The Pickwick Club discussion

F is for Miss Flite whose feathered companions are keeping a hopeful eye on the suit in Bleak House.

Linda wrote: "Peter wrote: "E is for Emily, poor Little Em'ly who was steered the wrong way in DC."

steered - I see what you did there. Very clever, Peter. :)"

Thanks, Linda. I'm not sure what takes more time, coming up with the next alpha name or making up a tag line for the character I select. I'm glad you got Miss. Flite. She is one of my favourite characters in BH.

G is for Guster the Snagsby's maid in Bleak House. She is prone to having "fits" which I will assume means seizures although I'm not at all sure of that.

H is for Uriah Heep who proved to be a prickly creep in DC.

Christine wrote: "N:

Noddy Boffin. The golden dustman. Domby & son"

One of my favorite Dickens names. :-)

I is for

Isaac Watts from The Old Curiosity Shop.

A professional gambler. Along with Joe Jowl, they win nearly all the money Nell's grandfather has, in a crooked game in a public house, after Nell and her grandfather have fled their home.

It is a great name, Noddy Boffin :)

And I too really appreciate all the witty tag lines Peter ;)

F for Mr. Fezziwig. A tiny part in A Christmas Carol, but one of my favorites.

Er - sorry Mary Lou but it's J next! It's an alphabetical game. Rules in comment 1.

J must be for Jarndyce then. Any in the many in Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce. BH.

Well, that's embarrassing! Don't know what I was thinking, except I often have the Fezziwigs on my mind - they're such a great couple. :-) I'm pretty sure K still follows J, right? So let's go with Conversation Kenge of Kenge and Carboy in "Bleak House".

L is for Sir Leicester Dedlock the old guy in Bleak House married to Lady Dedlock who is at this moment acting extremely strange.

I was awake last night with this game going through my head only trying to do it with the titles of Dickens books. I fell asleep somewhere around H.

M:

is for Mrs. MacStinger, the terrifying landlady of Captain Cuttle in Dombey and Son - and source of many appreciative giggles from me :D

N

N is for Nemo because I could not think of another name and so came up with nothing. BH

LOL - Still on fire Peter ;)

Jean wrote: "LOL - Still on fire Peter ;)"

I concur, Jean! I'm giggling. :)

I give up on O unless Old Mr. Turveydrop from Bleak House will do. :-)

"Old Mr. Turveydrop is a very gentlemanly man indeed—very gentlemanly."

P

Peepy Jellyby from BH

"I made a proposal to Peepy, in default of being able to do anything better for him, that he should let me wash him and afterwards lay him down on my bed again. To this he submitted with the best grace possible, staring at me during the whole operation as if he never had been, and never could again be, so astonished in his life—looking very miserable also, certainly, but making no complaint, and going snugly to sleep as soon as it was over. At first I was in two minds about taking such a liberty, but I soon reflected that nobody in the house was likely to notice it."

Yet another wonderful name! And continuing the theme of Bleak House, how about the philanthropist

Q

Mr Quale

"A loquacious young man ... with large shining knobs for temples and his hair all brushed to the back of his head."

R

R is for Rags who has two little feet, s/he is a bird not a human, but listen to the tweet. One of Miss. Flite's birds in BH.

Peter wrote: " R

R is for Rags who has two little feet, s/he is a bird not a human, but listen to the tweet. One of Miss. Flite's birds in BH."

Very good! I never would have thought of it. :-) Good start of a poem too. She tweets even more in the Fall of the year, because even she knows that Christmas is near.

S

Phil Squod the loyal servant of George Rouncewell.

"The little man is dressed something like a gunsmith, in a green-baize apron and cap; and his face and hands are dirty with gunpowder and begrimed with the loading of guns. As he lies in the light before a glaring white target, the black upon him shines again. Not far off is the strong, rough, primitive table with a vice upon it at which he has been working. He is a little man with a face all crushed together, who appears, from a certain blue and speckled appearance that one of his cheeks presents, to have been blown up, in the way of business, at some odd time or times."

T

Jemima Toodle - sister to Polly Toodle, who nurses Paul Dombey and looks after Polly's children for the duration in Dombey and Son

"A younger woman not so plump, but apple-faced also."

Erm ... stuck on "U" :(

I could Heep scorn on you for not knowing a U
I remember that song, do you?

I wasn't sure we could reuse him ... but maybe he counts twice because of course he was ever so ...

U for 'Umble Uri

(Uriah Heep) from David Copperfield

and yes, rings a faint bell ;)

V brings us back to Bleak House, namely to the sallow Mr. Vholes, who has three daughters and a father in the Vale of Taunton.

W is for Withers in Dombey and Son. He's the page who pushes the abominable Mrs. Skewton's

"wheeled chair, in which a lady was seated, indolently steering her carriage by a kind of rudder in front, while it was propelled by some unseen power in the rear"

Withers, you remember, is the wan propellor ;)

"the motive power became visible in the shape of a flushed page pushing behind, who seemed to have in part outgrown and in part out-pushed his strength, for when he stood upright he was tall, and wan, and thin, and his plight appeared the more forlorn from his having injured the shape of his hat, by butting at the carriage with his head to urge it forward, as is sometimes done by elephants in Oriental countries"

Missing out X, so Y anyone?

Y

Y is for Yawler, a student at Salem House in DC.

I admit I went to my Dickens Encyclopedia to look for a Y.

Am I forgiven?

Hahaha! Of course!

