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Article: Quantum Pickwick.(time and quantum physics in 'The Pickwick Papers' by Charles)(Dickens)
- Article from:
- Yearbook of English Studies
- Article date:
- January 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Modern Humanities Research Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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'I was ruminating' said Mr Pickwick, 'on the
strange mutability of human affairs.'
'Ah! I see -- in at the palace door one day,
out at the window the next. Philosopher, sir?'
'An observer of human nature, sir', said Mr
Pickwick'.[1]
According to Allen Samuels, 'It is always foolhardy to invoke contemporary social and political concerns to describe works of literature which belong to older and different times'.[2] It is then at the risk of appearing foolhardy that I will invoke a very contemporary concern, the philosophy of quantum physics, to illuminate an early Victorian narrative, The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.
In point of ...