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The Pickwick Papers
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The Pickwick Papers Mass market paperbound - 2004

by Charles Dickens; Afterword by Jasper Fforde

The adventures of the Pickwick Club-bumbling through duels, lawsuits, jails, and hilarious romantic imbroglios-rocketed their author to sudden fame.


About this book

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (commonly known as The Pickwick Papers) is the first novel published by Charles Dickens. The Posthumous Papers Of The Pickwick Club catapulted the 24-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle &, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr. Pickwick, & his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtor’s prison, characters & incidents sprang to life from Dickens’s pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humor & literary invention

The novel was published in 19 issues over 20 months by Chapman and Hall, London in 1836. 

After the publication the widow of illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any specific input, writing that "Mr. Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in the book.


Summary

The adventures of the immortal Pickwick Club, headed by good Mr. Pickwick himself, have kept readers laughing for nearly two centuries. Following the intrepidly bumbling Pickwickians along the highways and byways of old England, Charles Dickens creates a vivid world of highwaymen, duels, lawsuits, jails, and hilarious romantic imbroglios—but a world too of deeply affecting human warmth and generosity. Filled with a host of indelible characters, [viii] The Pickwick Papers has never ceased to enjoy the popularity it won with its initial publication—when it rocketed its author to sudden fame and launched a career without equal in the history of the English novel.
 
With an Afterword by Jasper Fforde

From the publisher

The adventures of the immortal Pickwick Club, headed by good Mr. Pickwick himself, have kept readers laughing for nearly two centuries. Following the intrepidly bumbling Pickwickians along the highways and byways of old England, Charles Dickens creates a vivid world of highwaymen, duels, lawsuits, jails, and hilarious romantic imbroglios--but a world too of deeply affecting human warmth and generosity. Filled with a host of indelible characters, [viii] The Pickwick Papers has never ceased to enjoy the popularity it won with its initial publication--when it rocketed its author to sudden fame and launched a career without equal in the history of the English novel.
With an Afterword by Jasper Fforde

First Edition Identification

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club first published in book format in 1837 by Chapman & Hall, London. It was illustrated with 43 engraved plates by R. Seymour and H. T. Browne.

Details

  • Title The Pickwick Papers
  • Author Charles Dickens; Afterword by Jasper Fforde
  • Binding Mass Market Paperbound
  • Edition Reissue
  • Pages 848
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Signet Book
  • Date 2004-06-01
  • ISBN 9780451529381 / 0451529383
  • Weight 0.85 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.5 in (17.02 x 10.67 x 3.81 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Reading level 1160
  • Library of Congress subjects England, Humorous fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2003070370
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born at Landport, near Portsmouth, England. The second of eight children in a family often plagued by debt, Dickens at ten saw his father arrested and confined in the Marshalsea, a debtors' prison in London, and although a small boy, he was placed in a blacking factory where he worked at labeling bottles, visiting John Dickens on Sundays. On his father's release, Charles returned to school, taught himself shorthand, and at sixteen became a paramilitary reporter. At twenty-four, his career took off with the publication of Sketches by Boz, which was followed by The Pickwick Papers the next year. As a novelist and magazine editor, he had a long run of serialized successes, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities. Even as ill health plagued him at the end of his life, he continued his popular dramatic readings from his fiction to an adoring public, which included Queen Victoria. He died at Gads Hill, his home in Kent, leaving his final manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.
Jasper Fforde worked in the film industry for nineteen years, where his varied career included the role of "focus puller" on films such as Goldeneye and The Mask of Zorro. After he had received seventy-six rejection letters from publishers, his first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001 and became an international bestselling phenomenon. He has published six sequels, as well as multiple volumes in the Nursery Crime, Shades of Grey, and Last Dragonslayer series. Fforde lives and writes in Wales.
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The Pickwick Papers
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Pickwick Papers

by Dickens, Charles

  • Used
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ISBN 13
9780451529381
ISBN 10
0451529383
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Penguin Publishing Group. Used - Very Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects.
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The Pickwick Papers

The Pickwick Papers

by Dickens, Charles

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780451529381
ISBN 10
0451529383
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1
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This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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Description:
Signet Book, 2004. Mass Market Paperback. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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