Audiobook (abridged)4 hours
The Pickwick Papers
Written by Charles Dickens
Narrated by Anton Lesser
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
The Pickwick Papers was Dickens’s first novel, completed in 1837. From the start he established his eye for vivid characters – with the lovable London character of Sam Weller, the boistrous Mr Pickwick, and the rest of the colour crew. The adventures, including the cricket match in Dingley Dell, and the grim description of Fleet Prison, set the pattern for the most remarkable series of stories that epitomize England in the nineteenth century.
Author
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.
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Reviews for The Pickwick Papers
Rating: 3.8798118486740805 out of 5 stars
4/5
1,169 ratings53 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pickwick Papers promised heft. Weighing in at 900 pages and larded with indices and erudite observations, the project promised muscle training, if nothing else. The serial natural of the narrative and general zany approach was also apprehended. I simply wasn't prepared, however, for Sam Weller. Oh lord, he may be my favorite character in recent memory. I wasn't prepared for such. I was expecting tales of the idle and curious confronting rural and proltarian situations, if only for hilarity and general misunderstanding to ensue. I didn't expect the wit and loyalty of young Weller, especially as the novel takes a rather dark turn and visits the black humors of Dickens' past. Along the journey, politicans, journalists, bankers and lawyers submit to tar-and-feathering: we are all the better for such. There's a surfeit of humiliation, but few are actually mean, as such.
Yes, the final fifth met the approval standards of its period. There are a slew of marriage plots to be resolved. Somehow that struck me as an addendum for decorum's sake. The novel becomes a meditation on friendship; between Pickwick and Weller, Sam and his father, the reader and Dickens.
I'm looking forward to reading all of Dickens this year; The Pickwick Papers was a marvelous inaugeration. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dickens' second important book (after Sketches by Boz), and first novel, The Pickwick Papers is a real delight. A comic travelogue that reminds me of a cross between Pynchon's Mason and Dixon and a particularly silly Jeeves short story, it's a book in which only the most minor things go wrong, characters' lives are primarily about meditation and misunderstanding, and one can easily understand why it caused a sensation in 1836, and how Dickens came about at just the right time to capture the public spirit with his own twist on the sentimental literature of the era. I probably wouldn't recommend this for newcomers to Dickens, who should go on to read his next work, Oliver Twist, but once you know you enjoy works from this era, this is a kind of warm sip of brandy for the soul.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pickwick Papers had me cracking up to myself all the way through. I hadn't heard of this piece by Dickens until I read Little Women, where the girls are a part of the Pickwick Club and read little writings of their own. I have no clue how I discovered the connection (perhaps after watching the movie and doing a Google search), but I quickly grabbed a copy of the book to read it and fell into all of its nonsense.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hilarious in parts.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simon Prebble was marvellous as the narrator in this Dickens classic. In particular, I liked his voices for Sam Weller and his father. So glad that I found an unabridged digital audiobook edition through Hoopla!I am so glad that I decided to reread this early Dickens novel! Thanks to Jean & John, whose great enjoyment during their reread a few years ago made me reconsider this ;)I first read this in my early 20s and was disappointed with it; since then, for many years, I have considered this one of Dickens lesser books. This time, I found it full of humor and wonderful characters. Although I generally get the free public domain Kindle editions of classics, I am glad that I spent the little bit it cost to get the illustrated edition. The illustrations alone are worth it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Begins with comic tropes on stock figures of fun in English society of the time, but develops an ultimately moving moral and humane quality within the context of a humorous work. In Sam Weller, introduces one of the most famous and richest of all Dickens's characters. This from a young author only 25 when the novel was completed. Also, innovated the publication of novels in serial issue. Hard to believe now, but no one before Dickens in this novel had ever done it. Of course many of his own later novels first appeared in serial issue.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pickwick Papers is one of Charles Dickens' earliest works and so it's hard not to read it looking for the seeds of everything to come later in his body of writing. Absurdity, humor, tragedy, chicanery, romance, fancy, lawsuits, debtors' prison, and more are here in good measure to richly repay Dickens' readers. At times the interposition of tragic or comedic vignettes seem a bit forced, like short stories Dickens edited in to fill space. Pickwick and the others interact with these tales very little, simply hearing them and then moving on with their adventures without commentary. Some are unrelievedly tragic; others are crazily hilarious and fanciful, like the armchair coming to life and telling his story. But it's the characters that make this loosely connected string of stories so memorable. Samuel Weller is one of my favorite literary characters of all time. I think he must have inspired Tolkien's Sam Gamgee at some level; both are utterly devoted to their masters and have a sturdy, rustic self possession that is highly distinctive. And I can't think of Tony Weller without smiling. And of course, Mr. Pickwick himself. And Snodgrass, and Tupman, and Winkle, and Wardle, and Jingle, and Job, and all the rest of that merry bunch. Quite simply, this is splendid fun.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Probably my favourite Dickens novel that I've read so far. Full of wonderful characters and very funny situations, it shows it's serious side later in the story, with the descriptions set within the Fleet - a notorious debtors prison.It also has some wonderful stories and poems within it - 'The goblins who stole a sexton' for example, a creepy tale told by one character to others, set at Christmas, or 'Ode to an Expiring Frog' - a hilarious pastiche, I can imagine Dickens laughing aloud as he came up with that one!