Pickwick Papers

Shortlisted for the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown It is 31 March 1836. A new monthly periodical is launched entitled The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Conceived and created by the artist Robert Seymour, it contains four of his illustrations. The words to accompany them are written by a young journalist, under the pen-name Boz. The journalist's real name is Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers soon becomes a phenomenal, unprecedented sensation, read and discussed by the entire British Isles. Before long, its success is worldwide. Stephen Jarvis's novel tells of the dawning of the age of global celebrity. It is a story of colossal triumph and of the depths of tragedy, based on real events - and an expose of how an ambitious young writer stole another man's ideas.

'Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club' is the one novel of Dickens that abounds neither in pathetic, grewsome, nor dramatic passages. It is pure fun from beginning to end, with a laugh on every page. It was published in 1836, and aided by the clever illustrations of Hablot Brown, or "Phiz," it attained immediate success and laid the foundations of Dickens's fame. The types illustrated are caricatures, but nevertheless they are types: Mr. Pickwick, the genial, unsophisticated founder of the club; and that masterly array of ludicrous individuals drawn from all classes high and low. Although the whole book is exaggerated comedy, there is no other that has furnished more characters universally known, or given to common English speech more current phrases. Many sayings and events are still in the "Pickwickian sense"; Sam Weller and his admirable father are still quoted; Mrs. Leo Hunter is still a feature in social life; Bardell trials occur occasionally; and there are many clubs as wise as Pickwick's.

This novel, written when Dickens was only 25 years old, immediately brought him immense popularity. Presenting a host of now-classic characters in a series of adventures, it displays the richness of his skills of characterization and description. Mr Samuel Pickwick is general chairman of the Pickwick Club, whose members - Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle – form a society to report their adventures and observations. From these reports emerge the rascal Jingle and his servant, Job Trotter, the engaging Sam Weller, the greedy drunkard Stiggins, and many more of Dickens's best-loved characters.

This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Samuel Pickwick, Esquire, a kind and wealthy old gentleman, and the founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club, decides to extend his researches into the quaint and curious phenomena of life. He suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. They travel throughout the English countryside by coach, on hunting, fishing and other expeditions.