The Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens.

The Pickwick Papers
Charles Dickens
New York: Oxford University Press. 1837 (1992)

Why read it? The history of the Nimrod Club, the members of which go out shooting, fishing, etc., and get themselves into difficulty because of their lack of dexterity. In short, a club of klutzes. A mixture of wit and wisdom; the introduction of Sam Weller and his widow-hating father. The sheer joy in using language. Simply hilarious.

Some sample ideas from the book: A gentleman was missing; his hat was found, but his head wasn't in it. Hot punch is pleasant especially in a snug parlor before a roaring fire with the wind blowing outside causing every timber in the house to creak. Sam Weller: "Wery good thing is weal pie, when you know the lady as made it, and is quite sure it ain't kittens." The elder Mr. Weller's most unconquerable aversion to widows. Mr. Weller to Sam: "Take example by your father, my boy, and be wery careful o' widders all your life. If ever you're attacked by the gout, marry a widder whose loud voice will make you forget it. Widders are 'ceptions to ev'ry rule."

Sam: "Dumb as a drum with a hole in it." Mr. Weller: "Wen you're a married man, Samival, you'll understand a good many things as you don't understand now; but vether it's worth while goin' through so much to learn so little is a matter of taste; I rather think it isn't." A regular fat man as hadn't caught a glimpse of his own shoes for five-and-forty-year. When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself, but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good for other people. The silence awoke Mr. Justice Starleigh, who immediately wrote down something with a pen without any ink in it, and looked unusually profound, to impress the jury with the belief that he always thought most deeply with his eyes shut.

The body: the lawyer's term for the restless whirling mass of cares and anxieties, affections, hopes and grief, that make up the living man. Comforting reflections: after all perhaps it was well it was no worse; the least said the soonest mended; what was over couldn't be begun; and what couldn't be cured must be endured. His hat rolled down the steps and his body soon followed. Mr. Pickwick rushed between the infuriated combatants just in time to receive the carpet bag on one side of his body and the fire shovel on the other.

Quote. Mr. Pickwick: "I shall never regret having devoted the greater part of two years to mixing with different varieties and shades of human character. If I have done but little good, I trust I have done less harm." "Let us leave our old friend in one of those moments of unmixed happiness, of which there are ever some, to cheer our transitory existence."