The Pickwick Papers

In The Pickwick Papers, the wealthy and amiable Mr. Pickwick and his friends—calling themselves the "Pickwick Club"—wander around England out of curiosity and an interest in human nature. On the way, they have many loosely related comic adventures. Mr. Pickwick eventually employs a cockney man-servant, Sam Weller, whose fractured language and forthright attitude adds a great deal of amusement. Late in the book, a continuing story relates to a prosecution of Mr. Pickwick for breach of promise by his erstwhile landlady. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, to give it its original title, was Dickens' first novel. He had previously achieved a degree of popularity with his short pieces of journalism published in newspapers and magazines. Published as a serial by Chapman and Hall in 1836, the early chapters of The Pickwick Papers weren't initially a success; but when the character of Sam Weller was introduced, the series rapidly took off and became a publishing sensation. Its success launched Dickens' phenomenally successful writing career. The critic John Sutherland called it "the most important single novel of the Victorian era." Charles Dickens (died 1870) was one of the most distinguished authors of the Victorian age. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. As a work of classic literary fiction, The Pickwick Papers exemplifies the narrative craft and social insight that defined great storytelling of its era. Literary fiction of this period was characterized by careful attention to character psychology, social milieu, and the moral questions that animated public discourse.