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The Pickwick Papers


lunababymoonchild

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The Pickwick Papers is Charles Dickens first book and was released initally in 19 instalments over 20 months in 1836. It was very successful and let the poorer parts of the population read something when the price of a book would be beyond them. They were also illustrated. Dickens was, at the time, unknown.  The book version was released the following year.

 

I have to admit that I struggled with this.  I think my problem is that the book consists of a series of seemingly unconnected incidents and not a flowing story. I've read Bleak House and Nicholas Nickelby (Oliver Twist and The Christmas Books) so am familiar with Dickens' prose and story telling but I don't really like short stories (except for Thomas Bernhard's The Voice Imitator) and I struggled to see the whole book in this. It might have been easier for me to split it into the chunks that it was originally published in (listed on the internet), which is what I'll do in the future when I read it again. 

 

The prose is amazing and I read the full, unabridged and illustrated Wordsworth Classics copy, some 784 pages long. I didn't find it all that funny either, I have to say. I'm glad that it wasn't my first Dickens as this could easily have put me off. 

Edited by lunababymoonchild
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I am now 60% into the book and find it enjoyable. It is a little slow reading for me but all-in-all I am glad to be reading The Pickwick papers. It is far from being one of Dickens better books though. This was his first book and obviously his writing became much better. Charles Dickens remains probably one of my two top authors.

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18 minutes ago, muggle not said:

I am now 60% into the book and find it enjoyable. It is a little slow reading for me but all-in-all I am glad to be reading The Pickwick papers. It is far from being one of Dickens better books though. This was his first book and obviously his writing became much better. Charles Dickens remains probably one of my two top authors.

It is very slow. Notable mostly for the various tales and fables recounted over dinner or wine, rather than a narrative. 

Some great characters in there though. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read it earlier this year. The thing that struck me the most were how many of the themes would be developed in his later books, particularly in Bleak House and Little Dorrit. I also sympathised with the young man who was rubbish at all sports, and glad he got his young lady.

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I have now finished The Pickwick Papers and will give it a 4/5 rating. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

 

I wish I could have met and talked with Charles Dickens. He would have been an  awesome person to talk with.

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It is the only Dickens that I actually enjoyed reading. I have read (had to read,at school!) most of his works, and this one has a magic that appeals to me, on a simple level. As for his other works....well let us just say, i have read them, and wish I had not!

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