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A Pickle for the Knowing Ones: Or, Plain Truths in a Homespun Dress
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
44 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1802
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
December 25, 2015
Short, incomprehensible, and utterly bizarre. Highly recommended.
November 30, 2021
Timothy Dexter (1747-1806), a nobody who became a somebody after marrying for money, also became a celebrity for his arrogant character, pretending his wife was a ghost so he could ignore her and his fool's luck in business. A self-aggrandising fellow, he made several statues of himself and published this book to preach his thoughts and philosophy.
This work is literal bloody nonsense. Naked Lunch is also nonsense, but that is stream of consciousness, a nightmare realised. Dada is nonsense but it's an energetic reaction, a rebellion. A Pickle is nonsense because Timothy Dexter can't spell, can't form sentences and has a drunken hamster staggering on a broken wheel in place of a brain.
I have little idea what he's saying most of the time, but I remember self-praise, the world being formed from the body of a giant, complaints about the price of goods and how many times he's had his head knocked inside out. That last one might explain a lot, as trying to decipher him is like reading a four year old imitating Middle English.
To give some examples, all (sic) I promise:
In the book's second edition (printed because some people have more hipster love of 'irony' than sense even in the 18thC), Dexter countered critics who complained of his complete lack of punctuation, by adding a page of nothing but punctuation, advising the reader cut them out and stick them wherever they please; a fantastic example of how little a shit he gave about anyone questioning his genius.
While the included short biography of this silly bastard was interesting, I had picked up A Pickle hoping it would be entertaining, unhinged absurdity, like Howard Beale in Network or how I feel about Ayn Rand's work, but this book was like watching a monkey throwing its own dung at the walls. Actually no, it's like solving a blind wordsearch with 173x173 blocks of letters, only to find the one sentence you're supposed pick out was 'Fuk u'.
A Pickle is not worth your time, but learning about the eccentric author certainly is, so I reccomend this short, biographical video about Dexter instead, and insist this collection of pages become something more useful, like kindling or mopping up your dog's moist accidents.
This work is literal bloody nonsense. Naked Lunch is also nonsense, but that is stream of consciousness, a nightmare realised. Dada is nonsense but it's an energetic reaction, a rebellion. A Pickle is nonsense because Timothy Dexter can't spell, can't form sentences and has a drunken hamster staggering on a broken wheel in place of a brain.
I have little idea what he's saying most of the time, but I remember self-praise, the world being formed from the body of a giant, complaints about the price of goods and how many times he's had his head knocked inside out. That last one might explain a lot, as trying to decipher him is like reading a four year old imitating Middle English.
To give some examples, all (sic) I promise:
'I have hard Noks on my head 4 difrent times'
'...peopel kept to gether quiet till the Larned groed strong'
'he is the god of Nateer all Nater is god' (He can't even keep his terrible spelling consistent, ffs)
In the book's second edition (printed because some people have more hipster love of 'irony' than sense even in the 18thC), Dexter countered critics who complained of his complete lack of punctuation, by adding a page of nothing but punctuation, advising the reader cut them out and stick them wherever they please; a fantastic example of how little a shit he gave about anyone questioning his genius.
While the included short biography of this silly bastard was interesting, I had picked up A Pickle hoping it would be entertaining, unhinged absurdity, like Howard Beale in Network or how I feel about Ayn Rand's work, but this book was like watching a monkey throwing its own dung at the walls. Actually no, it's like solving a blind wordsearch with 173x173 blocks of letters, only to find the one sentence you're supposed pick out was 'Fuk u'.
A Pickle is not worth your time, but learning about the eccentric author certainly is, so I reccomend this short, biographical video about Dexter instead, and insist this collection of pages become something more useful, like kindling or mopping up your dog's moist accidents.
April 5, 2020
This book has solved political disputes of it's time An excellent historical commentary on the lives of history's greatest figures such as Jorge washeton This book is gud
......,,,,,,???!!!
If you want to complain about punctuation stick these where ever you want
......,,,,,,???!!!
