It arrived in the postman's van.......

  I was nursing my little Camille who had been home for 

a few days with a respiratory virus of some 'breed' -

fortunately nothing too nasty.

All the while expecting a special something to be delivered

to my front door. I must have missed the post man

somehow, as when my hubby arrived home, 

there was the parcel in his hands. He said he had found it sitting on

the front doorstep.

 

There is something very agreeable about receiving a 

carefully wrapped bundle , from some distant

location. Though my conscience tells me, it is not

all that environmentally sound to have goods transported

in this way, atleast my orders are always shipped within our state.

 The long awaited book has arrived-

'The Pickwick Club' by Charles Dickens 1837.

This edition dated 1961.

With black and white illustrations by  Robert Seymour and

'Phiz'.

 I love the skillfully crafted illustrations from this era.

 They are so fascinating just to get lost in,

picking up all the details, that seem so far removed

from today's society, we can get a sense of how people lived in

this era.

 

 On reading the text, it is easy to see some similarities with Wodehouse's

' Jeeves and Wooster', who would have been inspired

by the light -hearted and humorous tales of the Pickwick Papers.

This  exchange between Mr. Tupman

and the new stranger to the Pickwick Club proves my point....

'I should be very happy to lend you a change of apparel for the purpose,' said

Mr . Tupman.' but you are rather slim, and I am-'

'Rather fat-grown up Bacchus-cut the leaves-dismounted from the tub,

and adopted kersey, eh?-not double distilled, but double milled-

ha ha, pass the wine.'

Whether Mr. Tupman was somewhat indignant at the peremptory tone in which he 

was desired to pass the wine which the stranger passed so quickly away;

or whether he felt very properly scandalised , at an influential member

of the Pickwick Club being ignominiously compared to a dismounted

Bacchus is a fact not yet completely ascertained.

He passed the wine , coughed twice, and looked at the stranger

for several seconds with a stern intensity; as that individual, however, appeared 

perfectly collected, and quite calm under his searching glance, he gradually

relaxed, and reverted to the subject of the ball.'

 

 

Very funny stuff, artfully written.

I hope the 'book' never goes out of date.

There is something reassuring about casually leafing through

the pages of a book, as opposed to reading a static, lit - up computer screen.

I'm off to read......

Andrea