This is Dickens' first novel and introduces the characters of Mr Pickwick, Sam Weller and the whole of the Pickwickian crew and follows their adventures. It is widely regarded as one of the most famous of pre-Victorian novels.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first novel by Charles Dickens. It was originally an idea by Robert Seymour, the illustrator, to which Dickens was asked to contribute as an up and coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836. Dickens, supremely confident as ever, increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publication after Seymour had committed suicide. With the introduction of Sam Weller the book became the first real publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books and other merchandise. It was inspired by a town, Corsham. The name Pickwick is likely to have come from that of a nearby farm, Pickwick Lodge Farm. Pickwick is the part of Corsham which is on the A4, once the main road from London to Bristol.


Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The novel's main character, Mr. Pickwick, is a kind old gentleman, the founder of the Pickwick Club. He is usually portrayed by illustrators as a round-faced, clean-shaved, portly gentleman wearing spectacles. Mr. Pickwick travels with his friends, Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, and Mr. Tracy Tupman, and their adventures are the chief theme of the novel.

One memorable adventure is Mr. Pickwick's legal case against his landlady, Mrs Bardell, who is suing him for the breach of promise to marry her. Another is Mr. Pickwick's incarceration at the Fleet for his stubborn refusal to pay the compensation to her (the unscrupulous Dodson and Fogg's law firm prosecuted poor Pickwick).

Although The Pickwick Papers has a rather irregular structure, with many unconnected adventures and the absence of a thought-out plot, its main literary value and appeal is formed by its numerous unforgettable heroes. Each personage in The Pickwick Papers (just as in many other Dickens' novels) is drawn comically, often with exaggerated features of character.

Apart from Mr. Pickwick himself, the most entertaining characters of the novel are Sam Weller, Weller Senior, Mr. Alfred Jingle, the merry habitants of Dingley Dell farm, and Joe.

Outside The Pickwick Papers, Mr. Pickwick, Sam Weller, and Weller Senior also make an appearance in Dickens's serial, Master Humphrey's Clock.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (born Feb. 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Eng.-died June 9, 1870, Gad's Hill, near Chatham, Kent) British novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period.His fiction career began with short pieces reprinted as Sketches by “Boz” (1836). He exhibited a great ability to spin a story in an entertaining manner and this quality, combined with the serialization of his comic novel The Pickwick Papers (1837), made him the most popular English author of his time. The serialization of such works as Oliver Twist (1838) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) followed. After a trip to America, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843) in a few weeks. With Dombey and Son (1848), his novels began to express a heightened uneasiness about the evils of Victorian industrial society, which intensified in the semiautobiographical David Copperfield (1850), as well as in Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), Great Expectations (1861), and others. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the period when he achieved great popularity for his public readings. Dickens's works are characterized by an encyclopaedic knowledge of London, pathos, a vein of the macabre, a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality, inexhaustible powers of character creation, an acute ear for characteristic speech, and a highly individual and inventive prose style.