If you want to complain about punctuation stick these where ever you want
December 20, 2021
Timothy Dexter dare I say was the greatest western philosophy not just in the 18th century but in the centuries that came before him and the ones that came after. He has written the novel that can make any English teacher break down in tears. Beautiful and I learned all of that with the book being so short in the first place. If you say the opposite may I just say we’re still talking about him and reading his genius pickle novel.
August 9, 2021
I'd like to write a review for this book but I honestly don't have it in me right now. I'm still exhausted from trying to read it.
If by some mistake you have happened upon this magnificent travesty and are bound and determined to make sense of it, your best bet is to read it aloud. Most of the words are spelled phonetically in an accent that no longer truly exists. Many pages contain no punctuation and one page contains ONLY punctuation (to be inserted wherever the reader sees fit). This might almost be fun if deciphering it revealed any sort of content but uhhh it doesn't.
Still, it's fucking fascinating. I'll give it that.
I'd recommend this book to my worst enemy and literally no one else.
If by some mistake you have happened upon this magnificent travesty and are bound and determined to make sense of it, your best bet is to read it aloud. Most of the words are spelled phonetically in an accent that no longer truly exists. Many pages contain no punctuation and one page contains ONLY punctuation (to be inserted wherever the reader sees fit). This might almost be fun if deciphering it revealed any sort of content but uhhh it doesn't.
Still, it's fucking fascinating. I'll give it that.
I'd recommend this book to my worst enemy and literally no one else.
August 8, 2016
If you know nothing about the author, this book will only tell half the story - but it will make his personality very clear. Lord Timothy Dexter became a rich business man entirely by chance; for all his life the people around him mocked him and considered him unintelligent and a fool; the book does nothing but support these beliefs.
He accepted the worst business advice and through pure, ridiculous dumb luck managed to profit from these affairs. At 50 years old he considered the world was ready for his brilliance so he wrote this book - well, "write" is a strong word for how this book reads. "A Pickle For The Knowing Ones" seems like a collection of paper scraps gathered from torn letters, glued together to form different, unintelligible sentences. Grammar and punctuation are virtually nonexistent - except for a few mysterious paragraphs which are perfectly coherent. It makes one wonder how much of his persona was true and how much was exaggerated.
Even so, it is a fun book to read. Timothy Dexter comes out as boisterous and narcissistic: "Ime the first Lord in the younited States of A mercary Now of Newburyport it is the voise of the peopel and I cant Help it". However, Dexter is ultimately a nice person. He believes strongly in God and the goodness of the people and wants the whole world to come to peace. He thinks he would make a good world leader but he's fine with "a Consler in the Afare of trouth".
After he faked his death and thousands of people came to his wake, he interrupted the whole affair to cane his wife for not being upset enough. He complains about the politicians and his wife, who he calls "the gost", but only because he cares so much.
This book is not a biography, but a collection of silly writings, a brief insight into his peculiar and silly mind. If you want to read more about him you should try Samuel L. Knapp's "The Life of Lord Timothy Dexter" (available in the public domain).
"if I want help I will Call my frind boneypartey and gorge the third & Dewide the Lose Now take Care peas I say "
He accepted the worst business advice and through pure, ridiculous dumb luck managed to profit from these affairs. At 50 years old he considered the world was ready for his brilliance so he wrote this book - well, "write" is a strong word for how this book reads. "A Pickle For The Knowing Ones" seems like a collection of paper scraps gathered from torn letters, glued together to form different, unintelligible sentences. Grammar and punctuation are virtually nonexistent - except for a few mysterious paragraphs which are perfectly coherent. It makes one wonder how much of his persona was true and how much was exaggerated.
Even so, it is a fun book to read. Timothy Dexter comes out as boisterous and narcissistic: "Ime the first Lord in the younited States of A mercary Now of Newburyport it is the voise of the peopel and I cant Help it". However, Dexter is ultimately a nice person. He believes strongly in God and the goodness of the people and wants the whole world to come to peace. He thinks he would make a good world leader but he's fine with "a Consler in the Afare of trouth".
