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Excerpt from The History of Pickwick: An Account of Its Characters, Localities, Allusions, and Illustrations, With a Bibliography
There are many who look back with delight to the days of their childhood, when Pickwick, in'its green wrappers, was coming out month by month, and furnished nearly two years of sustained enjoyment to people of all ages and conditions. The cherished numbers, bound into a volume, now lie before me, and bring back the recollection of the almost feverish expectancy with which its mirth-moving incidents Were awaited or listened to, as the head of the family read them aloud, to increase, it might be, his own sense of the relish. Not the least merit in this book is that it should have been thus appreciated by children but the aged found no less enjoyment in its humours so those ofthe old and new fashion were alike recreated. This was in itself a phenomenon. If it be not read by the children of our generation, it is owing to the change in habits and manners; it is too much to expect such an exertion from the juvenile mind, as to assume the existence of duelling, stage coaches, elopements, old inns, and other obsolete things.
The book is so rich in suggestion, so stored -with humorous touches and allusions, that each reading - as Professor Ward has pointed out brings out something that has escaped notice while the general hilarity is so overpowering that many delicate touches escape notice, and require pause and deliberation to discover.
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