IT WAS observed, in the Preface to the original Edition of the "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club," that they were aesigned for the mtroduction of diverting characters and incidents; that no ingenuity of plot was attempted, or even at that time considered very feasible by the author in connexion with the desultory mode of publication adopted; and that the machinery of the Club, proving cumbrous in the management,was gradually abandoned as the work progressed. Although on one of these points, experience and study afterwards taught me something, and I could perhaps wish now that these chapters were strung together on a stronger thread of general interest, still, what they are they were designed to be.

...

The high-spirited work of a young Dickens, The Pickwick Papers is the remarkable first novel that made its author famous and that has remained one of the best-known books in the world. In it the inimitable Samuel Pickwick, his well-fed body and unsinkable good spirits clad in tights and gaiters, sallies forth through the noisy streets of London and into the colorful country inns of rural England for a series of sparkling encounters with love and misadventure.From the wit of cockney bootblack Sam Weller to the unforgettable Fat Boy and rascals like the amorous Mr.Jingle and the unscrupulous lawyers Dodson and Fogg,The Pickwick Papers reels with joyous fantasy,infectious good humor, and a touch of the macabre--a classic work that G. K. Chesterton called "the great example of everything that made Dickens great...[a]supreme masterpiece."

Advertisement from the Athenaeum, March 26, 1836

Preface to the Charles Dickens Edition

Characters

CHAPTER 1

The Pickwickians

CHAPTER 2

The first Day's Journey, and the first Evening's Adventures;

with their Consequences

CHAPTER 3

A new Acquaintance. The Stroller's Tale. A disagreeable

Interruption and an unpleasant Encounter

CHAPTER 4

A Field-day and Bivouac. More new Friends. An Invitation

to the Country

CHAPTER 5

A short one. Showing, among other Matters, how Mr.

Pickwick undertook to drive, and Mr. Winkle to ride;

and how they both did it

CHAPTER 6

An old-fashioned Card-Party. The Clergyman's Verses.

The Story of the Convict's Return

CHAPTER 7

How Mr. Winkle, instead of shooting at the Pigeon and

killing the Crow, shot at the Crow and wounded the Pigeon;

how the Dingley Dell Cricket Club played All-Muggleton,

and how All-Muggleton dined at the Dingley Dell Expense;

with other interesting and instructive Matters

CHAPTER 8

Strongly illustrative of the Position, that the Course of

True Love is not a Railway

CHAPTER 9

A Discovery and a Chase

CHAPTER 10

Clearing up all Doubts (if any existed) of the

Disinterestedness of Mr. Jingle's Character

CHAPTER 11

Involving another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery.

Recording Mr. Pickwick's Determination to be present

at an Election; and containing a Manuscript of the old

Clergyman's

CHAPTER 12

Descriptive of a very important Proceeding on the Part of

Mr. Pickwick; no less an Epoch in his Life, than in

this History

CHAPTER 13

Some Account of Eatanswill; of the State of Parties

therein; and of the Election of a Member to serve in

Parliament for that ancient, loyal, and patriotic Borough

CHAPTER 14

Comprising a brief Description of the Company at the

Peacock assembled; and a Tale told by a Bagman

CHAPTER 15

In which is given a faithful Portraiture of two distinguished

Persons: and an accurate Description of a Public Breakfast

in their House and Grounds; which Public Breakfast leads

to the Recognition of an old Acquaintance, and the

Commencement of another Chapter

CHAPTER 16

Too full of Adventure to be briefly described

CHAPTER 17

Showing that an Attack of Rheumatism, in some Cases,

acts as a Quickener to Inventive Genius

CHAPTER 18

Briefly illustrative of two Points;--first, the Power of

Hysterics, and, secondly, the Force of Circumstances

CHAPTER 19

A pleasant Day, with an unpleasant Termination

CHAPTER 20

Showing how Dodson and Fogg were Men of Business,

and their Clerks Men of Pleasure; and how an affecting

Interview took place between Mr. Weller and his long-

lost Parent; showing also what Choice Spirits assembled

at the Magpie and Stump, and what a capital Chapter

the Next One will be

CHAPTER 21

In which the Old Man launches forth into his favourite

Theme, and relates a Story about a queer Client

CHAPTER 22

Mr. Pickwick journeys to Ipswich, and meets with a

romantic.Adventure with a middle-aged Lady in Yellow

Curl-Papers