After he faked his death and thousands of people came to his wake, he interrupted the whole affair to cane his wife for not being upset enough. He complains about the politicians and his wife, who he calls "the gost", but only because he cares so much.
This book is not a biography, but a collection of silly writings, a brief insight into his peculiar and silly mind. If you want to read more about him you should try Samuel L. Knapp's "The Life of Lord Timothy Dexter" (available in the public domain).
"if I want help I will Call my frind boneypartey and gorge the third & Dewide the Lose Now take Care peas I say "
Read
April 24, 2023Ass incumprinsibul as it is ahed ouf its tiem. Dexter basikly invintud strem of conshusnes riting 100 yeers befour Joyce and shitepusting 200 yeers befour soshul medea. A grate an missuhnderstud man ov jenus
October 7, 2010
Lord Timothy Dexter, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (Minton Balch and Company, 1847)
I thought I had it all figured out. I was convinced that Lord Timothy Dexter was a myth, the product of the fevered imagination of his biographer, J. P. Marquand, a man far better known for spinning tales out of whole cloth (he was responsible for Mr. Moto, as well as a number of nautical adventure stories) than for writing biographies of eccentric New Englanders. But the Internet, including Wikipedia, has not a small amount of information on Dexter, who according to Wikipedia lived from 1748-1806. Thus, I am putting aside the idea that the whole shindig is a hoax, despite my favorite piece of evidence: supposedly, in the second edition of the Pickle,, Dexter, who was known for not punctuating his work, included an entire page of nothing but punctuation and asking his readers to “solt and peper as they will”; this was, anecdotally, a favorite practice of a contemporary of Marquand's, James Joyce—whose mot notoriously unpunctuated work, Ulysses, came in 1922, three years before Marquand's Lord Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, Mass.: First in the East, First in the West, and the Greatest Philosopher in the Western World. So there's still a tug in the back of my mind that says this outrageous philosophical “treatise” is nothing more than a joke being played on literary historians. But I will proceed as if it were not and review it straight.
Looked at in 2010, it is, above all, an artifact of a different time. After perusing it, some might also say of a different world; the Lord Timothy Dexter fan page on the Internet (which, by the by, has an entire facsimile copy of the Pickle available free for interested readers) drolly notes that Dexter, a businessman and philosopher, “never bothered to learn how to spell”. Indeed. He also had the philosophical acuity of a not-particularly-bright six-year-old. “To mankind at Large the time is Com at Last the grat day of Regoising what is that whye I will tell you thous three kings is Rased Rased you meane shoued know Rased on the first Royel Arch in the worid olmost Not quite but very hiw up upon so thay are good mark to be scene so the womans Lik to see the front and all people Loves to see them as the quakers will Com and peape and say houethe doue frind father Jorge washeton is in the center king Addoms at the Rite hand the present king at the Left hand...” (The present king, of course, being Thomas Jefferson.) if you are currently shaking your head and asking yourself “my god, what is he on about?”, you're not alone. (He's actually describing the archway leading to the grounds of his estate. The Dexter fan pages notes that of the over thirty wood-carved figures that once stood at Dexter's, only one remains extant, that of William Penn.)
May be found amusing by those who like books of heavy dialect (Riddley Walker comes immediately to mind), but is short enough to allow even those who can't stand this sort of writing to be astonished by what an idiot this guy was. **
I thought I had it all figured out. I was convinced that Lord Timothy Dexter was a myth, the product of the fevered imagination of his biographer, J. P. Marquand, a man far better known for spinning tales out of whole cloth (he was responsible for Mr. Moto, as well as a number of nautical adventure stories) than for writing biographies of eccentric New Englanders. But the Internet, including Wikipedia, has not a small amount of information on Dexter, who according to Wikipedia lived from 1748-1806. Thus, I am putting aside the idea that the whole shindig is a hoax, despite my favorite piece of evidence: supposedly, in the second edition of the Pickle,, Dexter, who was known for not punctuating his work, included an entire page of nothing but punctuation and asking his readers to “solt and peper as they will”; this was, anecdotally, a favorite practice of a contemporary of Marquand's, James Joyce—whose mot notoriously unpunctuated work, Ulysses, came in 1922, three years before Marquand's Lord Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, Mass.: First in the East, First in the West, and the Greatest Philosopher in the Western World. So there's still a tug in the back of my mind that says this outrageous philosophical “treatise” is nothing more than a joke being played on literary historians. But I will proceed as if it were not and review it straight.
