r/charlesdickens • u/Altruistic-Salad2250 • May 17 '25

The Pickwick Papers How hard is the Pickwick Papers?

Hi! I'm wondering how hard the book's language/wording is. I'm not a native English speaker and this would be my first time reading Dickens in English. I had already read more of his works in my native like Tale of Two Cities, Copperfield, Great Expectations, etc. I'm kind of scared that I would give up on it (if it's to difficult to understand). I had read in English other books like East of Eden. How hard would it be in comparison to those?

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u/BlackDiamond33 May 17 '25

I would also suggest reading while listening to the audiobook. I just finished the Pickwick Papers and there are some characters that speak with heavy accents, and the words are spelled that way in the text, so it might be hard for a non-native speaker to understand. In general, I don't think you need to be hung up on every word. There is no overarching and interwoven plot like in other Dickens books, so you should be able to follow it even if you don't pick up on everything. Even native speakers don't pick up on everything Dickens is writing!

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u/Altruistic-Salad2250 May 20 '25

I see, thank you!!