Reviews"No essay in fiction ever gave more incontestable assurance of genius. . . . Never, perhaps, was satire so large-hearted and so entertaining."--George Gissing, "No essay in fiction ever gave more incontestable assurance of genius. . . . Never, perhaps, was satire so large-hearted and so entertaining."-George Gissing
Grade FromTwelfth Grade
SynopsisTHE PICKWICK PAPERS began as a literary spoof centred around sketches of stock sporting fops by caricaturist Robert Seymour. Following the success of SKETCHES BY BOZ, Dickens was recruited to compose the words which would accompany the illustrations. Dickens quickly made the project his own and created some of his most popular characters- Samuel Pickwick, and his companions Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass, and Tracy Tupman. At the height of its popularity THE PICKWICK PAPERS sold 40,000 copies a month and catapulted the 24 year old Dickens to fame., 'One of my life's greatest tragedies is to have already read Pickwick Papers - I can't go back and read it for the first time' Fernando Pessoa Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers - a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtors' prison, characters and incidents spring to life from Dickens's pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour and literary invention. This edition is based on the first volume edition of 1837, and includes the original illustrations. In his introduction, Mark Wormald discusses the genesis of The Pickwick Papers and the emergence of its central characters. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
LC Classification NumberPR4569.A