The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

G.K. Chesterton described The Pickwick Papers as something nobler than a novel', which emitted that sense of everlasting youth - a sense as of the gods gone wandering in England', and it has been said of the book's reception: It is doubtful if any other single work of letters before or since has ever aroused such wild and widespread enthusiasm.'

This was the book which carried the 24-year-old Dickens to fame, introduced him to his illustrator, 'Phiz' (Hablot K. Browne) and created, in Mr Pickwick and Sam Weller, characters who have become part of the English mythology. This journey from innocence to experience by the portly middle-aged hero and his guide and mentor, though it contains darker hints, is essentially a young man's book - buoyant, cheerful and ultimately optimistic about human nature. The cover shows a detail from The Elephant and Castle on the Brighton Road', an engraving after James Pollard, by courtesy of the Trustees of the London Museum (photo Rodney Todd-White) The portrait of Charles Dickens is from an engraving after a painting by W. P. Frith, by permission of the Trustees of the Dickens House

Details

• Paperback
• ISBN: 0140430784
• Condition: Acceptable
  
• Publisher: Penguin English Library