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book makes me want to outlaw the teaching of classics to schoolchildren and hide all the Dickens on a high shelf with the porn so that there's half a chance that kids might read it. This is hilarious stuff. Who knew that they got to be classics for a reason? I approached this book with no small amount of trepidation, and in next to no time was laughing out loud. It's one thing to be reading alone and smile at a funny bit, but to be laughing, no, whooping helplessly, is another thing entirely. DH was sure he hated Dickens, any and all Dickens, so I read to him some of the elder Weller's philosophy on marriage. He kept trying not to laugh, but it was hopeless. This is really funny stuff. And Dickens was a mere lad of 24 when he wrote it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I would have found this book more engrossing and read it more quickly if there were an overarching plot holding it all together. The disadvantages of publishing first as a serial are obvious here. This "novel" is really a collection of loosely connected episodes that are quite entertaining. The strength of this book are the wonderful characters of which I believe there are over 150. Pickwick, of course, and Sam Weller stand out but there are many others who are quite memorable. I love Dickens's obvious delight in creating so many outrageous names for his characters.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very droll, highly entertaining.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The strange thing with Pickwick is that, although I enjoyed it a lot whilst actually reading, I wasn't desperate to get back to it in between. I think it's because it's so very episodic (far more so than Dickens' other works), and because it takes a while for the characters to establish themselves. It's fascinating to trace the origins of a lot of JKJerome's humour in it - parts are so very like Three Men in a Boat
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The language is vital, the cast of characters is great, the beginnings of an interest in the issues of the industrial revolution is starting, altogether this is a wonderful book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Definitely not one of Dickens' best works. I actually could only get through about a third, maybe less, of it. It was a little bit too scattered--there's a cast of characters common to each chapter but no over-arching plot which I did not like.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dickens' first novel, and start of my attempt to read all his books by the end of his bicentenary year, 2012. Published by installments, the book necessarily lacks editing, and is so wordy, almost defining prolix. The book is initially reported as the proceedings of the Pickwick Club, hence the title, which allows a loose collection of stories and anecdotes to be used in the text, but the device is forgotten by the midpoint and proceeds as a standard narrative. There is very little character development - the members of the Pickwick Club start and end as caricatures, with their adventures being like something from Don Quixote. Sam, the servant, is a gem, and Dickens uses him as a vehicle for much fun with his dialogue. I enjoyed the detail of the description of life in London, and the language used - such as the use of "A1" and the phrase "of the Jewish persuasion", both of which I had thought were more modern. Good fun, but at 650+ pages, a bit of a challenge. Read November 2011.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finally got through this......I've been reading it for a very long time, it seems.....another case of the wrong book at the wrong time for my busy schedule, I think. It is a long book and it does have some of that pesky 'dialect' that I seem to struggle with. With that said, however, i did rather enjoy the book......Parts of it actually made me laugh out loud....others put me to sleep.....that would be my biggest complaint.......for my taste it was somewhat inconsistent. The good parts were really good and the others seemed interminable. Of course I have since learned that like so many of these types of books, it was initially written in serial form; a bunch of snippets over time that were eventually published as one work. On the plus side, i was totally captivated by the level of detail devoted to day to day living in England in the early 1800's, most of it understandable. Dressing habits, eating habits, traveling details, life in a country inn, legal system details, etc., etc. were all very captivating and believable, in spite of how different much of it is from our current experience. Likewise, I was very intrigued that in spite of the difference in time and place from this book to today, the sentiments and reactions to situations seemed remarkably appropriate and timely...I had to keep reminding myself that this was written 180+ years ago! All in all, a positive experience that will likely stay with me for awhile......and the entire set of Dickens is on the shelf and i do look forward to reading those.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pickwick Papers was Dickens' first novel, written at the tender age of 24 and published in monthly instalments from 1836-1837. The story follows the 'perambulations, perils, travels, adventures and sporting transactions of the corresponding members' of The Pickwick Club as they travel across England.I found the funniest parts of the book to be the early chapters where Dickens seems to be concentrating more on pure humour/satire by creating brilliant caricatures and there were several incidents that had me laughing out loud whilst I was reading (fortunately I was reading at home). As the serial progresses Dickens seems to move away from this approach to create more rounded, sympathetic characters, particularly where Mr Pickwick himself is concerned and whilst that meant there were fewer laugh out loud moments it also meant I became fonder of the characters. A note on my edition: My copy was the 2003 Penguin Classics edition and as well as including some very helpful notes on the text and an introduction, this edition also showed where each monthly part ended so I was able to read along as the original subscribers to the serial would have received it (yes, I am a Dickens geek). This edition also comes complete with the original illustrations by Seymour and Phiz which are absolutely superb and really add to the story.All in all, I can't recommend this book enough and I'm only sorry it took me so long to get round to rereading it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the three books I read when I'm either doing chemo or recovering from a bad illness.