In one of a ridiculous number of letters discussing oysters with his Harvard pen pal Cornelius Felton, this author expressed admiration for notorious illegal oyster glutton Edward Dando. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this author who put remarks about oysters in the mouths of characters like Kit Nubbles and Seth Pecksniff.
ANSWER: Charles Dickens
[10m] This Cockney shoeshine declares that “poverty and oysters always seem to go together” in Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers. This character gives his name to “isms” that combine a fatuous proverb with a humorous attribution.
ANSWER: Sam Weller [or Samuel Weller; accept Wellerisms]
[10h] Dickens introduces this antagonist as an “oyster of the old school whom nobody can open” and likens his profession to “maggots in nuts.” This antagonist’s all-black attire, “irresponsive to any glancing light,” makes him resemble a “larger species of rook.”
ANSWER: Bill Tulkinghorn [or Mr. Tulkinghorn; prompt on Bill] (He is the antagonist of Bleak House.)
<AP, British Literature>