Reading Pickwick Papers

PICKWICK PAPERS

An unusual post, I know, but I was privileged to attend Kate Forsyth’s conference, for aspiring writers of historical fiction, in the Cotswolds last September. One of the many valuable suggestions she made was that we read novels that were published in our  historical era. My MS  is set in 1833 and a young Charles Dickens published Pickwick Papers in serial form from 1836 – 1837. While I have now finished my own manuscript, which I thought I had researched fairly comprehensively, I still learnt a lot from reading this novel.

There are the  characters and plots  and language  (eg. an inn called ‘Eatanswill’!) that we immediately recognise as typifying the great master, and while I have thoroughly enjoyed some of his many epic novels, I can’t admit to finding this particular specimen a page-turner. There is no single narrative that threads through it, rather Dickens weaves in a  series of stories. These include caricatures of rascals and villains, a widowed landlady who sues the eponymous protagonist for breach of promise, as well as a couple of delightful ghost stories. I’m sure ‘A Christmas Carol’ was conceived  here.

I read a free copy on my iPad which shows that in total reading time, it took me 24 hours and 31 minutes and it is 994 pages long, so it is a commitment.

Samuel Pickwick is a compassionate, intelligent, chivalrous, retired bachelor which may go some way to explaining his landlady’s, Mrs Bardle, dreams of a marriage proposal.

Sam Weller

 While the retired Mr. Pickwick is no fool, Sam, his devoted servant,  with his ‘streets smarts’, certainly saves the day many times. Sam’s loyalty takes him so far that he has himself imprisoned with Mr Pickwick, whose pride forces him to choose the Fleet over paying the costs of compensating Mrs Bardle for her disappointed hopes and successful lawsuit; her case is argued by Dickens archetypal, rapacious lawyers .

I wanted to share with you some of ‘Samivel’s’ wisdom. He copies the style of his fond father’s proverbs to illustrate his point continually throughout the novel and I soon found myself  eagerly anticipating  them.

i.                     ‘…I only assisted natur, ma’am; as the doctor said to the boy’s mother, after he’d bled him to death.

ii.                   ‘If you know’d who was near, sir, I raythe think you’d change your note; as the hawk remarked to himself with a cheerful laugh, ven he heered the robin-redbreast a –singin’ round the corner.

And I can’t resist this gem from other characters.

iii.                  ‘They appeared in the form of a copious review of a work on Chinese metaphysics, Sir…He CRAMMED for it …in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.’

                  ‘Indeed!’ said Mr Pickwick: ‘I was not aware that that valuable work contained            any              information respecting Chinese metaphysics.’

‘He read for metaphysics under the letter M. and for China under the letter C. and combined his information, Sir.’

or

iv.                  ‘I have heard of a Glasgow man and a Dundee man drinking against each other for fifteen hours at a sitting. They were both suffocated at the same moment, but with this trifling exception, they were not a bit the worse for it.’

 It was good advice, Kate!  

In my novel I changed ‘my weapon of choice’ for my highwaymen from ‘flintlocks’ to ‘blunderbusses’ as further research revealed they were more commonly used by thieves. I am toying with the notion of changing ‘butt’ - as in the butt of a rifle - to ‘stock’ but I’m still considering this change. 

I was surprised to learn that Mr Pickwick changes his carriage horses after only nineteen miles into his journey. Dickens' used many clichés that I now know where popular in this era, he described sword fights and fisticuffs and wedding ceremonies and I am certainly better informed about the name of the liquor consumed in that era.