What do You think about The Pickwick Papers (2000)?
I'm on my third (maybe fourth or fifth) reading of the Pickwick Papers, and having downloaded the 1985 BBC production, am sharing it with my wife for the first time. Having just reached Jingle's elopement with the spinster Rachel Wardle, she's already in love with rogue and Mr. Pickwick, and I can hardly wait for her introduction to Sam Weller in the next episode. The bad thing is that now she has my book, and like an impatient dog sitting at its master's feet begging for him (her) to hurry up and take it for a walk, I'm sitting here typing a review for the book instead of reading it. I suppose I'll have to go out in the cold to a bookstore tomorrow and buy her her own copy, sigh. Meanwhile I'll just sit and wait for my boots from the man downstairs. I want them now, but I'll have to wait until I get them.
—Greg B
A character in the TV miniseries adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford recommended his favorite Dickens' novel, THE PICKWICK PAPERS, and says, "I defy you not to roar!"This is when I KNEW I must read it.It was his first popular novel.After reading five of his more serious works, I am ready to get a glimpse of his humorous side.********************************************************************************************************************There are men and women who have LIVED a thousand lives within one mortal probationary period, and they have the immense talent to write about their observations and feelings in such a way, that we can vicariously live through them.Dickens was such a man.Oh the freshness and genius that IS the young artist.I have yet to find anything which rivals the work of those who are involved in artistic pursuits, when a young master, or mistress, has yet to become influenced by commercialism, critics, or "preserving their reputation". This book is PURE Dickens. I felt as though the dialogue must have streamed into his mind from some mystic literary plane. In the beginning, I felt Dickens was attacking the wealthy, the frivolity and the easiness of their lives, their shallowness, and...stupidity, which is only tolerated due to their chance birth and favorable financial situation. Or that he was perfectly and mockingly depicting the lack of humanity of many lawyers, politicians, and financial "industry" experts. Okay...he was ( examples: the frog poem, the inscription on the stone "discovery", the financial investors betting on the time it would take a ruined man to commit suicide, the lawyers who sued Pickwick for a proposal he never made, but from which they received a tidy amount of money). But in the end, the main character, Pickwick, a wealthy gentleman, revealed himself to be a man of great integrity and compassion, and there were even a few lawyers who had integrity. If I were to tie in every topic Dickens has written about, in the previous 5 novels I have read, those of: the law in 19th century England, the callousness of aristocracy, the plight of the poor, the mess that is/was politics, hypocrisy of those who claim to be Christian, love and romance, hatred and death, debtor's prison, and the horrors children were subjected to in his day, I would have to say, with the exception of the topic of children, this novel, in one way or another covered them all. It was as though THE PICKWICK PAPERS was the "seed" which germinated into every following novel Dickens produced. Sadly, there is now a bit more negativity in my retrospective thoughts, regarding those novels, though they still remain dear to my Dickens-phile heart. I can now see the "forced story lines" to please publishers and the public. Dickens was most natural as an author while writing this piece. I felt, as I read, that it "flowed from his mind and pen". Delightful.*****************************************************************FAVORITE QUOTES: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 hat.Very few people but those who have tried it, know what a difficult process it is, to bow in green velvet smalls, and a tight jacket, and high-crowned hat: or in blue satin trunks and white silks: or knee-cords and top-boots that were never made for the wearer, and have been fixed upon him without the remotest reference to the comparative dimensions of himself and the suit.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, and 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 cornfields 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. THIS REMINDED ME OF A LYRIC FROM THE SONG "JUST LIKE HEAVEN" (..found myself alone, alone - alone above a raging sea, that stole the only girl I loved, and drowned her deep inside of me...):He was sailing over a boundless expanse of sea, with a blood-red sky above, and the angry waters, lashed into fury beneath, boiling and eddying up, on every side. There was another vessel before them, toiling and labouring in the howling storm: her canvas fluttering in ribbons from the mast . . .He saw that men who worked hard, and earned their scanty bread with lives of labour, were cheerful and happy; and that to the most ignorant, the sweet face of Nature was a never-failing source of cheerfulness and joy. He saw those who had been delicately nurtured, and tenderly brought up, cheerful under privations, and superior to suffering, that would have crushed many of a rougher grain, because they bore within their own bosoms the materials of happiness, contentment, and peace. He saw that women, the tenderest and most fragile of all God's creatures, were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity, and distress; and he saw that it was because they bore, in their own hearts, an inexhaustible well-spring of affection and devotion. Above all, he saw that men like himself, who snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair surface of the earth; and setting all the good of the world against the evil, he came to the conclusion that it was a very decent and respectable sort of world after all.If our observant lady readers can deduce any satisfactory inferences from these facts, we beg them by all means to do so.Breakings-up are capital things in our school-days, but in after life they are painful enough. Death, self-interest, and fortune's changes, are every day breaking up many a happy group, and scattering them far and wide; and the boys and girls never come back again.These sequestered nooks are the public offices of the legal profession, where writs are issued, judgments signed, declarations filed, and numerous other ingenious machines put in motion for the torture and torment of His Majesty's liege subjects, and the comfort and emolument of the practitioners of the law.The fact is, I was ruined by having money left me.But he had grown so like death in life, that they knew not when he died.'I shall never regret,...I shallnever regret having devoted the greater part of two years tomixing with different varieties and shades of human character,frivolous as my pursuit of novelty may have appeared to many.Nearly the whole of my previous life having been devoted tobusiness and the pursuit of wealth, numerous scenes of which Ihad no previous conception have dawned upon me--I hope tothe enlargement of my mind, and the improvement of myunderstanding. If I have done but little good, I trust I have doneless harm, and that none of my adventures will be other than asource of amusing and pleasant recollection to me in the declineof life. God bless you all!'There are dark shadowson the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. Some men,like bats or owls, have better eyes for the darkness than for thelight. We, who have no such optical powers, are better pleasedto take our last parting look at the visionary companions of manysolitary hours, when the brief sunshine of the world is blazingfull upon them.
—Brenda Cregor
When I was in the seventh grade, I read The Pickwick Papers for a research paper. I had not at that time, and still, have not read anything else by Charles Dickens, but I am far more interested in changing that statistic than I was then. This is unlikely to surprise many people.I read The Pickwick Papers with a group who decided to read a certain number of chapters each week, based on the original serialization. This proved to be an excellent method. It allowed some of the original suspense back into the story. It added the sense of timing that I missed the first time. It also allowed me more time to think on the antics of Sam, Mr. Pickwick and his friends, Mr. Weller, etc. Overall, it greatly added to my enjoyment. The group plans to read through all of Dickens' works and I can't wait to start the next one!Original Review: This was the first Dickens novel I read in its entirety. I loved it, at least once I finished. 7th grade is probably not the idea age for this particular work.
—Denae
The funniest book ever written! I was on the floor, I mean really ROFLMAO. I laughed till I cried, till my diaphragm went into painful spasms. I couldn't see and I couldn't speak. Exquisite writing as usual with Dickens. Sentence composition beyond my wildest dreams. I did not know comedy could be that pleasurable to read. I reccommend this book to the utmost high for a rolling good time. Excuse me while I go laugh myself into silliness just recalling the scene with Pickwick getting jostled in the crowd.
—Carlie
