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The Pickwick Papers

By Charles Dickens

Cover of The Pickwick Papers

Cover: The London-Manchester Stage Coach, 'the Peveril of the Peak', outside the Peacock Inn, Islington (c. 1830), oil on canvas by James Pollard (1792-1867) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1867)

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) was the first novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form from March 1836 to November 1837. Because of his success with Sketches by Boz published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour, and to connect them into a novel. The book became a publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise.

Summary source: Wikipedia: The Pickwick Papers · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Table of contents

  1. 1: The Pickwickians
  2. 2: The First Day’s Journey, and the First Evening’s Adventures;
  3. 3: A New Acquaintance--the Stroller’s Tale--a Disagreeable
  4. 4: A Field Day and Bivouac--More New Friends--an Invitation to
  5. 5: A SHORT ONE--SHOWING, AMONG OTHER MATTERS, HOW Mr. PICKWICK
  6. 6: An Old-Fashioned Card-Party--the Clergyman’s Verses--the
  7. 7: How Mr. Winkle, Instead of Shooting at the Pigeon and
  8. 8: Strongly Illustrative of the Position, That the Course of
  9. 9: A Discovery and a Chase
  10. 10: Clearing Up All Doubts (If Any Existed) of the
  11. 11: Involving Another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery;
  12. 12: Descriptive of a Very Important Proceeding on the Part of
  13. 13: Some Account of Eatanswill; of the State of Parties
  14. 14: Comprising a Brief Description of the Company at the
  15. 15: In Which Is Given a Faithful Portraiture of Two
  16. 16: Too Full of Adventure to Be Briefly Described
  17. 17: Showing That an Attack of Rheumatism, in Some Cases, Acts
  18. 18: Briefly Illustrative of Two Points; First, the Power of
  19. 19: A Pleasant Day with an Unpleasant Termination
  20. 20: Showing How Dodson and Fogg Were Men of Business, and Their
  21. 21: In Which the Old Man Launches Forth into His Favourite
  22. 22: Mr. Pickwick Journeys to Ipswich and Meets with a Romantic
  23. 23: In Which Mr. Samuel Weller Begins to Devote His Energies
  24. 24: Wherein Mr. Peter Magnus Grows Jealous, and the Middle-
  25. 25: Showing, Among a Variety of Pleasant Matters, How Majestic
  26. 26: Which Contains a Brief Account of the Progress of the
  27. 27: Samuel Weller Makes a Pilgrimage to Dorking, and Beholds
  28. 28: A Good-Humoured Christmas Chapter, Containing an Account
  29. 29: The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton
  30. 30: How the Pickwickians Made and Cultivated the Acquaintance
  31. 31: Which Is All About the Law, and Sundry Great Authorities
  32. 32: Describes, Far More Fully Than the Court Newsman Ever
  33. 33: Mr. Weller the Elder Delivers Some Critical Sentiments
  34. 34: Is Wholly Devoted to a Full and Faithful Report of the
  35. 35: In Which Mr. Pickwick Thinks He Had Better Go to Bath; and
  36. 36: The Chief Features of Which Will Be Found to Be an
  37. 37: Honourably Accounts for Mr. Weller’s Absence, by
  38. 38: How Mr. Winkle, When He Stepped Out of the Frying-Pan,
  39. 39: Mr. Samuel Weller, Being Intrusted with a Mission of
  40. 40: Introduces Mr. Pickwick to a New and Not Uninteresting Scene
  41. 41: What Befell Mr. Pickwick When He Got into the Fleet; What
  42. 42: Illustrative, Like the Preceding One, of the Old Proverb,
  43. 43: Showing How Mr. Samuel Weller Got into Difficulties
  44. 44: Treats of Divers Little Matters Which Occurred in the
  45. 45: Descriptive of an Affecting Interview Between Mr. Samuel
  46. 46: Records a Touching Act of Delicate Feeling, Not Unmixed
  47. 47: Is Chiefly Devoted to Matters of Business, and the
  48. 48: Relates How Mr. Pickwick, with the Assistance of Samuel
  49. 49: Containing the Story of the Bagman’s Uncle
  50. 50: How Mr. Pickwick Sped upon His Mission, and How He Was
  51. 51: In Which Mr. Pickwick Encounters an Old Acquaintance--to
  52. 52: Involving a Serious Change in the Weller Family, and the
  53. 53: Comprising the Final Exit of Mr. Jingle and Job Trotter,
  54. 54: Containing Some Particulars Relative to the Double Knock,
  55. 55: Mr. Solomon Pell, Assisted by a Select Committee of
  56. 56: An Important Conference Takes Place Between Mr. Pickwick
  57. 57: In Which the Pickwick Club Is Finally Dissolved, and