Looked at in 2010, it is, above all, an artifact of a different time. After perusing it, some might also say of a different world; the Lord Timothy Dexter fan page on the Internet (which, by the by, has an entire facsimile copy of the Pickle available free for interested readers) drolly notes that Dexter, a businessman and philosopher, “never bothered to learn how to spell”. Indeed. He also had the philosophical acuity of a not-particularly-bright six-year-old. “To mankind at Large the time is Com at Last the grat day of Regoising what is that whye I will tell you thous three kings is Rased Rased you meane shoued know Rased on the first Royel Arch in the worid olmost Not quite but very hiw up upon so thay are good mark to be scene so the womans Lik to see the front and all people Loves to see them as the quakers will Com and peape and say houethe doue frind father Jorge washeton is in the center king Addoms at the Rite hand the present king at the Left hand...” (The present king, of course, being Thomas Jefferson.) if you are currently shaking your head and asking yourself “my god, what is he on about?”, you're not alone. (He's actually describing the archway leading to the grounds of his estate. The Dexter fan pages notes that of the over thirty wood-carved figures that once stood at Dexter's, only one remains extant, that of William Penn.)
May be found amusing by those who like books of heavy dialect (Riddley Walker comes immediately to mind), but is short enough to allow even those who can't stand this sort of writing to be astonished by what an idiot this guy was. **
February 22, 2021
philosophic genius
November 3, 2022
A manuscript of utmost importance meant to be read only by the elite of society. To quote the great Lord Dexter himself:
“forder A grate good man Came to see me Not Long sence I told sade man I had many Innemys he says be Cos you are toue onnest to be beloved you Dont gine in Comon ways with Rougs bibel making mesonik”
“forder A grate good man Came to see me Not Long sence I told sade man I had many Innemys he says be Cos you are toue onnest to be beloved you Dont gine in Comon ways with Rougs bibel making mesonik”
Read
January 5, 2023Bee-yoo-tiful
October 10, 2022
written by a philosophical genius.
April 16, 2020
A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truths in a Homespun Dress was originally a free text given out by an eccentric Massachusetts businessman named Timothy Dexter. Largely uneducated, it shows in the book which consists of lots of scraps of writing, badly spelt and not at all punctuated, often making very little sense. Ever listened to a Legendary Stardust Cowboy album or spent time in Anti-vax Facebook? If so, the incoherence and tone will be recognise-able. I, however, Have spent the last 11 years reading children’s scrawls in exercise books - I can do this.
The first part is a description on his house and garden, much a Horace Walpole did for visitors to Strawberry Hill. His house in Newburyport was decorated in forty wooden statues of great people set ‘hiw up’ so that people can ‘peape sly and feele glad’ at considering such great people. This leads him to consider the nature of greatness and on the greatness of American Presidents in particular. He considers that being a president is like being a king but should ‘pleas the Peopel at large.’
He addresses himself to ‘Mr Pintterr’ (alas, not Mr Editor) and describes/rants about the people who have wronged him in the past, including the lawyer hired by his son-in-law to beat him up. This leads him to a philosophical (as in the thoughts of a ‘flosofer’) about the nature of mankind.
“Tell trouth Man is the best Annemel and the worst”. He concludes that me resemble different kinds of animals, ‘sum like a dog sum Lik horses sum bare sum Cat sum Lion sum like Ouls sum a Monkey sum Wild Cat sum lam sum A Dove sum a hogg sum a oxe sum a snake” - though he doesn’t really elucidate in what way people are like this though he does extend the idea, deciding that there are lot’s of different kinds of people, “there is Grat Minds and littel minds Grat sols anf littel sols grat minds and littel minds”.
