9:11 AM
I finally finished Pickwick Papers last night. It was fun but long. I do admire Dickens’ use of language. And his powers of observation are keen. Pickwick was serialized initially. Dickens is clever how he keeps your attention. He does primarily through subplots. The whole story is basically two years in the life of Mr. Pickwick. In that two years, many things happen to him. He is sued and thrown in jail. He assists in many trysts for younger people. And you get to know the marvelous Sam Weller, his manservant and Sam’s father. The Wellers are the most attractive characters in the book to me.
I have another Dickens picked out: Nicholas Nickleby. It is sitting next to my chair. But I plan on finishing “The Trial” by Kafka before starting it.
I am reading the Dickens novels that I have not read in chronological order. Also slowly simultaneously reading Peter Ackroyd’s bio of Dickens. Right now I am past the part of Dickens life where he wrote Pickwick and Nicholas Nickleby. My plan is to pick the bio back up after finishing Nicholas Nickleby and sort of get a background of what was happening to Dickens as he was writing.