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crescentpages 's review for:
The Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens
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.
“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.