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Primary sourceBook1836–1837

The Pickwick Papers

Charles Dickens · 1836–1837

Charles Dickens's first novel, a serialised comic work published 1836–1837 that made him famous.

This is the serial novel that launched Dickens to fame as a young writer.

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Front cover of the first monthly part of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, pale green, with title lettering in rough twig-style letters, a shooting scene and fishing rods framing the border, and a man in a boat on the river at bottom. Text reads Edited by Boz, with illustrations, published in London by Chapman and Hall.
Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, cover of first monthly part, 1836.

About this source

What it is

The Pickwick Papers (full title The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club) was Charles Dickens's first novel, published in serial form from March 1836 to November 1837. It began as text to accompany comic sporting illustrations by Robert Seymour, and grew into a loosely linked set of comic adventures following Samuel Pickwick and his friends.

Why it matters

The book became a publishing phenomenon, inspiring bootleg copies, stage shows and merchandise, and it helped popularise serialised fiction and the cliffhanger ending. Dickens, previously a young journalist, became a literary celebrity almost overnight. The illustrator Robert Seymour died by suicide early in the project, and Hablot Knight Browne (

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Front page of the Household Words weekly journal, dated Saturday, April 1, 1854, conducted by Charles Dickens. The page carries the chapter-one text of the serial Hard Times in two narrow newspaper columns.Book

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