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Pickwick Papers
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The Pickwick Papers was Dickens' first novel, completed in 1837. From the start he established his eye for vivid characters - with the lovable London character of Sam Weller, the boistrous Mr Pickwick, and the rest of the colour crew. The adventures, including the cricket match in Dingley Dell, and the grim description of Fleet Prison, set the pattern for the most remarkable series of stories that epitomize England in the 19th century.
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The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first novel by Charles Dickens. It was originally an idea by Robert Seymour, the illustrator, to which Dickens was asked to contribute as an up and coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836. Dickens, supremely confident as ever, increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publication after Seymour had committed suicide.
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Like many of Dickens' novels, The Pickwick Papers has attracted numerous writers who have cast tbe narrative work in a variety of dramatic forms. Although this essay concentrates on the versions executed at the time of the publication of the novel, several later adaptations may be of interest: Pickwick, a four-act drama by James Albery (1871); Bardell versus Pickwick, a sketch by John Hollingshead (1871); Jingle, a farce by James Albery (1878); Bardell versus Pickwick, a two-act operetta with book by T.H. Gem and music by Frank Spinney (1881); The Great Pickwick Case, an operetta with lyrics by Robert Pollitt and music by Thomas Rawson (1884); Jingle: or, The Pickwick Club, a three-act comedy by George E Rowe (1887); Pickwick, a one-act dramatic cantata with libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Edward Solomon (1889); Bardell versus Pickwick by J.W. Bengough (1907); Monsieur Pickwick (in French), a five-act comedy-burlesque by Georges Duval and Robert Charvay (1911); Bardell v. Pickwick by Frank P. Davis (1915); Mr Pickwick, a two-act musical with libretto by Charles Klein, lyrics by Grant Stewart, and music by Manuel Klein (1903); Pickwick, a three-act comedy by Cosmo Hamilton and Frank C. Reilly (1927); Mr Pickwick, a two-act comedy by Stanley Young (1952); and Pickwick, a musical with libretto by Wolf Mankowitz, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, and music by Cyril Ornadel (1965). Note is ... taken of Sgt. Buzfuz (1871) and Frank E. Emson's The Weller Family (n.d.).
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Charles Dickens’s satirical masterpiece, The Pickwick Papers, catapulted the young writer into literary fame when it was first serialized in 1836–37. It recounts the rollicking adventures of the members of the Pickwick Club as they travel about England getting into all sorts of mischief. Laugh-out-loud funny and endlessly entertaining, the book ... reveals Dickens’s burgeoning interest in the parliamentary system, lawyers, the Poor Laws, and the ills of debtors’ prisons. As G. K. Chesterton noted, “Before [Dickens] wrote a single real story, he had a kind of vision . . . a map full of fantastic towns, thundering coaches, clamorous market-places, uproarious inns, strange and swaggering figures. That vision was Pickwick.”
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Published serially in 1836 and later in book form, "The Pickwick Papers" launched Dickens' literary career with resounding success. Not originally conceived as a book, the papers were actually glorified captions for a series of caricatures by Robert Seymour. Dickens sketched with words and wit and brought life to the naive Samuel Pickwick and his friends in episodic accounts of the Pickwick Club.
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The three copies of the first edition of Pickwick Papers consulted for this project—the sources for the written story and the illustrations by Phiz—belong to MssSCUA, University of Washington Libraries. Other sources consulted for this project are in the public domain, except for the critical works cited in the introduction. The copyright for the introduction, all written commentary, and the teaching exercises belongs to Cara Lane (May 9, 2000).
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Pickwick Papers