Book review: the pickwick papers, by charles dickens

Proposal for Cooperation

In 1834, the book publishers Chapman and Hall turned to Dickens, then a little-known author of small essays and notes at the Morning Chronicles and Old Monthly Magazine. According to their idea, Dickens was to compose a text for a series of humorous drawings of the then-popular cartoonist R. Seymour. The drawings should have depicted the funny and dangerous adventures of members of the fictional "Club of Nimrod". Clumsy urban gentlemen would always be trapped in hunting and fishing, and Dickens would compose small texts linking different scenes of these stories.
After some reflection Dickens refused. Later, he explained this decision by the lack of any knowledge in the field of sports. In addition, he believed that it would be much more natural to make drawings to the finished text, than vice versa. In return, Dickens suggested that Hall and Chapman write something about the members of the hunting club, but shown against the background of all the diversity of the daily life of England, and Seymour would accompany the narration by his masterful caricatures. Soon Dickens came up with one of the most amusing characters in world literature – the good-natured fat man Mr. Pickwick, the founder and chairman of the Pickwick Club, the club of travelers-explorers.

The Dark Side of Fame

Unfortunately, the world-famous Pickwick also delivered his creator many unpleasant minutes. The fact is that the widow of the untimely deceased Seymour seriously claimed that all the merit in the creation of Pickwick belongs to her husband. Her arguments were not very convincing, but Dickens, who was always very sensitive to any accusations, gave so much time and effort to refute them that involuntarily added these arguments a meaning they did not deserve. Of course, no one doubts the authorship of the "Notes of the Pickwick Club," but any researcher of Dickens's creativity cannot help paying attention to this unpleasant subject.

Analysis of the Plot

The Pickwick Club is an association that includes the Correspondent Society, members of which are traveling around the counties adjacent to London: Samuel Pickwick, Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, Nathaniel Winkle. Taking on the responsibility of informing the club about their research, observations of people and mores, recreating pictures of local life or thoughts awakened by them, the members of the Club give the author abundant material for the comic-marked outline of the everyday life, in the midst of which eccentric adventures unfold characters.¹