Samuel Pickwick, Esquire is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, the founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. He suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the English countryside by coach provide the chief subject matter of the novel. A romantic misunderstanding with his landlady, the widow Mrs Bardell, results in one of the most famous legal cases in English literature.
The Pickwick Papers was Charles Dickens' first novel, and became Britain's first real publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, joke books, and other merchandise. On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames in The Atlantic wrote, "'Literature" is not a big enough category for Pickwick. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call "entertainment.'" Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success of The Pickwick Papers popularised serialised fiction and cliffhanger endings.
This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.
