The Penguin Blog

Doing Dickens

‘The characters simply go on and on, behaving like idiots, in a kind of eternity.’

This is what reading The Pickwick Papers is like, according to George Orwell. I heard this quote the other day, which terrified me, as Pickwick was first on my to-do list of reading all of Charles Dickens’s novels, in order, one a month. Easy, right? I’d planned to do this because (a) it is Dickens’s 200th anniversary in 2012 and (b) I decided I couldn’t put off reading his books until retirement or enforced bed-rest any longer.

A few brave souls, including Becky from our Art department, have decided to join me (well, there were more, but some dropped out – maybe they’d heard the quote too), and we had our inaugural Dickens discussion today.

So was George Orwell right about Pickwick? Well yes and no. It’s true, it is a bit of a picaresque adventure, where characters lurch from one calamity to another without much in the way of aim or conclusion. There’s a lot of ‘whoops, I’m in the wrong bedroom!’ and ‘oh no, I’ve fallen in a ditch’. But once you get past that, Pickwick is a brilliant read, for a number  of reasons:

• Everyone is drunk all the time.

• People insult each other with words like ‘poltroon’ and ‘gammon’.

• The fabulous Mr Jingle, whose elliptical speech (‘Present! Think I was; fired a musket, – fired with an idea, – rushed into wine shop – wrote it down – whiz, bang!’) reminded me of drunken Rowley Birkin QC from The Fast Show. Apologies to readers under thirty for this ancient cultural reference.

• The even more wonderful ‘Fat Boy’, with his ‘mountainous cheeks’, who either eats, passes out or looks at food (and occasionally people) ravenously.

• The way Dickens treats his characters ironically and is very happy for us to laugh at them as well as with them. Pickwick gets everything wrong, and we know it.

• The bizarre switches in mood, with dark and often shocking stories-within-stories about mistreated children, hauntings and criminals.

• That you can see what makes Dickens Dickens in embryo – law courts, debtors’ jails, feasts, ghosts, Christmas – and think of treats to come.

• It mentions Gravesend, my home town!

By the end of Pickwick its characters had started to feel like slightly annoying but adorable friends. Not only that, I feel Dickens is going to be my friend too. I’m already starting to get quite defensive of him – wanting to ask people who say ‘I hate Dickens’: have you read him? In fact, have you read a book? You may disagree though – in fact, I’m sure a lot of people will.

Next on the list: Oliver Twist. This is shorter than Pickwick, and we already know the plot, so I’m looking forward to our next meeting. (We’re thinking of dressing up and having Victorian pies and everything…)

 

Louise Willder

Copywriter Manager, Penguin Press

.............................................................................

Remember that by posting a comment you are agreeing to the website Terms of Use. If you consider any content on this site to be inappropriate, please report it to Penguin Books by emailing reportabuse@penguin.co.uk

..............................................................................

Festival Round-up

We're up to our knees in the mud of festival season. Every Monday morning, bedraggled revellers return to their desks with tales of drunkeness, debauchery and life-changing epiphanies while watching Beyonce on the main stage. Occasionally, someone reaches festival saturation point and suggests that the end is nigh, but I'm certain they'll be a mainstay of summer for a long time to come. They are, after all, a concept as old as time, with the tradition of bringing folks together for music, theatre, fun and frolics stretching back to antiquity.

Literature has long been a part of festival culture and here at Penguin we're always thrilled to take part alongside our favourite bands and comedians. Joe Dunthorne, Tom Hodgekinson and Luke Wright made appearances at Glastonbury this year and you can look out for our authors at Bestival, Wilderness and many others later in the summer. Keep up to date via our events page.


We're also super-excited to pitch up on the village green at the brand-new Apple Cart festival on 7th August in Victoria Park, London. Apple Cart boasts oodles of fun for adults (in the shape of Soul II Soul, Tim Minchin, real ale) and for kids (magic, art workshops, Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes) so we're looking forward to a fun day out for the whole family. To bring it all together, headling the Penguin Stage is the award-winning writer of Skellig, David Almond. We're publishing his new novel, The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean as a joint venture between our adult and childrens’ divisions, so his reading should have something for everyone.

If you can't wait til August for your festival fix, Hamish Hamilton will be running a stage at Port Eliot festival in a couple of weeks.  For a little preview, check out last year's Festivals issue of Hamish Hamilton's free literary magazine, Five Dials (scroll down, it's number 13), featuring Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem and Paul Murray.

And if you prefer your festivals indoors and seriously stylish, come along to Vintage Festival 2011 at Royal Festival Hall, where glamorous usherettes will be sporting trays from which festival-goers can purchase some of our small and perfectly formed Penguin Mini Modern Classics!

Sita Balani
Marketing Assistant, Penguin Digital

..................................................................................

Remember that by posting a comment you are agreeing to the website Terms of Use. If you consider any content on this site to be inappropriate, please report it to Penguin Books by emailing reportabuse@penguin.co.uk

Inside Penguin – live webchat TODAY

The copywriters – Sam Binnie, Colin Brush, Sarah Kettle and Louise Willder – will be here today between 1 and 2pm to answer your questions about what they do at Penguin: the first in a series of live Q&As to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how publishing really works. We’ll be responding to the questions you’ve already asked, and answering any new questions you have in the comments section, so get posting below.

Inside Penguin - a live webchat on 14 July

At Penguin, we often get asked about how publishing works and who exactly does what, so with this in mind we've decided to set up a series of live webchats with people working in different roles around the company. The aim is to give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the publishing industry really works, from the initial idea for a book, through its production to the bookshop and beyond.

To start things off, the copywriters are going to be here to reveal the secrets of their trade on Thursday 14th July between 1 and 2pm. They work within Penguin's marketing departments, writing blurbs, book titles and subtitles, advertising and a whole lot more. It's quite a distinctive role in publishing, and one that's going to change more and more in the  digital age.

The online panel will be:

Sam Binnie - many of you will have already read Sam's Penguin blogs. She writes all manner of blurbs for Penguin Classics and paperbacks, as well as digital copy.

Colin Brush - Colin works on Penguin's commercial list, including authors such as Marian Keyes and Jamie Oliver.

Sarah Kettle - Sarah works on children's books, from Roald Dahl to Puffin Classics to Pigs in Planes (the other copywriters are jealous of her).

Louise Willder - that's me, I write copy for titles ranging from Penguin Classics to history, science, politics and culture books.

Want to know how to write a good blurb, what makes a great book title, how to conjure up a snappy strapline or anything else? We'll be online to answer your questions here on the Penguin Blog, so get thinking about what you'd like to know. Feel free to start posting your questions now in the comments section below, so we'll have plenty to get to grips with, and come back on Thursday 14 July between 1 and 2pm to read our replies and post any more questions you have.

 

Louise Willder
Copywriting Manager

.............................................................................

Remember that by posting a comment you are agreeing to the website Terms of Use. If you consider any content on this site to be inappropriate, please report it to Penguin Books by emailing reportabuse@penguin.co.uk

..............................................................................