Rashmi bookmarks “The Pickwick Papers”

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. Led by Samuel Pickwick, Esquire, the ‘founder and perpetual president’ of the Pickwick Club, it is the story of the adventures of the founder and three other “Pickwickians” - Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, Mr. Augustus Snodgrass and Mr. Tracy Tupman - as they journey from London to remote places and report back to the other members of the club.

That theme automatically makes for an interesting story of course, but for me, the most fascinating feature of this book was the brilliant level of writing, interwoven as it was, with sparkling wit and humour! And as I was reading this book, I realized, this is the kind of work that great eras in literature are defined by.

Let me try and pick one example to illustrate the brilliance of this book -
“There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress or meets with so little charitable commiseration as when he is in pursuit of his own hat. A vast deal of coolness and a peculiar degree of judgement are requisite in catching a hat. A man must not be precipitate, or he runs over it; he must not rush into the opposite extreme, or he loses it altogether. The best way is to keep gently up with the object of pursuit, to be wary and cautious, to watch your opportunity well, get gradually before it, then make a rapid dive, seize it by the crown, and stick it firmly on your head - smiling pleasantly all the time, as if you thought it as good a joke as anybody else.”

Even the chapter headings make for fantastic reading! -
Chapter 7. How Mr. Winkle, instead of shooting at the pigeon and killing the crow, shot at the crow and wounded the pigeon; how the Dingley Dell cricket club played All-Muggleton; and how All-Muggleton dined at the Dingley Dell expense - with other interesting and instructive matters.
Chapter 45. Descriptive of an affecting interview between Mr. Samuel Weller and a family party. Mr. Pickwick makes a tour of the diminutive world he inhabits, and resolves to mix with it, in future, as little as possible.

I also really liked the characters; they come so brilliantly alive on the pages! And I don’t feel a special bond because “I have met people like that and therefore can identify with them” - as is usually the case with some of the better examples of character sketches in stories - but just because they are so very well drawn out! Other than the main characters of Winkle, the sportsman, Snodgrass, the poet, and Tupman, the self-confessed romantic lover, I was truly impressed by the memorable Alfred Jingle - part actor, part embezzler, who adds a whole new level of story-telling to this story with his endless and extravagant anecdotes! Absolutely fantastic!

This was the second time I read this book - the last time I had read it from start to finish; this time I read selective chapters, just slowly letting the brilliance of Charles Dickens’ writing sink in. This is the kind of book I would recommend you own; so that you could - every so often - read one chapter / one adventure per sitting, and just bask in the warmth of the wit and wisdom of one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time.