Why do you think I keep using names from the Dickens novel I'm currently reading, Peter? ;) The myriad of minor characters just don't "stick" in my mind! That one certainly doesn't - but I bet I'll spot him now when I read David Copperfield (next month - just a few days now :) )

Shall we agree to pass quietly over Z and start again with A?

Please ;-)

A

Ada Clare, a ward of Mr. Jarndyce in Bleak House.

"I saw in the young lady, with the fire shining upon her, such a beautiful girl! With such rich golden hair, such soft blue eyes, and such a bright, innocent, trusting face!"

B is for

Mr. Bumble the beadle, in Oliver Twist

"Mr Brownlow: The law assumes that your wife acts under your direction.
Mr. Bumble: If the law supposes that, then the law is a ass, a idiot! If that's the eye of the law, then the law is a bachelor. And the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience."

C is for

Coavinses in Bleak House. A sheriff's officer who comes to Bleak House to arrest Harold Skimpole.

"No," observed Mr. Skimpole. "But what did you think upon the road?"

"Wot do you mean?" growled Coavinses with an appearance of strong resentment. "Think! I've got enough to do, and little enough to get for it without thinking. Thinking!" (with profound contempt).

"Then you didn't think, at all events," proceeded Mr. Skimpole, "to this effect: 'Harold Skimpole loves to see the sun shine, loves to hear the wind blow, loves to watch the changing lights and shadows, loves to hear the birds, those choristers in Nature's great cathedral. And does it seem to me that I am about to deprive Harold Skimpole of his share in such possessions, which are his only birthright!' You thought nothing to that effect?"

"I—certainly—did—NOT," said Coavinses, whose doggedness in utterly renouncing the idea was of that intense kind that he could only give adequate expression to it by putting a long interval between each word, and accompanying the last with a jerk that might have dislocated his neck."

D is for Diogenes because man's best friend should count as a person too. :-). Dombey and Son.

LOL! Sorry Kim - I enjoyed reading your bit very much, but Peter's just did it for me more :)

E is for

Edith Granger the haughty and proud widow, daughter of Mrs Skewton ... and we all remember what happened to Edith. What a destiny! This is a glimpse by the odious Carker,

"a lady, elegantly dressed and very handsome, whose dark proud eyes were fixed upon the ground, and in whom some passion or struggle was raging. For as she sat looking down, she held a corner of her under lip within her mouth, her bosom heaved, her nostril quivered, her head trembled, indignant tears were on her cheek, and her foot was set upon the moss as though she would have crushed it into nothing. And yet almost the self-same glance that showed him this, showed him the self-same lady rising with a scornful air of weariness and lassitude, and turning away with nothing expressed in face or figure but careless beauty and imperious disdain."

I'm trying to go with odd names from Bleak House right now, this one took some time:

F is for

Felix Pardiggle fourth son of Mrs Pardiggle, the not so benevolent neighbor of John Jarndyce, the type who "did a little and made a great deal of noise.

"These, young ladies," said Mrs. Pardiggle with great volubility after the first salutations, "are my five boys. You may have seen their names in a printed subscription list (perhaps more than one) in the possession of our esteemed friend Mr. Jarndyce. Egbert, my eldest (twelve), is the boy who sent out his pocket-money, to the amount of five and threepence, to the Tockahoopo Indians. Oswald, my second (ten and a half), is the child who contributed two and nine-pence to the Great National Smithers Testimonial. Francis, my third (nine), one and sixpence halfpenny; Felix, my fourth (seven), eightpence to the Superannuated Widows; Alfred, my youngest (five), has voluntarily enrolled himself in the Infant Bonds of Joy, and is pledged never, through life, to use tobacco in any form."

Hahaha! I remember Mrs Pardiggle and her poor brood of brats :D

I'm trying to do the same for Dombey and Son and am wishing I hadn't used Edith Granger already. And there was Fanny - and Florence - for the Fs - still musing ...

G:

Uncle and Aunt George from the sketch A Christmas Dinner in Sketches by Boz.

"The Christmas family-party that we mean, is not a mere assemblage of relations, got up at a week or two's notice, originating this year, having no family precedent in the last, and not likely to be repeated in the next. No. It is an annual gathering of all the accessible members of the family, young or old, rich or poor; and all the children look forward to it, for two months beforehand, in a fever of anticipation. Formerly, it was held at grandpapa's; but grandpapa getting old, and grandmamma getting old too, and rather infirm, they have given up house-keeping, and domesticated themselves with uncle George; so, the party always takes place at uncle George's house, but grandmamma sends in most of the good things, and grandpapa always WILL toddle down, all the way to Newgate-market, to buy the turkey, which he engages a porter to bring home behind him in triumph, always insisting on the man's being rewarded with a glass of spirits, over and above his hire, to drink 'a merry Christmas and a happy new year' to aunt George. As to grandmamma, she is very secret and mysterious for two or three days beforehand, but not sufficiently so, to prevent rumours getting afloat that she has purchased a beautiful new cap with pink ribbons for each of the servants, together with sundry books, and pen-knives, and pencil-cases, for the younger branches; to say nothing of divers secret additions to the order originally given by aunt George at the pastry-cook's, such as another dozen of mince- pies for the dinner, and a large plum-cake for the children."

H

Alfred Heathfield

Well, at Christmas we could try ho, ho, ho, or Happy Christmas but let's go with a character from the Christmas book the Battle of Life.

Kim's post had me chuckling but aw Peter ... I was going to post about the character whose name begins with an aitch in the novel I'm currently reading David Copperfield, yet never manages to pronounce them himself :D