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book. It presented me with humor, both broad (Mr. Pickwick and the lady in the yellow curl papers) and more subtle ("Ode to an Expiring Frog" by Mrs. Leo Hunter, anyone?) and also managed to discuss with pathos more serious issues (debtors in Fleet Prison). The characters were memorable. To tell the truth, I now have a bit of a crush on Mr. Sam Weller. To top it all off the ending was happy. What could be better?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A sort of Victorian drop-your-trousers farce. I suspect if I had been reading this when it was first published, in instalments, some weeks I would have been waiting eagerly for the next bit, other times able to take it or leave it. The chapters with the two young doctors in left me cold, mostly, but really liked the early escapades involving Mr Pickwick (who in my imagination looks a little like Captain Mainwaring from Dad's Army); if there was ever the slightest possibility that by accident he could wander into the bedroom of a partly unclothed lady he woud always end up doing so. Brilliant.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The best book ever about the immortality of donkeys and page-boys.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was much, much better than I was expecting.It's the first Dickens I've read and I can see now why he's so highly rated.It was very readable, funny and evocative of the period it is set in. The characterisation is superb and despite it being over 800 pages long, it was at no point a chore to read. It's full of amusing situations & events and interesting details. I was expecting the language to be much more archaic than it turned out to be, which is one of the reasons as to why I found it an easy read.I'm definitely going to try to read (at least one) more Dickens now.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was my first exposure to Dickens as an adult. I had recently read Stoker's Dracula which is a good example of the end of Victorian literature. Craving more of this era in literature and knowing that Dickens was the most highly acclaimed author of this period, I decided to read his first novel. It enthralled me. There are most likely tons of little quips and satirical stabs at society in this book that will go over my head because I have not lived through those times......but it was still a hell of a read and I enjoyed every moment. This is one of the oldest books that has ever made me laugh out loud. I will definitely be reading more of Mr. Dickens.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5My first Dickens and a struggle to get into. I'll re-visit when I've developed my reading some more.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was with great sadness that I finished The Pickwick Papers. I enjoyed this book so much, it really was a joy to pick up every day. It made me laugh out loud so many times. I think my poor husband got fed up of me quoting parts of the books all of the time!The characters were wonderful, of course particularly Pickwick and Sam Weller, but the side characters were all well set out as well, and just added to the whole fabulousness of the story. This is a book I know I will turn to again and again and it has made me want to read more Dickens (and classics in general) faster than I am able to!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5delightful.: Dickens's first, and most light-hearted, work. It's an episodic novel, originally published in monthly installments, about the adventures of Mr Pickwick, the wannabe-womaniser Mr Tupman, the poet Mr Snodgrass and Mr Winkle, who have all formed a club, the aim of which is simply to observe life. You can see the influence it had on much later works by the likes of P G Wodehouse, E F Benson etc. There are many funny scenes here, some involving broad slapstick, such as Mr Pickwick being dumped in a wheelbarrow in the village pond! There's even fore-runners of the bedroom farce, as in the episode when Mr Pickwick ends up, (purely by accident you understand), in the bedroom of a middle-aged lady at a hotel in Ipswich. Coming in and out of the story at intervals is the incorrigible chancer Mr Jingle, who makes a living trying to con money out of impressionable women. This also must be where the Dickensian image of Christmas first came from, with the Pickwickians going to spend a traditional Christmas at Dingley Dell. Dickens achieves the feat of creating a light-hearted comedy, which never descends into whimsy. It is a tale of stagecoaches (coming to the end of their natural life, as the railway was beginning to take off when Dickens wrote this), poor people living off oysters, with oyster-stalls along the streets (not then a rich man's delicacy), and vivid details of coaching inns and old London hostelries. It is an engaging tribute to the late Georgian era of Dickens's youth.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Charles Dickens wit and humor is readily made apparent in his novel the Pickwick Papers. In many cases it made me laugh out loud. It was truly an enjoyable and fun read. In particular the hunting adventure and the bag man's tale of a chair tuning into an old man. Throughout the novel there are nine different short stories that are either told by a character passing through or read by Pickwick that seem to have nothing to do with the novel, but these certainly do not detract from the story. In true Dickens style, he does question some of the English Institutions such as the debtors prisons. I did truly admire Mr. Pickwick's sense of values and his sense of what was right and what was wrong. I am also curious as to whether this novel had any influence of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves. This is a long book, but I wouldn't have minded it even if it were a bit longer.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5i think this was the first dickens i'd read and was surprised i enjoyed it so much, went on to read more after that.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5LIght-hearted and delightful.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dickens' first novel, and it shows a little in the beginning, I think. A very slow start. Throughout the novel there is the convention of the author speaking to the reader, commenting on the action. Quite old fashioned.It's a series of anecdotes and tales, loosely linked, but it improves greatly as it progresses. I think Dickens was learning his craft, and getting better at it, as he went along.