The Pickwick Papers is Dickens'first novel and widely regarded as one of the major classics of comic writing in English.Originally serialJsed in monthly instalments, it quickly became a huge popular success with sales reaching 40000 by the final number.In the century and a half since its first appearance, the characters of Mr Pickwick,Sam Weller and the whole Pickwickian crew have entered the consciousness of all who love English literature in general, and the works of Dickens in particular.

Readers are drawn in from the very first chapter,when Mr Pickwick announces his brilliant idea and the immortal Pickwick Club is born.Winkle the sportsman,Snodgrass the poet and Tupman the lover all join with Pickwick in reporting back on their'perambulations,perils,travels and adventures'.And they provide a rainbow of experiences that is the stuff of Dickens's glorious novel.The Pickwick Papers appeared in serial form during 1836-7 and soon it was all the rage.There were Pickwick hats,coats,canes,cigars and song-books.This is the novel that made twenty-four-year-old Dickens famous,and it has delighted and entertained countless readers ever since.