I learned while reading this that this was Dickens’s first full book, although it had been produced as most of his books as a serial being published in periodicals. What I also realized with this book is that while writing very amusing characters with amusing lines, Dickens was clearly paid by the word. I also think that in writing in serial format, he needed to both tell the overall story of Pickwick and his friends’ adventures, but also provide smaller stories they could be begun and completed in each week’s piece. For this reason - and the fact that I have also read that Dickens did not have an overall arc of the book when he began - the real story (the arc of the dtory) was difficult to understand and piece together.

It really did go on too long, and comic novels are not my most preferred taste, but I have to admit to being more than a little sentimental when it was all over--an admission that will not surprise any of those who know me best.

English Review below.

كان هذا مملًا ومتكررًا إلى أقصى الحدود. لن أحكم على ديكنز من هذا الكتاب ، لكن هذا كان كتابًا مملًا. إنها رواية ديكنز الأولى وهي تتبع بعض الرجال الإنجليز في مشكلاتهم ورحلاتهم في أنحاء البلاد ، وهم يفعلون شيئًا لم أستطع فهمه. بدأت كرحلة لكتابة كتاب أو شيء ما (بصراحة لا أتذكر) ، وهم يجيدون عن هذا الهدف طوال الوقت لأنه في كل فصل يتورط أحدهم في مشكلة جديدة.

نُشرت الرواية في شكل حلقات في جريدة أول ما صدرت، لذلك ربما كان هذا هو سبب كونها مملة وتكرارية ومليئة بالمط المبالغ لهذه الدرجة، لكنني قرأت أعمالًا متسلسلة أخرى ولم تكن بهذا السوء. قد ألوم الترجمة أيضًا ، فقد كانت سيئة جدا للأسف. على أي حال، أعتقد أنني أعرف يقينًا من فاز في الجولة الأولى من ديكنز ضد تولستوي.

This was boring and repetitive to the max. I'm not judging Dickens by this book, but this was such a boring book. It's Dickens' first novel and it follows some English men on their shenanigans and their travels around the country, doing something I couldn't understand. It started off as a journey to write a book or something (I honestly don't remember), and they veer off that goal all the time because at every chapter one of them gets entangled in a new trouble.

It was serialised, so that's maybe it was the way it was, but I've read other serialised works and they weren't this horrible. I might also blame the translation, it was horrible. All in all, I think who won in the first round of Dickens vs Tolstoy.

"LOS PICKWICKIANOS
El primer rayo de luz que ilumina la tiniebla y convierte en fulgor deslumbrante esa oscuridad en que parecen envolverse los comienzos de la historia de la vida pública del inmortal Pickwick surge al leer las siguientes anotaciones en las « Actas del Club Pickwick », que el editor de estos escritos siente el más alto placer en presentar ante sus lectores , como prueba de la cuidadosa atención, infatigable asiduidad y elegante discriminación con que se ha desarrollado su investigación entre los diversos papeles a él confiados."

Los papeles póstumos del club Pickwick, 1837
Charles Dickens
Traducción de José María Valverde
@penguinclasicos

La primera novela de Charles Dickens se publicó por entregas entre abril de 1836 y noviembre de 1837, convirtiendo cada entrega en un acontecimiento literario.

La hemos leído, comentado y disfrutado en la LC organizada por Vi @teconlibros para #técondickens, siguiendo el esquema original y respetando las entregas, aderezado todo con un montón de información extra, ilustraciones y curiosidades

The 3-stars are only relative to Dickens’ later work - PP is hysterical and smart but being his first “novel” it obviously has its flaws. There isn’t any all-encompassing plot as these are really a loosely connected series of the eponymous gentleman’s adventures and it follows that it doesn’t pack the same scathing punch as Our Mutual Friend or Bleak House. That said, it’s very enjoyable and I couldn’t write something like this at age 24 myself. The horror, the horror.

I didn't finish the book. I tried so hard to get through every chapter. The writing style annoyed me greatly despite the story and characters being so compelling. I truly wish a modern author would rewrite all of Dickens' work so that it were more approachable.