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Product Description
Penguin Classics give you the best possible editions of Charles Dickens's novels, including all the original illustrations, useful and informative introductions, the definitive, accurate text as it was meant to be published, a chronology of Dickens's life and notes that fill in the background to the book. This Penguin Classics edition of The Pickwick Papers also includes a map of the Pickwickians' tours.
Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers - a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtors' prison, characters and incidents spring to life from Dickens's pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour and literary invention.
The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterclass in comedy and cure for the blues,
This review is from: The Pickwick Papers: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
The Pickwick Papers was my first real encounter with a Charles Dickens novel. Before I started reading this epic comedy, my only experience of Dickens was having read the seasonal Christmas Books (mini-masterpieces in themselves)and seen the various cinematic adaptations that we are all bought up on. I will confess at this point that I had already seen Noel Langley's 1952 film version of the book, which I deem to be one of the most hilarious films i've ever had the pleasure of seeing, and so I was a bit biased when I started reading.However, from the first chapter I was hooked and can safely say that the novel surpassed any expectations the film had given me. Never before have I encountered a piece of literature that has made me laugh so much. The novel depicts the adventures of Mr Pickwick and his friends as they travel the country in order to observe human nature. Beyond this, there is only the faintest notion of a plot but this is the intention of the author due to the monthly form in which the book was published. The novel pretends to be nothing more than it is. And what the novel IS, is jolly good fun. It does not take itself seriously and spans all kinds of humour, ranging from the verbal kind to memorable scenes of slapstick.This is the book by which all other comedies, be they written or cinematic, should be judged! Each new situation is unique and virtually all the characters, be they major ones or minor, are so vividly drawn that they remain with the reader a long while after the novel ends. Each of them from Mr Pickwick to Dodson and Fog are distinct, and what is even more wonderful is that the reader can laugh both at, and with, the characters. In my view, The Pickwickians and Sam Weller became like good friends, whom I knew I could have a good time with, and indeed I felt surprisingly sad at having to leave them at the end of the book. Also, The Pickwick Papers is a must for anyone interested in the later works of Charles Dickens, since it contains important precursors to themes which he was to focus on in his following novels. The Christmas chapter, for example, which contains a story that appears to be an early version of A Christmas Carol, and the references to the poor and destitute who are depicted through tales told by the characters. On the whole though this novel is an uplifting read, with plenty of loveable and more importantly realistic characters, that encompasses all areas of human life, from politics to relationships, from sport to the media. A sheer comic masterpiece to raise a smile, no matter how low the reader maybe feeling.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
print size,
By Mme Coussin (France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Pickwick Papers (Everyman's Library classics) (Paperback)
Love the book,definitely my favourite Dicken's but isn't there away of indicating print size to avoid problems and pointless purchases for us older readers?
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ode to Dickens,
By A Customer
This review is from: Pickwick Papers (Penguin Popular Classics) (Paperback)
...Dickens' first novel is a comic masterpiece; his reading public hoped in vain that he would continue to produce humorous novels, and although his subsequent works have humorous (generally satirical) elements, they all fundamentally bear a much heavier, serious message. This is simply an enjoyable romp. "Ode to an expiring frog" is genius.
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