In the next section, he tells us his disdain for people of learning, which doesn’t surprise anyone up to this point. He also dislikes priests.
The next section is his plan to build a great great ‘mouserum’ if none of his enemies murder him first. He plans to fill this place with many examples of greatness and while he’s at it he concocts a plan for world peace. This plan consists of world leaders meeting round a common table to discuss problems, a precursor to the UN perhaps, he thinks the chair of this meeting should be that peaceful soul, ‘boneypartey’. He warns those who scorn his museum that they shall look silly in the end. Then he talks about meeting the devil…I think…and the devil came in the form of a black slave…to be honest, this was the bit I couldn’t understand at all.
The next part is a longer denunciation of the lawyer who beat him up at the orders of his son-in-law.
Now he seems to have a transcriber, perhaps it originally appeared in the newspaper. The ideas still have the same strident tone and car-crash pileup, but they are properly spelt. The first part is a call against ruffians in the neighbourhood. The second is a little more philosophy, that the world s “one very large living creature”, possibly a precursor to Gaia theory. On this living creature, man is the head animal and “the whale is the head fish”. Then the section goes into his own full style and he talks about how he hates his learned son-in-law and considers his wife to be like ghost.
The next section is about how the masons won’t let him in because he has ‘toue much knowledge in my head” but it doesn’t matter, because they’re rubbish anyway.
The next section again details his grievances, that his son was an idiot, that his daughter married a cruel thief who hired a lawyer to beat him up and that his wife is a cruel ghost. It’s not that he’s a bad person, he wouldn’t hurt man nor beast, well, perhaps some beasts.
“I Meane no hurt to A Flie only when he bits me when I kils the flye if I can”. You should feel sorry for such a man, his family are really mean to him and it makes him sad. “with tears in my Eys I Can’t see to Rite Aany more”.
The next part is how he made his money. He collected useless currency and then sold it back to the government at a fraction of the cost but more than he paid for it. He sold warming pans to the Caribbean, although they used them as molasses ladles. He hoarded whalebone and got lucky when the French started a fashion for men’s corsets. He sold Bibles to Asia, not to the people living there, but to missionaries. He caught stray cats and sold them as mousers to plantations. He sold woollen gloves in the East Indies to a group of Portuguese traders going to Alaska. Finally, he literally managed to sell coal to Newcastle as the coal miners were on strike when his ships arrived. Was it luck? Was it intelligence? Who knows? This ranty mess doesn’t help clear that up.
The next part is a repetition about how evil his son-in-law is and a repetition about how his wife is a malicious ghost at that you can ‘count the scars on my head’ if you don’t believe him.
The next section changes tack - his son-in-law has just died. The world is a wonderful place.
The next section is about drought I think - I got lost on this part also.
The next part is a summing up, a boasting of his achievements despite his not having much. He boast that one of the few skills he has is to “play on A Jous harp” which was so good “it would mak my mouth warter and the ladeys sumthing warter”. I’ve heard the Jew’s Harp and I didn’t realise it had aphrodisiac qualities but Timothy Dexter claims it’s true.
In the next section he feels bad again. Everyone in the world except him is a liar and what’s worse, “the burds will Chip offen before I Can git to sleep”.
The last part is not written by Timothy Dexter but by Jonathan Plummer, whom he paid to be his poet. He must have paid fairly well as Plummer writes a panegyric that trumpets Dexter’s wisdom and literary qualities, a particular irony for anyone having struggled through it. However, he didn’t pay Plummer enough to make the poem any good.
As an afterward is the best part of the book. In the second edition, Dexter responded to to complaints that there were no punctuation marks in the book with a page of them and the instruction for the reader to salt and pepper the writing as they pleased.
The Pickle for the Knowing Ones may be short but it’s incredibly hard work. While I’d argue that Hurlothrumbo has, or at least reaches for, artistic merit, The Pickle for the Knowing Ones has none whatsoever, nor does it even try to achieve any. It is nothing more than the rantings of an illiterate man which an over-inflated sense of himself, it may as well be a Trump speech.
