum of labour, trees bend beneath the thick clusters of rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground, and the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving in every light breath that sweeps above it, as if it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape with a golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over the whole earth, the influence of the season seems to extend itself to the very wagon, whose slow motion across the well-reaped field is perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no harsh sound upon the ear."
But there is not so much of it that it becomes overwhelming.
There are also sections within the books which Dickens goes on to expand on in his other works, there is an inclusion of a moral Christmas tale, similar to A Christmas Carol, mentions of a legal case similar to that in Bleak House, and the inclusion of debtors prison which appears again in David Copperfield.
I really enjoyed my time with this book, it was quite a slow read. I plan to re-read at some point, and will do so following the original publication timeline, to experience it the way Victorian readers did.
This book is a must for a Dickens lover.
The Pickwick Papers is Dicken's first novel and was published in serial form, a few chapters at a time over more than a year. As such it does not follow the plot structure of a modern novel. Additionally the plot and style of the book changed over the publication period so the book may not feel as cohesive as modern works, or even later works by Dickens.
Knowing all of this definitely helped me to enjoy the book, and I think is important to understand before starting to read.
The book follows "adventures" of Mr Pickwick, on older wealthy gentleman, and 3 younger friends around the South of England in the 1820s (I think!). The book is genuinely very funny, and had me chuckling along with some of the situations the characters find themselves in, and some of the dry humour of the minor characters in the book.
The book paints a vivid picture of life (for a certain class of person) of the time and it made me wish I could go back in time for a day to experience an old fashioned coaching inn and travel by coach.
The characters in the novel are numerous but as Dickens writes his characters as caricatures fairly straightforward to keep distinct. The characters evolve over the course of the novel which takes place over a couple of years, which feels realistic to life.
There are some parts of the novel I found to be a bit dull and slow going. There is a section in a debtors prison, which some readers loved, for me the stakes were not high enough and I found the situation mildly tedious and the tone very different to the rest of the novel.
Some of the prose is beautiful, for example,
"There is no month in the whole year, in which nature wears a more beautiful appearance than in the month of August. Spring has many beauties, and May is a fresh and blooming month, but the charms of this time of this time of year, are enhanced by their contrast with the winter season. August has no such advantage. It comes when we remember nothing but clear skies, green fields and sweet-smelling flowers---when the recollection of snow, ice, and bleak winds has faded from our minds as completely as they have disappeared from the earth,---and yet what a pleasant time it is. Orchards and corn-fields ring with the hum of labour, trees bend beneath the thick clusters of rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground, and the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving in every light breath that sweeps above it, as if it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape with a golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over the whole earth, the influence of the season seems to extend itself to the very wagon, whose slow motion across the well-reaped field is perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no harsh sound upon the ear."
But there is not so much of it that it becomes overwhelming.
There are also sections within the books which Dickens goes on to expand on in his other works, there is an inclusion of a moral Christmas tale, similar to A Christmas Carol, mentions of a legal case similar to that in Bleak House, and the inclusion of debtors prison which appears again in David Copperfield.
I really enjoyed my time with this book, it was quite a slow read. I plan to re-read at some point, and will do so following the original publication timeline, to experience it the way Victorian readers did.
This book is a must for a Dickens lover.