"The Pickwick Papers" is the first
novel written by Charles Dickens.
The novel takes the sequence of loosely
related adventures of Samuel Pickwick and his fellow members of the Pickwick Club, in particular three of them, Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and Nathaniel Winkle. They travel to Ipswick, Rochester, Bath and God knows elsewhere.
Mr Pickwick is portrayed as a clean-shaven, round-faced gentleman wearing spectacles. He is a wealthy and kind old gentleman, but his innocent and trusting nature makes him the center of
comic adventures, for
example, making an untoward appearance in the wrong hotel bedroom and few other related bungles. The worse is when he unintentionally makes his landlady, Mrs Bardell, think that he wishes to marry her. As a result he unconsciously provokes her into suing him for breach of promise.
All through these many adventures and misadventures, one way or another, the characters interconnected with Mr Pickwick, especially with his lawsuit versus Mrs Bardell. Pickwick's own experiences in prison also give a hint of moral and melodramatic stories, for example, "The Bafman's
Story," "The Convict's Return" and "The Stroller's Tale" with the glib strolling player Alfred Jingle who lives by his wits as a comic villain. They all counterbalance the prevailing
comedy of the book.
What make it truly interesting are the variety of memorable characters depicted by Dickens in the story.
More reviews about the The Pickwick Papers