One of the sections on my Classics Club Challenge list is called "Intimidating Novels." The ten titles in that section are all books that I am interested in reading, but apprehensive about in some way. Some of the selections, like War and Peace and Les Misѐrables, are there because of length. Others, like Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow are there because I fear that I won't understand them. Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers is there for a less respectable reason. It's there because I was afraid it would be unbearably boring.
The obvious question one would ask in response to this is, "Why put the book on there at all then?" The answer is my tendency to overdo things. It's not enough that I enjoy Charles Dickens and have read several of his books. I feel a nonsensical urge to read ALL of his books, even the ones that don't sound all that interesting to me. The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel, and it's basically a take on Don Quixote (because I didn't get enough of Don Quixote this year). It doesn't have a real plot, it features a group old men wandering around and getting into scrapes, and it's full of nineteenth century humor, much of which I was guaranteed to not understand. It's also 756 pages long. All of these factors made me feel less than excited about reading it, so it went into my "intimidating" category and I didn't think about it much until now, when it was time to actually pick it up and give it a try. It ended up being quite the experience.
The Pickwick Papers is set up to be the recorded adventures of four gentlemen from the Pickwick Club, a social group based in London. Their mission is to travel around the English countryside, observe interesting people and places, and report their findings back to the rest of the club. Leading this group of adventurers is the venerable Samuel Pickwick, general chairman and all-around nice guy. Mr. Pickwick is beloved by everyone who knows him, is knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics, and is considered to be a very fine gentleman indeed. He is joined on his journey by his three good friends, Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle. His buddies aren't quite as accomplished or respected as he is, but they each have their areas of expertise. Mr. Tupman is a romantic and sentimental man, prone to falling in and out of love with alarmingly unavailable women, Mr. Snodgrass is the poet of the group, despite not having written anything of note yet, and Mr. Winkle is their authority on all things athletic, even though he has never actually participated in a sport.
As the story begins, the group sets out on their first jaunt and immediately run into all manner of ridiculous situations. Mistaken identities, hilarious misunderstandings, and run ins with despicable villains characterize their travels as they go from place to place. The characters all take turns getting into scrapes and wiggling out of them again. Occasionally, they run into strangers that tell them an entertaining story, and these random little tales are also sprinkled throughout the text. Around page 165, Mr. Pickwick hires a young man named Samuel Weller to be his servant, and his Sancho Panza-like antics further add to the fun. There are too many different adventures to give a summary of each, but my favorites were definitely the episodes in which Mr. Winkle was called upon to display any form of athletic ability. He simply cannot do anything he is called to do. He tries to ice skate and immediately falls. He tries to ride a horse and immediately loses control of it. He tries to hunt and immediately shoots his friend. The poor man can't even walk and carry a rifle at the same time without putting everyone around him in imminent danger. Those parts were genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. Also funny were the sections featuring Joe, a servant boy characterized entirely by his prodigious weight, gluttonous eating habits, and propensity to fall asleep at every opportunity.
As I mentioned previously, The Pickwick Papers was Dickens' first novel and it was a hugely successful endeavor for him. It became wildly popular almost immediately and catapulted him to literary fame. It was originally published serially in nineteen little volumes over the course of twenty months. The adventures in each volume are episodic in nature and only loosely connected to each other. There isn't one overarching narrative to follow, just a lot of little, funny stories to enjoy. When the text was first published as a single novel, Dickens himself wrote an introduction explaining that the story was originally meant to be enjoyed in pieces, and acknowledging that the connections between the different episodes weren't particularly strong.
He was right to include this note, because it helps put this novel in the proper context for readers. Without knowing about the original format of the story and the reason for the lack of flow across the sections, The Pickwick Papers would be an incredibly frustrating reading experience. As it was, this felt extremely long and repetitive. Reading one silly episode after another for over 750 pages was difficult. By the time I got around halfway through, I felt like I would be reading this book forever. To make matters worse, some of the episodes relied on topical humor of the Victorian period, which I obviously couldn't fully understand. I went into my reading concerned that this would be boring, and a lot of it really was.
That's not to say things were all bad though. Many of the chapters were genuinely funny, and almost all of the characters were distinctive and lovable. It was interesting to see the start of Dickens' writing career too. The beginnings of his characteristic humor and style were plainly visible throughout the pages. I liked much of what I read, there was just an awful lot of it--too much to read straight through and continually stay engaged with. It would be much better to read this in chunks, in imitation of the way it originally was published.
As this is a comic novel, there aren't too many themes to dive into in this review. Of course, Dickens comments on several issues of the day through his jokes, and he lampoons the court system, lawyers, religion, and politics throughout the story. The sections about debtor's prisons in particular contain the saddest scenes in the book. It's clear that Dickens considered these places cruel. Most of his social commentary isn't too serious or deep though, and the tone remains light and silly for most of the book. The primary purpose of the work is entertainment, and it generally stays in its lane.
When I have preconceived notions about a book, I usually find out that I was wrong when I actually read it. In this case, however, my instincts were correct. The Pickwick Papers is a difficult read. It is not too hard to understand, but it is very, very long and its repetitive structure makes it pretty boring for a modern audience. As a fan of Charles Dickens, however, I'm glad that I got through it. The slow parts weren't fun, but it was worth struggling through them to experience the first work of one of my favorite authors. Plus, I can cross one of the most difficult remaining classics off my list, so, all in all, I'm counting this one as a success.
Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#63 on my list): 61/100
Total Books Read in 2019: 79
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