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The Pickwick Papers
- Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman
- Length: 32 hrs and 31 mins
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The Pickwick Papers
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Editor reviews
Walter Zimmerman’s bright, crisp performance allows the comedy to shine in Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers.
Dickens’ first novel, published in 1837, concerns a club formed by Samuel Pickwick. The duty of its members is to travel through London and the English countryside and report on their adventures. Their loosely connected adventures showcase Dickens’ gift for creating eccentric characters, like the notorious trickster Alfred Jingle and Pickwick’s loveable cockney servant, Weller.
Adopting various voices for dialogue, Zimmerman does justice to Dickens’ fictional creations and their shifting English accents.
Summary
This is the story of the celebrated Pickwick Club, with the good Mr. Samuel Pickwick as its founder and general chairman.
The members are to report to the club on their journeys, adventures, and observations of characters and manners. Dickens creates a vivid picture of England in taking his characters along the nostalgic highways and byways of this majestic isle. This remarkable first novel made Dickens famous and has remained one of the world's best-known works. With its scores of delightful, improbably-named characters, The Pickwick Papers brims over with joyous fantasy, infectious good humor, and a touch of the macabre.
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Pickwick Papers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- a
- 04-04-14
Poor reading voice
The reader's voice did not suit the book, and was not easy to listen to.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Matthew
- 25-11-07
A truly horrible reading...
I wouldn't presume to comment on the book itself, I'm a scientist not an english literiture specialist. However, the reading is absolutely dreadful. It felt a bit weird that the reader was american, it seemed odd with Dickens, but I have listened to many beautiful readings with american accents. Unfortunately, the reader gives a very good impression of never having done anything like this before! There is no inflection to his voice, everything is in the same, flat monotone with no feel for the meaning of what he is saying. It honestly feels like it was computer generated.
There is an infinitely superior reading on audible in two parts; save up your credits and buy that one, you probably won't get through the whole thing in one month anyway.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- AReader
- 16-10-12
American reader!
I should have listened to a sample of this as I was horrified to find it was read by an American. I couldn't listen to it. Intellectually I know Dickens was very popular in America, but even so. You wouldn't listen to Steinbeck read by a Brit.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicholas Gray
- 25-06-23
Yes, American reader, but perfect Pickwickian accents!
This is a truly remarkable reading of one of Dickens’s favourite novels. Writing at the age of 23 this is Dickens‘s only comedy written in a sunburst of creativity and wonderfully brought to life by Zimmerman who is somehow able to recreate 19th-century accents of both men and women from different classes and regions of England. If you love Dickens you will love this reading of this work. For the purists the American accent for the non-speaking parts takes five minutes to adjust to!
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