Name : Sujatha S.

Nair
Roll No: 335
Subject: Fiction Paper

CHARLES DICKENS
PICKWICK PAPERS
 AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory

when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite
his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20
years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories
and non-fiction articles, lectured and
performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter
writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights,
education, and other social reforms.
 INTRODUCTION

 Pickwick Papers is one of the most popular novels of all time. Since its first
publication in serial form in 1836 it has enjoyed an immense success. It
inspired Pickwick products, literary imitations and plagiarisms, and state
adaptations. Most "smash hits" are quickly forgotten, but this novel is still read
for enjoyment by general readers. Moreover, in England today there are men
who retrace the imaginary travels of the Pickwickians, as if to recreate the
world of the novel. The reasons for its universal popularity are not hard to find.
The novel is funny, easy to read, rich in characterization, humane and Christian
in its values, lively and continuously entertaining — in short, a thorough
delight. Pickwick Papers is a publisher's dream: the perennial best-seller.
 From a sociological standpoint, however, the novel has a serious
deficiency. If politics and elections are treated scornfully as a
species of nonsense that is useless for effecting good, how is the
evil of a debtors' prison to be eliminated? By implication Dickens
places hope of society's redemption in the private hands of
philanthropists like Mr. Pickwick, rather than in institutions. But
personal benevolence is totally impotent against bad institutions:
Mr. Pickwick can do little to alleviate the misery of the Fleet.
Dickens obviously feels that debtors' prisons should be done away
with, but he burnt his bridges behind him in showing political
action to be futile.
 .
 If Pickwick Papers is a literary triumph,
it is also something of a social triumph.
Although there had been movements for
reforming and abolishing debtors'
prisons long before Dickens wrote this
book, he helped give the movement the
force of public opinion. He was assisted
by a gentleman named Samuel
Pickwick.Within about two decades,
debtors' prisons no longer existed in
London.
BACKGROUND TOPIC

 Realism, in the arts, the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction

of nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative
idealization in favour of a close observation of outward
appearances. As such, realism in its broad sense has comprised many
artistic currents in different civilizations. In the visual arts, for
example, realism can be found in ancient Hellenistic Greek
sculptures accurately portraying boxers and decrepit old women.

