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The Pickwick Papers

Charles Dickens

About 19 hr 47 min Total reading time at 250 WPM

Samuel Pickwick leaves London with three friends, a notebook, and an impressive confidence in his ability to understand the world. Their travels through England give Dickens a comic novel full of coach journeys, inn suppers, and conversations worth missing the coach for. Pickwick takes his investigations seriously: when a cabman tells him his horse is forty-two years old and has to be held upright by the cab, he writes it all down. He means to share this remarkable discovery with his club. The driver, meanwhile, is beginning to wonder why his passenger is taking notes.

At the White Hart, Sam Weller has eleven pairs of boots and a single shoe to attend to, and sees no reason why an impatient guest should come first. When the landlady demands to know why Sam has not answered her, he explains that it would be impolite to answer before she has finished talking. His replies make an ordinary inn yard somewhere you want to linger; even an order to get on with his work gives him something to say.

Dickens makes room for these encounters to stretch out, for another drink or a story from someone at the table. The book suits a reader happy to settle into that sociable pace. Pickwick can be pompous and wonderfully gullible, but his eagerness to meet people is catching. You begin to share his expectation that the next stranger will be worth hearing.

  1. Chapter 1 The Pickwickians About 7 min
  2. Chapter 2 The First Day’s Journey, and the First Evening’s Adventures; With Their Consequences About 38 min
  3. Chapter 3 A New Acquaintance—The Stroller’s Tale—A Disagreeable Interruption, and an Unpleasant Encounter About 19 min
  4. Chapter 4 A Field Day and Bivouac—More New Friends—An Invitation to the Country About 19 min
  5. Chapter 5 A Short One—Showing, Among Other Matters, How Mr. Pickwick Undertook to Drive, and Mr. Winkle to Ride, and How They Both Did It About 15 min
  6. Chapter 6 An Old-Fashioned Card-Party—The Clergyman’s Verses—The Story of the Convict’s Return About 24 min
  7. Chapter 7 How Mr. Winkle, Instead of Shooting at the Pigeon and Killing the Crow, Shot at the Crow and Wounded the Pigeon; How the Dingley Dell Cricket Club Played All-Muggleton, and How All-Muggleton Dined at the Dingley Dell Expense; With Other Interesting and Instructive Matters About 21 min
  8. Chapter 8 Strongly Illustrative of the Position, That the Course of True Love Is Not a Railway About 18 min
  9. Chapter 9 A Discovery and a Chase About 13 min
  10. Chapter 10 Clearing Up All Doubts (If Any Existed) of the Disinterestedness of Mr. A. Jingle’s Character About 21 min
  11. Chapter 11 Involving Another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery; Recording Mr. Pickwick’s Determination to Be Present at an Election; And Containing a Manuscript of the Old Clergyman’s About 29 min
  12. Chapter 12 Descriptive of a Very Important Proceeding on the Part of Mr. Pickwick; No Less an Epoch in His Life, than in This History About 9 min
  13. Chapter 13 Some Account of Eatanswill; Of the State of Parties Therein; And of the Election of a Member to Serve in Parliament for That Ancient, Loyal, and Patriotic Borough About 28 min
  14. Chapter 14 Comprising a Brief Description of the Company at the Peacock Assembled; And a Tale Told by a Bagman About 27 min
  15. Chapter 15 In Which Is Given a Faithful Portraiture of Two Distinguished Persons; And an Accurate Description of a Public Breakfast in Their House and Grounds: Which Public Breakfast Leads to the Recognition of an Old Acquaintance, and the Commencement of Another Chapter About 20 min
  16. Chapter 16 Too Full of Adventure to Be Briefly Described About 29 min
  17. Chapter 17 Showing That an Attack of Rheumatism, in Some Cases, Acts as a Quickener to Inventive Genius About 15 min
  18. Chapter 18 Briefly Illustrative of Two Points; First, the Power of Hysterics, and, Secondly, the Force of Circumstances About 15 min
  19. Chapter 19 A Pleasant Day with an Unpleasant Termination About 21 min
  20. Chapter 20 Showing How Dodson and Fogg Were Men of Business, and Their Clerks Men of Pleasure; And How an Affecting Interview Took Place between Mr. Weller and His Long-Lost Parent; Showing Also What Choice Spirits Assembled at the Magpie and Stump, and What a Capital Chapter the Next One Will Be About 25 min
  21. Chapter 21 In Which the Old Man Launches Forth into His Favourite Theme, and Relates a Story About a Queer Client About 29 min
  22. Chapter 22 Mr. Pickwick Journeys to Ipswich and Meets with a Romantic Adventure with a Middle-Aged Lady in Yellow Curl-Papers About 25 min
  23. Chapter 23 In Which Mr. Samuel Weller Begins to Devote His Energies to the Return Match between Himself and Mr. Trotter About 13 min
  24. Chapter 24 Wherein Mr. Peter Magnus Grows Jealous, and the Middle-Aged Lady Apprehensive, Which Brings the Pickwickians Within the Grasp of the Law About 23 min
  25. Chapter 25 Showing, Among a Variety of Pleasant Matters, How Majestic and Impartial Mr. Nupkins Was; And How Mr. Weller Returned Mr. Job Trotter’s Shuttlecock as Heavily as It Came—With Another Matter, Which Will Be Found in Its Place About 28 min
  26. Chapter 26 Which Contains a Brief Account of the Progress of the Action of Bardell Against Pickwick About 10 min
