Point of View

The point of view of this novel begins as a character named Boz who is supposed to be reworking the Pickwickian papers into a coherent, unified story. This persona quickly dissolves into a third person narrator. The point of view is omniscient and reliable. Although the narrator can enter the characters' thoughts, he usually portrays them through a limited third person view. The story is told in the past tense, since the narrator is compiling papers that have already been written.

The story is told as though it is a play and the characters are actors on a stage. This allows the characters to develop naturally, like an acquaintance one gets to know gradually, rather than someone thrust upon one. The story contains a fairly equal combination of exposition and dialogue. A lot of the novel is spent in traveling from one place to another so...