 Realism was not consciously adopted as an aesthetic program until the mid-19th
century in France, however. Indeed, realism may be viewed as a major trend in
French novels and paintings between 1850 and 1880.
 The French proponents of realism were agreed in their rejection
of the artificiality of both the Classicism and Romanticism of the
academies and on the necessity for contemporaneity in an
effective work of art. They attempted to portray the lives,
appearances, problems, customs, and mores of the middle and
lower classes, of the unexceptional, the ordinary, the humble, and
the unadorned. Indeed, they conscientiously set themselves to
reproducing all the hitherto-ignored aspects of contemporary life
and society—its mental attitudes, physical settings, and material
conditions.
 SUMMARY OF ‘PICK WICK PAPERS”
In May 1827, the Pickwick Club of London, headed by Samuel Pickwick, decides
to establish a traveling society in which four members journey about England and
make reports on their travels. The four members are Mr. Pickwick, a kindly
retired businessman and philosopher whose thoughts never rise above the
commonplace; Tracy Tupman, a ladies' man who never makes a conquest;
Augustus Snodgrass, a poet who never writes a poem; and Nathaniel Winkle, a
sportsman of tremendous ineptitude.
The Pickwickians meet to begin their first journey and get knocked about by an
angry cabman, who thinks they are informers, while an angry crowd gathers. They
are rescued by Alfred Jingle, who travels with them to Rochester. Jingle is an
adventurer interested in wealthy women, and on this first trip he involves the
innocent Winkle in a duel with Dr. Slammer, a hot-tempered army man.
In London Mr. Pickwick comes across Sam Weller, a boot cleaner
and general handyman whom he takes on as a valet. Sam is a
cockney man of the world: witty, intelligent, handy with his fists.
When Mr. Pickwick tells his widowed landlady, Mrs. Bardell, that he
has taken on a servant, she assumes from the ambiguous way he puts
it that he intends to marry her. Mrs. Bardell faints in his arms just as
Tupman, Snodgrass, and Winkle enter — a compromising
circumstance.
Sam Weller's father, Tony, a coachman who had the misfortune to
marry a widow, provides a running commentary through the novel
on the dangers of matrimony. Tony's wife has taken up with a
hypocritical, alcoholic evangelist and makes life miserable for her
husband until her death. Both Tony Weller and Mr. Pickwick are
prey for widows, because Mrs. Bardell soon starts a breach-of-
promise suit against Mr. Pickwick.
In London, Mr. Pickwick learns that Jingle is in Ipswich and goes
there to expose him. Because of a mix-up in bedrooms at an
Ipswich Inn Mr. Pickwick is hauled before the justice, a local
henpecked tyrant called Mr. Nupkins. Nupkins is visited frequently
by Jingle, who is interested in the daughter. Mr. Pickwick
extricates himself by proving that Jingle is an adventurer.
Eventually the Pickwickians return to the Wardle farm to celebrate
Christmas and the wedding of Mr. Wardle's daughter, Isabella.
Amid festivities Snodgrass continues his romance with Emily, and
Winkle falls in love with Arabella Allen, a friend of Mr. Wardle's
daughters.
On Valentine's Day, 1831, Mr. Pickwick is tried for breach of
promise. Due to the rhetorical allegations of Serjeant Buzfuz and
to the circumstantial evidence, Mr. Pickwick is found guilty and
ordered to pay damages, which he refuses to do.
 Back in London Mr. Pickwick pays Dodson and Fogg, sends
Jingle and his servant to the West Indies to begin afresh, and
learns that Emily Wardle is planning to elope with Snodgrass.
Mr. Pickwick convinces Mr. Wardle that Snodgrass is a
worthy gentleman, and the couple are married in Mr.
Pickwick's newly purchased home. In the meantime Sam
Weller has been courting a pretty housemaid named Mary,
and under Mr. Pickwick's auspices they are married. And,
though the London Pickwick Club has been dissolved,
Samuel Pickwick lives to be godfather to many children.
 ANALYSIS
 Pickwick Papers is one of the most
popular novels of all time. Since its
first publication in serial form in 1836
it has enjoyed an immense success. It
inspired Pickwick products, literary
imitations and plagiarisms, and state
adaptations. Most "smash hits" are
quickly forgotten, but this novel is still
read for enjoyment by general readers.
Moreover, in England today there are
men who retrace the imaginary travels
of the Pickwickians, as if to recreate
the world of the novel.
From a sociological standpoint, however, the novel has a serious deficiency. If politics and elections are
treated scornfully as a species of nonsense that is useless for effecting good, how is the evil of a
debtors' prison to be eliminated? By implication Dickens places hope of society's redemption in the
private hands of philanthropists like Mr. Pickwick, rather than in institutions. But personal
benevolence is totally impotent against bad institutions: Mr. Pickwick can do little to alleviate the
misery of the Fleet. Dickens obviously feels that debtors' prisons should be done away with, but he
burnt his bridges behind him in showing political action to be futile.
But Dickens was not a sociologist or a political economist. As a novelist he was much more effective in
calling attention to social problems — like debtors' prisons — than he would have been in proposing
solutions. He had the power to make his readers visualize Fleet Prison, which was much more
effective in the cause of reform than any number of tracts. A novelist can muster the tides of public
opinion, which Dickens knew better than any of his critics. He can arrange his fiction so that it
produces indignation. Dickens was a reformer not by virtue of his intellectual ability but by virtue of
the spell he cast over his readers, making them feel certain injustices as if they were their own.
If Pickwick Papers is a literary triumph, it is also something of a social triumph. Although there had been
movements for reforming and abolishing debtors' prisons long before Dickens wrote this book, he helped give the
movement the force of public opinion. He was assisted by a gentleman named Samuel Pickwick.Within about two
decades, debtors' prisons no longer existed in London.
 Conclusion

The Pickwick Papers is a series of linear adventures, unlike the convoluted

plots of Dickens's later novels. In other words, we follow our heroes from one
stop to the next and meet interesting characters, rather than unraveling a
mystery.The novel is a late example of the picarequese, a style of story
in which we follow a rough, but still likable, hero through his
adventures.The hero of The Pickwick Papers is Sam Weller,
though Sam isn't always the focus of the narrative.