Finally finished "The Pickwick Papers" (audiobook)

The Pickwick Papers (Oxford World's Classics)

Charles Dickens

It was extremely long (the book is 1,000+ pages), but a really enjoyable story, as most Charles Dickens books are.

In case you don't know the premise of the book, it's a collection of tales and stories supposedly collected during the travels of members of the Pickwick Club; namely Mr. Pickwick and his friends, Mr. Winkle, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Tupman. And as they travel, they have their own various adventures.

Some parts were hilariously funny, some more thought-provoking. One of the most moving sections was when Mr. Pickwick let himself be put in debtor's prison rather than pay a court settlement lodged against him for a completely ridiculous breach of promise suit. The Dickens family spent time in debtor's prison, and you could tell CD had no fond memories of it.

When he pointed out that criminals convicted of heinous crimes are fed and clothed and housed, but debtors are left to starve and rot, you couldn't help but think that there's something wrong with the system.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and the audio performance was also pretty good. The reader, Walter Zimmerman, did an acceptable job most of time. He's an American, so the narrative bits were read with an American accent. I don't insist that books by British authors must be read in a British accent. I don't suppose his accents for the characters were entirely authentic, but I'm not a Brit, so I wouldn't know. It did clang, however, when he read a British character to say "to-MAY-to." I thought he could at least have got that one right.