50 episodes listed below
Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller, one chapter at a time.
The Pickwick Papers comes here as a public-domain LibriVox recording, one chapter per episode, and each episode takes its title from Dickens's own long, winking chapter heading. The chapters are full of coaching inns, anxious legal notes and secret errands, and of Sam Weller refusing to be impressed by anyone.
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Pickwick Papers, The by Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) is a LibriVox audiobook of the novel, broken into chapter-length episodes. Several recordings open with LibriVox's public-domain notice, and several are credited to the reader Patti Brugman. What a listener gets is Dickens's text read aloud, with Mr. Pickwick, Sam Weller and a crowded comic cast at work. The episode titles are Dickens's own chapter headings, and they set the register early. 'Clearing up all Doubts (if any existed) of the Disinterestedness of Mr. A. Jingle's Character' is a joke before the chapter even begins. So is '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'. Sam Weller drives much of it. Handed an unexpected letter, he inspects the seal, the front, the back and the sides before it occurs to him to look inside. He is sure it cannot be from 'the governor', who always prints because he learnt his writing from the large bills in the booking offices. Elsewhere, when the dashing Mr. Smangle tries to stare him down, Sam looks back at him the way a man might look at a wooden statue. Mr. Pickwick's comedy is gentler, a comedy of nerves. On the eve of the trial of Mrs. Bardell's action, he keeps sending his attorney, Perker, small notes asking whether all is going well, when nothing can happen until the court sits. Mr. Winkle is serious about a young lady, and Sam keeps him in sight until Mr. Pickwick arrives at the Bush Tavern to ask whether he means it. The novel also likes to wander. One chapter lingers over London's old coaching inns, now little more than booking places for country wagons. Then it finds Sam at the White Hart, polishing a farmer's boots, as a thin man with small, restless black eyes comes asking questions. Another chapter ends with Mr. Pickwick's antiquarian stone, still unreadable, and seventeen learned societies voting his critic an ignorant meddler. The story also holds other stories. Unable to sleep, Mr. Pickwick reads a soiled, blotted manuscript left by a clergyman, and its title turns out to be A Madman's Manuscript: a darker story tucked inside a comic book. Taken together, the chapters make a nineteenth-century comedy of inns, errands, courtship and the law. It suits someone happy to let a Dickens novel unfold one chapter at a time.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants to hear Dickens's comic novel in his own words, chapter by chapter, and who enjoys ornate period narration and characters like Sam Weller.
What sets it apart: This is not an adaptation or a discussion. It is the novel's own text in a public-domain LibriVox recording, with Dickens's long chapter headings kept as the episode titles.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first novel by Charles Dickens. Written for publication as a serial, The Pickwick Papers consists of a sequence of loosely-related adventures. Its main literary value and appeal is formed by its numerous unforgettable heroes. Each personage in The Pickwick Papers (just as in many other Dickens' novels) is drawn comically, often with exaggerated features of character. (Wikipedia)
An illegible stone starts a scholarly feud; you get the last laugh without reading a word of it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A public breakfast turns into a comic parade of costumes, newspaper vanity, and Sam Weller's verbal mischief.
A public breakfast becomes the chapter's grand little stage, with the best comedy coming from those who treat it as a matter of public consequence. Mr. Pickwick receives Mrs.
Mr. Pickwick turns Sam and Mary's romance into a practical settlement, while the Weller family brings its own wary theory of marriage.
Domestic anxiety drives the comedy here, as Mr. Pickwick tries to imagine a settled future for Sam and Mary just as Mary brings word that Samuel Weller wants his father brought in.
A will, a coachmen's committee, and Mr. Solomon Pell turn probate into comic business.
After a funeral, Mr. Weller discovers a will and moves to settle the elder Mr. Weller's affairs with Mr. Solomon Pell, aided by a select committee of coachmen.
A convivial Pickwickian gathering darkens into a sickroom confession of abuse, then unsettles itself back into good humour.
Mr. Pickwick's circle encounters a careworn stranger, and the episode slips from sociable bustle into something colder. His sallow face, sunken eyes, and matted hair lead into a sickroom story shaped by illness, fear, and domestic cruelty.
A surgery quarrel turns into a comic brawl as Pickwick and Weller arrive.
Chapter 48 plays Bob Sawyer's shaky professional future as compact farce, with beer, panic, and bruised dignity all crowding the little surgery behind the shop. Ben Allen and Bob are still there when word of a woman's marriage sends Bob bolting out and Ben grabbing at Mr.
This episode continues the story of Mr.
This episode reads Chapter 37 of The Pickwick Papers, where Sam Weller receives a mysterious letter and is entrusted with a private mission by Mr.
Chapter 39 of The Pickwick Papers, where Sam Weller guards Mr.
A reading of Chapter 42 of The Pickwick Papers, where Mr.
At the White Hart Inn, Sam Weller entertains a gentleman with the story of Tony Weller, who spent an inheritance and obtained a marriage license for Susan Clark without first proposing.
The Pickwick Papers, Chapter 11 follows Mr.
Pickwick Papers, The presents a Peacock commercial-room gathering before an unnamed one-eyed bagman tells Mr.
["Mrs.
Chapter 56 of The Pickwick Papers puts Mr.
Charles Dickens' chapter 'A New Acquaintance--The Stroller's Tale--A Disagreeable Interruption, and an Unpleasant Encounter' opens with Mr.
Tony Weller finds Mrs.
["Benjamin Allen and Robert Sawyer argue over Arabella's future, her \"3 percent consolidated bank annuities,\" and whether Sawyer should propose before someone else takes control of the match.