The Pickwick Papers
1837
The novel that invented modern popular fiction. Twenty-four-year-old Charles Dickens was asked to write captions for a series of comic sporting illustrations; instead, he created a universe. Samuel Pickwick, the rotund, unworldly founder of the Pickwick Club, decides that theory isn't enough - he must observe English life firsthand. Along with his devoted companions - the timid sportsman Winkle, the poet Snodgrass, and the lovelorn Tupman - he embarks on journeys across the English countryside that spiral from mild eccentricity into glorious chaos. But the real revelation is Sam Weller, Pickwick's sharp-tongued cockney manservant, who practically steals the entire novel with his wit, his proverbs, and his irrepressible good nature. From cricket matches to election riots to a stint in the Fleet debtors' prison, the adventures pile up with an energy that never flags. This is Dickens before the darkness - giddy, generous, and impossibly inventive. It made him famous overnight and popularized the serialized novel format we still read today.
Editions
X-Ray
“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!””
— Charles Dickens
“Poetry makes life what lights and music do the stage.””
— Charles Dickens
“There are very few moments in a man's existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.””
— Charles Dickens
“what was over couldn't be begun, and what couldn't be cured must be endured;””
— Charles Dickens
“It is the fate of most men who mingle with the world, and attain even the prime of life, to make many real friends, and lose them in the course of nature. It is the fate of all authors or chroniclers to create imaginary friends, and lose them in the course of art. Nor is this the full extent of their misfortunes; for they are required to furnish an account of them besides.””
— Charles Dickens
“She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have met with her 'Ode to an Expiring Frog,' sir.””
— Charles Dickens
“Ode to an Expiring FrogCan I view thee panting, lying On thy stomach, without sighing! Can I unmoved see thee dying On a log, Expiring frog! Say, have fiends in shape of boys, With wild halloo and brutal noise, Hunted thee from marshy joys, With a dog, Expiring frog?””
— Charles Dickens
“Man is but mortal; and there is a point beyond which human courage cannot extend.””
— Charles Dickens
“Mr. Pickwick gazed through his spectacles for an instant on the advancing mass, and then fairly turned his back and -- we will not say fled; firstly because it is an ignoble term, and, secondly, because Mr. Pickwick's figure was by no means adapted for that mode of retreat...””
— Charles Dickens
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042Cite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042.Dickens, C. (1837). The Pickwick Papers. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-pickwick-papers-6855e7ee-8968-4f7a-9a0a-65ef448da042.
