The Pickwick Papers cover art

The Pickwick Papers

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Pickwick Papers

By: Charles Dickens
Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

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.

Click here to see all the titles in our Charles Dickens collection.Public Domain (P)1987 Jimcin Recordings
Classics Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

David Copperfield cover art
The Pickwick Papers: Dickens on Dickens cover art
Sketches by Boz cover art
The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens cover art
Oliver Twist cover art
The Pickwick Papers, Volume 1 cover art
The Old Curiosity Shop cover art
Sketches by Boz: Volume 1 cover art
Little Dorrit cover art
Great Expectations cover art
Oliver Twist cover art
Ghost Stories cover art
Christmas Stories cover art
Hard Times cover art
Martin Chuzzlewit cover art
A Tale of Two Cities [Naxos] cover art

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.

Critic reviews

"The great example of everything that made Dickens great....a supreme masterpiece." (G.K. Chesterton)

What listeners say about The Pickwick Papers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Poor reading voice

The reader's voice did not suit the book, and was not easy to listen to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!