Nathaniel Winkle

Nathaniel Winkle is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's first novel, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Nathaniel Winkle by Thomas Nast (1873)

A founder and younger member of the Pickwick Club created by the retired businessman Samuel Pickwick, Winkle is a young friend of Pickwick's and his travelling companion. Although a city dweller Winkle considers himself an outdoor sportsman, though he turns out to be dangerously inept when handling horses and guns. His ineptitude, especially with guns, becomes a running joke throughout the novel.[1]

Mr. Winkle sups with Bob Sawyer - illustration by Hablot Knight Browne (1836)

It is likely that the character of Winkle was introduced by Dickens into the Pickwick Papers as a nod to the original sporting theme of the novel as envisioned by Robert Seymour, the original illustrator. Seymour's idea was to create a magazine series of sporting illustrations with short written sketches linking them together around a 'Nimrod Club' of sporting people having adventures as the framework for his own sketches and illustrations. As the Pickwick Papers evolved under the pen of Dickens the sporting tales became fewer and fewer, with the exception of Winkle, who boasts about his hunting skills (despite having none): is frightened at the thought of having to fight a duel with an experienced Army officer; manages to fall off a horse; accidentally shoots fellow Club member Tracy Tupman in the arm while hunting fowl[2] and who cannot even ice skate.[1] After Seymour subsequent illustrators have depicted Winkle in sporting gear, including Thomas Nast (above) in 1873 in which he drew Winkle standing with the loaded gun pointing at his head.

Winkle receives Pickwick's assistance in his courting of and eventual marriage to Arabella Allen,[3] eloping with her despite strong opposition from Benjamin Allen, his bride's brother; from Bob Sawyer, his rival for her affections, and his own father.[1]