The first part is a description on his house and garden, much a Horace Walpole did for visitors to Strawberry Hill. His house in Newburyport was decorated in forty wooden statues of great people set ‘hiw up’ so that people can ‘peape sly and feele glad’ at considering such great people. This leads him to consider the nature of greatness and on the greatness of American Presidents in particular. He considers that being a president is like being a king but should ‘pleas the Peopel at large.’
He addresses himself to ‘Mr Pintterr’ (alas, not Mr Editor) and describes/rants about the people who have wronged him in the past, including the lawyer hired by his son-in-law to beat him up. This leads him to a philosophical (as in the thoughts of a ‘flosofer’) about the nature of mankind.
“Tell trouth Man is the best Annemel and the worst”. He concludes that me resemble different kinds of animals, ‘sum like a dog sum Lik horses sum bare sum Cat sum Lion sum like Ouls sum a Monkey sum Wild Cat sum lam sum A Dove sum a hogg sum a oxe sum a snake” - though he doesn’t really elucidate in what way people are like this though he does extend the idea, deciding that there are lot’s of different kinds of people, “there is Grat Minds and littel minds Grat sols anf littel sols grat minds and littel minds”.
In the next section, he tells us his disdain for people of learning, which doesn’t surprise anyone up to this point. He also dislikes priests.
The next section is his plan to build a great great ‘mouserum’ if none of his enemies murder him first. He plans to fill this place with many examples of greatness and while he’s at it he concocts a plan for world peace. This plan consists of world leaders meeting round a common table to discuss problems, a precursor to the UN perhaps, he thinks the chair of this meeting should be that peaceful soul, ‘boneypartey’. He warns those who scorn his museum that they shall look silly in the end. Then he talks about meeting the devil…I think…and the devil came in the form of a black slave…to be honest, this was the bit I couldn’t understand at all.
The next part is a longer denunciation of the lawyer who beat him up at the orders of his son-in-law.
Now he seems to have a transcriber, perhaps it originally appeared in the newspaper. The ideas still have the same strident tone and car-crash pileup, but they are properly spelt. The first part is a call against ruffians in the neighbourhood. The second is a little more philosophy, that the world s “one very large living creature”, possibly a precursor to Gaia theory. On this living creature, man is the head animal and “the whale is the head fish”. Then the section goes into his own full style and he talks about how he hates his learned son-in-law and considers his wife to be like ghost.
The next section is about how the masons won’t let him in because he has ‘toue much knowledge in my head” but it doesn’t matter, because they’re rubbish anyway.
The next section again details his grievances, that his son was an idiot, that his daughter married a cruel thief who hired a lawyer to beat him up and that his wife is a cruel ghost. It’s not that he’s a bad person, he wouldn’t hurt man nor beast, well, perhaps some beasts.
“I Meane no hurt to A Flie only when he bits me when I kils the flye if I can”. You should feel sorry for such a man, his family are really mean to him and it makes him sad. “with tears in my Eys I Can’t see to Rite Aany more”.
The next part is how he made his money. He collected useless currency and then sold it back to the government at a fraction of the cost but more than he paid for it. He sold warming pans to the Caribbean, although they used them as molasses ladles. He hoarded whalebone and got lucky when the French started a fashion for men’s corsets. He sold Bibles to Asia, not to the people living there, but to missionaries. He caught stray cats and sold them as mousers to plantations. He sold woollen gloves in the East Indies to a group of Portuguese traders going to Alaska. Finally, he literally managed to sell coal to Newcastle as the coal miners were on strike when his ships arrived. Was it luck? Was it intelligence? Who knows? This ranty mess doesn’t help clear that up.
The next part is a repetition about how evil his son-in-law is and a repetition about how his wife is a malicious ghost at that you can ‘count the scars on my head’ if you don’t believe him.
The next section changes tack - his son-in-law has just died. The world is a wonderful place.
The next section is about drought I think - I got lost on this part also.
