"The Pickwick Papers" (1837) by Charles Dickens

Dickens’s first and funniest novel, published when he was only 25, was a huge worldwide hit that had people lining up on the wharfs in Sydney and New York when the boats came in with the latest instalment.

With a hundred English and American editions before 1900, it was probably the best-selling novel of the whole 19th Century, worldwide.

A comical English version of the Don Quixote/Sancho Panza theme, with an utterly likeable but impractical nouveau riche would-be gentleman from London (Mr. Pickwick) travelling around the country-side with a street-wise and resourceful young Cockney lad, the equally likeable and way more practical young Sam Weller, as servant-guide and fixer-upper of awkward incidents, this is a hugely enjoyable big book [1] just packed with the vignettes of life that are Dickens’s trademark.

An important factor in the enormous success of the book were the remarkably elaborate and expressive illustrations by Phiz [2] that were so carefully prepared in collaboration with Dickens – notably for the choice of the key scenes to be illustrated and for the captions – that they are really an integral part of the text [3].

All 43 of the original illustrations are included here.

(302,000 words)

An e-book (with the illustrations) is available for downloading below.

The Pickwick Papers (e-book)