The comedy of errors is not my favorite humorous style, but I really enjoyed some of Dickens’ wry side comments: Though there is humor here as well, there’s much more satire over the prison and legal systems, foreshadowing themes that will be developed more fully in Dickens’ future novels. In one section of the book, Pickwick goes to prison rather than pay the damages in a lawsuit. I didn’t see much of Quixote in Pickwick, but Sam’s “street smarts” and worldly wise ways did seem quite similar to Sancho. Their relationship has been likened to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Pickwick finds a man named Sam Weller working at an inn and hires him as a manservant and assistant. Pickwick and thinks he is proposing, and when he doesn’t follow through, she sues him for breach of promise.Ī few chapters in, Mr. A case of mistaken identity leads to the challenge of a duel. A fellow traveler who turns up in some of their locations cons them in various ways. They find themselves right in the middle of opposing forces in a military demonstration. One story is spooky, another a suspenseful tale of revenge, another full of pathos involving a prodigal son.Īnd the men get themselves into various fixes. The men meet many good folks in their travels, and some of those people provide stories that make up some of the chapters. Tupman thinks himself something of a lady’s man, yet gets into all kinds of trouble in his romantic endeavors. Snodgrass is poet but never produces any verse. Winkle is supposed to be a sportsman, yet botches any sportsman-like endeavors. Part of the humor comes from the men’s circumstances not lining up with their reputations. The other Pickwickians are Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass, and Tracy Tupman. He decides he and three fellow club members will travel and report their findings and activities back to the club. Samuel Pickwick is a kindly older gentleman and the head of the club bearing his name. Thus The Pickwick Papers, Dickens’ first novel, was born. Before long the stories surpassed the illustrations in the public interest, and Dickens began asking the artists to come up with sketches for his own work. He didn’t know much about hunting and fishing, but he took up the idea of a men’s club. Charles Dickens was 24 when he was asked to contribute brief anecdotes to go along with some serial illustrations about a club of men falling into comic misadventures hunting and fishing.
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