Book excerpt: A Victorian lawyer's view of a fictional case from the The Pickwick Papers shows how Dickens' wit, combined with a detailed knowledge of the law, produced one of the funniest court cases in fiction When Samuel Pickwick uttered soothing words to Mrs. Bardell in her time of need, he never dreamed that he would find himself in a court of law, in a breach of promise suit. As a parade of his friends did their best as witnesses to help him out of a hole, not always successfully, the other side produced evidence that was manipulated by skillful lawyers to make a cast iron case for Pickwick's guilt. In this lawyerly but witty book, Fitzgerald treats Bardell v. Pickwick as if it were a real case, analyzes the tactics of the various lawyers, and scrutinizes the points of law Dickens made his fictional lawyers present.