  27. Chapter 27 Samuel Weller Makes a Pilgrimage to Dorking, and Beholds His Mother-in-Law About 15 min
  28. Chapter 28 A Good-Humoured Christmas Chapter, Containing an Account of a Wedding, and Some Other Sports Beside: Which Although in Their Way, Even as Good Customs as Marriage Itself, Are Not Quite So Religiously Kept Up, in These Degenerate Times About 35 min
  29. Chapter 29 The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton About 17 min
  30. Chapter 30 How the Pickwickians Made and Cultivated the Acquaintance of a Couple of Nice Young Men Belonging to One of the Liberal Professions; How They Disported Themselves on the Ice; And How Their Visit Came to a Conclusion About 17 min
  31. Chapter 31 Which Is All About the Law, and Sundry Great Authorities Learned Therein About 24 min
  32. Chapter 32 Describes, Far More Fully than the Court Newsman Ever Did, a Bachelor’s Party, Given by Mr. Bob Sawyer at His Lodgings in the Borough About 22 min
  33. Chapter 33 Mr. Weller the Elder Delivers Some Critical Sentiments Respecting Literary Composition; And, Assisted by His Son Samuel, Pays a Small Instalment of Retaliation to the Account of the Reverend Gentleman with the Red Nose About 25 min
  34. Chapter 34 Is Wholly Devoted to a Full and Faithful Report of the Memorable Trial of Bardell Against Pickwick About 38 min
  35. Chapter 35 In Which Mr. Pickwick Thinks He Had Better Go to Bath; And Goes Accordingly About 24 min
  36. Chapter 36 The Chief Features of Which Will Be Found to Be an Authentic Version of the Legend of Prince Bladud, and a Most Extraordinary Calamity That Befell Mr. Winkle About 19 min
  37. Chapter 37 Honourably Accounts for Mr. Weller’s Absence, by Describing a Soiree to Which He Was Invited and Went; Also Relates How He Was Entrusted by Mr. Pickwick with a Private Mission of Delicacy and Importance About 20 min
  38. Chapter 38 How Mr. Winkle, When He Stepped Out of the Frying-Pan, Walked Gently and Comfortably into the Fire About 22 min
  39. Chapter 39 Mr. Samuel Weller, Being Intrusted with a Mission of Love, Proceeds to Execute It; With What Success Will Hereinafter Appear About 24 min
  40. Chapter 40 Introduces Mr. Pickwick to a New and Not Uninteresting Scene in the Great Drama of Life About 20 min
  41. Chapter 41 What Befell Mr. Pickwick When He Got into the Fleet; What Prisoners He Saw There, and How He Passed the Night About 21 min
  42. Chapter 42 Illustrative, Like the Preceding One, of the Old Proverb, That Adversity Brings a Man Acquainted with Strange Bedfellows— Likewise Containing Mr. Pickwick’s Extraordinary and Startling Announcement to Mr. Samuel Weller About 22 min
  43. Chapter 43 Showing How Mr. Samuel Weller Got into Difficulties About 20 min
  44. Chapter 44 Treats of Divers Little Matters Which Occurred in the Fleet, and of Mr. Winkle’s Mysterious Behaviour; And Shows How the Poor Chancery Prisoner Obtained His Release at Last About 21 min
  45. Chapter 45 Descriptive of an Affecting Interview between Mr. Samuel Weller and a Family Party. Mr. Pickwick Makes a Tour of the Diminutive World He Inhabits, and Resolves to Mix with It, in Future, as Little as Possible About 26 min
  46. Chapter 46 Records a Touching Act of Delicate Feeling, Not Unmixed with Pleasantry, Achieved and Performed by Messrs. Dodson and Fogg About 15 min
  47. Chapter 47 Is Chiefly Devoted to Matters of Business, and the Temporal Advantage of Dodson and Fogg—Mr. Winkle Reappears Under Extraordinary Circumstances—Mr. Pickwick’s Benevolence Proves Stronger than His Obstinacy About 19 min
  48. Chapter 48 Relates How Mr. Pickwick, with the Assistance of Samuel Weller, Essayed to Soften the Heart of Mr. Benjamin Allen, and to Mollify the Wrath of Mr. Robert Sawyer About 20 min
  49. Chapter 49 Containing the Story of the Bagman’s Uncle About 29 min
  50. Chapter 50 How Mr. Pickwick Sped upon His Mission, and How He Was Reinforced in the Outset by a Most Unexpected Auxiliary About 23 min
  51. Chapter 51 In Which Mr. Pickwick Encounters an Old Acquaintance—To Which Fortunate Circumstance the Reader Is Mainly Indebted for Matter of Thrilling Interest Herein Set Down, concerning Two Great Public Men of Might and Power About 22 min
  52. Chapter 52 Involving a Serious Change in the Weller Family, and the Untimely Downfall of Mr. Stiggins About 19 min
  53. Chapter 53 Comprising the Final Exit of Mr. Jingle and Job Trotter, with a Great Morning of Business in Gray’s Inn Square—Concluding with a Double Knock at Mr. Perker’s Door About 19 min
  54. Chapter 54 Containing Some Particulars Relative to the Double Knock, and Other Matters: Among Which Certain Interesting Disclosures Relative to Mr. Snodgrass and a Young Lady Are by No Means Irrelevant to This History About 23 min
  55. Chapter 55 Mr. Solomon Pell, Assisted by a Select Committee of Coachmen, Arranges the Affairs of the Elder Mr. Weller About 19 min
  56. Chapter 56 An Important Conference Takes Place between Mr. Pickwick and Samuel Weller, at Which His Parent Assists—An Old Gentleman in a Snuff-Coloured Suit Arrives Unexpectedly About 18 min
  57. Chapter 57 In Which the Pickwick Club Is Finally Dissolved, and Everything Concluded to the Satisfaction of Everybody About 12 min
  1. Acknowledgements

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