The next part is a summing up, a boasting of his achievements despite his not having much. He boast that one of the few skills he has is to “play on A Jous harp” which was so good “it would mak my mouth warter and the ladeys sumthing warter”. I’ve heard the Jew’s Harp and I didn’t realise it had aphrodisiac qualities but Timothy Dexter claims it’s true.
In the next section he feels bad again. Everyone in the world except him is a liar and what’s worse, “the burds will Chip offen before I Can git to sleep”.
The last part is not written by Timothy Dexter but by Jonathan Plummer, whom he paid to be his poet. He must have paid fairly well as Plummer writes a panegyric that trumpets Dexter’s wisdom and literary qualities, a particular irony for anyone having struggled through it. However, he didn’t pay Plummer enough to make the poem any good.
As an afterward is the best part of the book. In the second edition, Dexter responded to to complaints that there were no punctuation marks in the book with a page of them and the instruction for the reader to salt and pepper the writing as they pleased.
The Pickle for the Knowing Ones may be short but it’s incredibly hard work. While I’d argue that Hurlothrumbo has, or at least reaches for, artistic merit, The Pickle for the Knowing Ones has none whatsoever, nor does it even try to achieve any. It is nothing more than the rantings of an illiterate man which an over-inflated sense of himself, it may as well be a Trump speech.
May 4, 2024
At first I was having trouble with the punctuation, lucky for me though, our absolutely brilliant author left me some commas and periods I could place all over the place! Thanks Timothy!
February 7, 2023
If you are a lad who has always wondered what "word salad" was, look no further than this short novel. Additionally, if you are a lad who was always curious as to how one would speak during a stroke, look no further than the rantings of Mr. Dexter. This completely incomprehensible rubbish, written by a man blessed by the gods of fate, boasts no grammar, random capitalization, few correctly spelled words, and Beauties such as "Younited States" (United States), "Jnrel" (General), and "frind father Jorge washeton" (friend father George Washington).
I highly recommend this obvious masterpiece
I highly recommend this obvious masterpiece
February 16, 2021
So many great truths and wisdoms in this book. If everyone were to read this, I honestly believe that war and disagreement would be a thing of the past.
November 18, 2023
Im now a knowing one 🗿
August 29, 2023
profound
March 23, 2022
Timothy Dexter not only claims he is the “greatest philosopher in the western world” but he IS the “greatest philosopher in the western world”
Here a few favourite quotes:
“the south give way to the North the North give way to the south or by & by you will brake what falers be wise”
“A town caled Noubry all won the Younited states”
“Like a Dog sum Lik horses sum bare sum Cat sum Lion sum lik ouls sum a monkey sum wild Cat sum Lam sum A Dove sum a hogg sum a oxe sum a snake”
and of course the infamous yet down right MIND-BOGGLING
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This man was truly beyond his time.
Here a few favourite quotes:
“the south give way to the North the North give way to the south or by & by you will brake what falers be wise”
“A town caled Noubry all won the Younited states”
“Like a Dog sum Lik horses sum bare sum Cat sum Lion sum lik ouls sum a monkey sum wild Cat sum Lam sum A Dove sum a hogg sum a oxe sum a snake”
and of course the infamous yet down right MIND-BOGGLING
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This man was truly beyond his time.
June 2, 2022
lord timothy Dexter wus The gratest filosofer Of the westrn World he wus smart and eksentrik So he wus a gud Infloens he Solvd many problms of ar time and Also his One time he Sold cole to nucasl and Made muny wen The workers wur on Strike
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fouder mister printer the Nowing ones complane of my book the fust edition had no stops I put in A Nuf here and thay may peper and solt it as they plese
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fouder mister printer the Nowing ones complane of my book the fust edition had no stops I put in A Nuf here and thay may peper and solt it as they plese
September 25, 2021
This book was difficult on multiple levels. That is what makes it so awesome to read.
I had only minor problem with Lord Dexter's use of spelling and capitalization. However, the complete lack of punctuation combined with the slang of the day made some passages nearly as impossible to decode as attempting to hand decode an Enigma cipher.
Finally, I am positive that at times Dexter just wrote for no reason at all.
