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This is a brilliant tribute to the originators of Pickwick and interrogation of the behaviour of Dickens and his close lawyer friend John Forster. That this plot is the secondary one gives an indication of how rich the novel is. Primarily, the dominant narrative is a biography of Robert Seymour, the artist, who at the end of a distinguished career, drew the illustrations for the first two parts of Pickwick Papers in 1836. Embedded in the representation of Seymour's life is an account of a long gradual development of the idea of Pickwick, long before Dickens entered the project. This is part of the critical argument of the novel, that Seymour was the originator of the idea of Pickwick Papers, and that his clash with his young, untried cocky author of the letterpress was the main provocation of his suicide. The novel has two more strands: it is incredibly informative about the world of steel and wood engraving and etching in the late 18C and the early 19C; and its Pickwickian style, of the picaresque narrative, of inventive and playful tales, is itself very accomplished. Although Death and Mr Pickwick has not been issued in parts, at over 800 pages, it needs to be read as though it was.Read full review
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