The Pickwick Papers

Charles Dickens

Wordsworth Editions, 1993 - Fiction - 804 pages

With an Introduction and Notes by David Ellis, University of Kent at Canterbury. With Illustrations by R.Seymour, R.W. Buss and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz).

The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel and widely regarded as one of the major classics of comic writing in English. Originally serialised in monthly instalments, it quickly became a huge popular success with sales reaching 40,000 by the final part.

In the century and a half since its first appearance, the characters of Mr Pickwick, Sam Weller and the whole of the Pickwickian crew have entered the consciousness of all who love English literature in general, and the works of Dickens in particular.

Contents

• The first days journey and the first evenings adventures: 14
• A new acquaintance The strollers tale A disagreeable: 37
• A fieldday and bivouac More new friends An invitation: 48
• vA short one Showing among other matters how Mr Pickwick: 60
• An oldfashioned card party The clergymans verses The story: 70
• How Mr Winkle instead of shooting at the pigeon and killing: 83
• Strongly illustrative of the position that the course: 96
• A discovery and a chase: 109
• Involving another journey and an antiquarian discovery: 132
• Descriptive of a very important proceeding on the part: 148
• Some account of Eatanswill of the state of parties therein: 154

About the author

Charles Dickens, perhaps the best British novelist of the Victorian era, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on February 7, 1812. His happy early childhood was interrupted when his father was sent to debtors' prison, and young Dickens had to go to work in a factory at age twelve. Later, he took jobs as an office boy and journalist before publishing essays and stories in the 1830s. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, made him a famous and popular author at the age of twenty-five. Subsequent works were published serially in periodicals and cemented his reputation as a master of colorful characterization, and as a harsh critic of social evils and corrupt institutions. His many books include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and the couple had nine children before separating in 1858 when he began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Despite the scandal, Dickens remained a public figure, appearing often to read his fiction. He died in 1870, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Pickwick Papers; Issue 38 of Collins' illustrated pocket classics; Wordsworth Children's Classics; Wordsworth Collection; Wordsworth classics
• Author: Charles Dickens
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions, 1993
• ISBN: 1853260525, 9781853260520
• Length: 804 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Friendship; Fiction / Humorous / General; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Places / Europe