Now you might think that these difficulties would doom this book to a low rating. On the contrary, I found it hilarious. I laughed so much while reading this small book that I got many odd looks.
I had only minor problem with Lord Dexter's use of spelling and capitalization. However, the complete lack of punctuation combined with the slang of the day made some passages nearly as impossible to decode as attempting to hand decode an Enigma cipher.
Finally, I am positive that at times Dexter just wrote for no reason at all.
Now you might think that these difficulties would doom this book to a low rating. On the contrary, I found it hilarious. I laughed so much while reading this small book that I got many odd looks.
June 29, 2023
My frinds & felow mortals
This is an utterly unintelligible And incomprehensible masterpiece by a one grat felosfer Timothy Dexter it delves deep into the discussion of soul state and his wife I would gladly recommend this to no one If by any chance anyone chooses to read this I would recommend doing so aloud I have the suspicion it is written phonetically but it also might just be insane I now know how people feel when they are reading my essays though which is something
10 10 dont read this
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Posting this actually required me to complete Captcha which is something Timothy himself propably needed
This is an utterly unintelligible And incomprehensible masterpiece by a one grat felosfer Timothy Dexter it delves deep into the discussion of soul state and his wife I would gladly recommend this to no one If by any chance anyone chooses to read this I would recommend doing so aloud I have the suspicion it is written phonetically but it also might just be insane I now know how people feel when they are reading my essays though which is something
10 10 dont read this
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!!!!!!
?????
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Posting this actually required me to complete Captcha which is something Timothy himself propably needed
August 20, 2025
If the matarial shoued Anney compitance this woud be consided too be the Prede sessor to Finnegan's Wake mainly becose you nid to read the passajes out loued to make eny sents Alas it is all most compleat ley non Sents
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January 3, 2021
There is no better way to start off the new year than with the beautiful, philosophical ramblings of an eccentric, accidental businessman from the late 1700s.
November 27, 2024
This “book” was so weird. I bought it for my brother for Christmas since he asked. It was just sitting here so I decided to read it. I can’t believe how short it was… I would’ve thought they would add more to his diaries or collect more info from the diaries. It was really confusing with the writing and trying to understand what was written. I def wouldn’t have gone out of my way to read this
January 3, 2025
The words get easier to read but I still have no clue what’s going on.
Things I learned from T DEXTER:
- The Earth is a creature and fossils are the Earth producing more animals.
- He was beat up by a lawyer after he became a Lord.
- He is sad that his daughter is crazy and gets beaten by her husband.
Things I learned from T DEXTER:
- The Earth is a creature and fossils are the Earth producing more animals.
- He was beat up by a lawyer after he became a Lord.
- He is sad that his daughter is crazy and gets beaten by her husband.
September 16, 2025
50 pages of insane rambling and I love it (1/5 star for value, a 5/5 for insanity so I guess a 3/5 overall)
August 21, 2021
Nonsense. Pure nonsense. Reading this made my head hurt more than any intellectually challenging book ever would, for the complete opposite reason. But that said I kindof enjoyed it. At least enough to say I didn’t hate it
May 13, 2024
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May 29, 2021
Have to give it 3 stars because about 10% was intelligible.
The most intelligible section was from the bottom of page 16 to the middle of page 18. It has punctuation and proper spelling. The preface was also understandable but it wasn't written by Lord Timothy.
The rest is incredibly difficult to comprehend, utterly bizarre. Lot's of Christian references like God, the "divel", "gosts" and other Biblical figures. He also praises American Presidents. Page 21 outlines how he gained his fortune.
Spelling mistakes are immense.
The final poem is nice.
The most intelligible section was from the bottom of page 16 to the middle of page 18. It has punctuation and proper spelling. The preface was also understandable but it wasn't written by Lord Timothy.
The rest is incredibly difficult to comprehend, utterly bizarre. Lot's of Christian references like God, the "divel", "gosts" and other Biblical figures. He also praises American Presidents. Page 21 outlines how he gained his fortune.
Spelling mistakes are immense.
The final poem is nice.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews