That's what you can not take away from Dickens, it's the ability to come up with titles. In fact, the word "posthumous" already suggests something tragic, gloomy, irrevocable. So I imagine ghosts and moaning in the corners and crevices of some abandoned club, which necessarily stands on a steep precipice of some impregnable mountain... so the Gothic is imagined, yes. It does, but there's no way around it. So, if you want mystery and dreadful suspense, this is not the place.
Here the main character, Mr. Pickwick, who "has a considerable and independent fortune", though not so considerable as to afford his own lodging, which forces him to rent rooms from a certain widow, which leads in the end to disastrous results, so Mr. Pickwick, having retired from business, decided to devote the rest of his allotted time to various entertaining walks with an informative purpose. And so, filled with curiosity, this worthy man directs his footsteps from one side of England to the other, so that the author can more easily describe the manners and customs of the different classes of the population and touch all aspects of the life and pastime of that population.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
The Honourable Gentleman drags other Honourable Gentlemen with him everywhere, whose presence in the narrative serves only to touch upon the romantic line in passing, except perhaps that of Mr. Winkle, who most often appears in all sorts of absurd situations. For the most part, however, these gentlemen are necessary for entourage and probably to justify the title of the book, for all these men are, as it were, members of the Pickwick Club.
The name of the Pickwick Club comes from its founder, who, as you can easily guess, is unusual in every sense. His strangeness is partly due to the fact that he belongs neither to the category of "predators" nor to that of "victims". He does not want to behave like the first because of his good disposition and good upbringing, and his solid fortune prevents him from becoming the latter. What's more, here's a quote belonging to his servant:
"I have never heard, mind you, nor read in books, nor seen in pictures any angel in short pants and gaiters-and, as far as I remember, none with glasses, though there may be such, but-notice my words, Job Trotter: despite all this, he is a thoroughbred angel, and let anyone dare tell me he knows another such angel!"
The idea of Mr. Pickwick's exceptionalism is cultivated by the author throughout the narrative. And though this gentleman is characterized by anger and irritability, he likes to add a bottle of good wine, and sometimes expresses too hasty judgments on this or that question without having understood it completely, in general he is a very pleasant and generous man, always ready to give a helping hand to an acquaintance who is in a difficult situation... and not an acquaintance too. In fact, it was these qualities that gave rise to the notion of "pickwickism," which means an active interest in life and unselfish benevolence toward people.
At first, all fairly innocent. Ridiculous situations, silly situations... but closer to the end of the book all this develops into sharp social sketches, in which the author with irony, sarcasm and bitter humor, which, incidentally, quite life-affirming, describes the evils of modern society. Judge for yourself - careless walks of the company in the beginning of the book, which can be described as a situation comedy, by the end of the book is replaced by a description of everyday life and the inhabitants of Fleet debtor's prison.
There is no depth of character here, and I don't think it was the author's aim to create deep characters. His aim was to construct a line of characters, and he did so by creating a whole series of sketches of capital and provincial inhabitants. It is, of course, a satire, and as usual, each of the characters he has drawn highlights one character trait, and each situation is focused on one side of the issue the author is describing. Perhaps it can be said that the sympathy of the author for his servant Sam is greater than even for Mr. Pickwick himself. In general, the descriptions of ordinary working people are not sarcastic and one can feel the author's sympathetic attitude to this category of the English population.
I can not help but say a few words about the themes raised by the author. Here, the main thing is to be able to keep yourself in hand, so as not to rewrite the entire book quotes.
Let us say elections. This is just a guide for politicians of all stripes. And we can state the fact that nothing changes in our lives.
"The speeches of both candidates, though different from one another in every other respect, paid a flowery tribute to the merits and high merits of the Itenswill voters. Each expressed the conviction that more independent, more enlightened, more fervent in public affairs, more noble-minded, more incorruptible than those who promised to vote for him, the world had not yet seen; each vaguely expressed his suspicions that voters acting in his opposite interests had animal weaknesses and a stupefied head, depriving them of the most important duties entrusted to them. Fizkin expressed a willingness to do whatever he was asked to do; Slamkee expressed a firm determination to do nothing, no matter what was asked of him. Both spoke of trade, industry, commerce, and the prosperity of Itenswill as being nearer to their hearts than anything else in the world; and each was in a position to assert with full confidence that he was the one to be elected.
Quite a lot of space is given to women in general ...
"Who does he mean by the weaker sex, Sammy? - Mr. Weller asked in a whisper.
- Women," said Sam, also in a whisper.
- He's not wrong about that," Mr. Weller said. - They must be the weaker sex indeed, the very weaker sex, if they let themselves be fooled by young men like that.
... and women's hysteria in particular )
"The only answer was a new explosion of sobs, and Mrs. Pott, with increasing hysteria, began demanding to be told why she was born into the world, and to be given a range of information of the same kind.
And about family relations, of course
"Mr. Pott's family circle was limited to himself and his wife. All who have been elevated to great heights by powerful genius usually have some little weakness incompatible with the basic traits of their character and all the more remarkable. If Mr. Pott had any weakness, perhaps it consisted in the fact that he was perhaps too subject to the influence of his wife, who, not without disdain, dominated him."
"-I am leaving you, Samivel, my son, and it is not known when I shall see you again. Your stepmother may be beyond me, or little else may happen by the time you hear of the famous Mr. Weller of The Beautiful Savage again. The honor of our family depends a great deal on you, Samivel, and I hope you won't lose face. I know that I can rely on you for all the little things about good breeding. So I have only one little piece of advice to give you: if you ever get over fifty and feel inclined to marry anybody-no matter whom-you lock yourself in your room, if you have one, and poison yourself. Hanging yourself is a vulgar thing, so don't do it. Poison yourself, Samivel, my boy, poison yourself, and you will not regret it afterwards!"
And also about all kinds of twists and turns awaiting the mere mortal who sloppily gets caught in the clutches of the judicial system. By the way, it was the chapters on this topic that was the hardest to read. I was confused by this system.
"The silence awakened Judge Steirley, who immediately wrote something down with a quill without dipping it in ink, and adopted an unusually concentrated look to inspire confidence in the jury that he was always thinking particularly deeply when his eyes were closed.
And that's not all. My brightest impressions were of the chapters in which the piquiquiquist friends are visiting the countryside. I laughed out loud at the hunting scenes and melted at the Christmas stories told by the villagers. By the way, in addition to the linear narrative, there are deviations like this in the form of stories about existing, or fictional characters, by resorting to which the author reveals another theme or points out the imperfections of this world.
With the rather impressive number of topics raised, it can be said that the volume mostly consists of the most detailed descriptions of the minutest details of the subject the author focuses on. Whether it concerns the high society of Bath, or the pursuit of a runaway relative, or the judicial system, or journalism, all-everything is painted to the smallest detail. Perhaps that's why there's no impression of piling one on top of the other. Between events, no matter how many there are, enough time passes for each one to be properly imprinted in the reader's brain.
At the same time, you know, it keeps pulling you into a dream. After a chapter and a half, my eyes would close by themselves, no matter how awake I felt before reading. And the language, most importantly, interesting, and read fast enough, the chapters, however, large, but here pulls to sleep, and that's it. Oshchem, in a month and a half of reading I think I finally got some sleep. This probably happens because of the perception change from the modern frantic rhythm, to a leisurely and thorough rhythm of the 19th century, when people had time to stop and think, and talk to each other on various interesting topics. And it's useful, I think, to switch it up from time to time.
The humor, of course, is inimitable. My favorite, English, of the highest caliber and the best quality. I had a lot of fun, intriguing the housemates chuckling, and at the same time to read out the funny part is impossible at all, because everything is so woven into the fabric of the narrative, so one to another connected that the explanation of a funny moment could take exactly the same time as it takes to retell the good half of the book.
It is not a quick read. It's a very slow read. But because of that, the immersion in the atmosphere of the book is complete. If you dare to read, then stock up patience, plan for this one or two months of leisurely evenings, so that after the righteous deeds, after reading one or two chapters to sleep a good solid sleep, "breathing" good old England, which, incidentally, is not so good in the closer examination.
P.S.: And no one died. Not even at the end. . Of the main characters. And a lot of secondary characters died, yes. Life is like that.
This article was sponsored by Svetlana Strokova
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