The Pickwick Papers cover

The Pickwick Papers

Rating 4.8
Word count
1.7M words
Chapters
175

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Pickwick Papers by Charles DickensAuthor: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 1996

Editor's review

The Pickwick Papers is Dickens's first novel, following Mr. Pickwick and his club companions on their travels and weaving together the everyday life of English towns and a courtroom drama. It retains the relaxed humor typical of serialized fiction, with a vivid cast of characters and a gentle, ironic narrative tone. Readers can see both the young Dickens's comic gift and his observations of social customs and judicial abuses. As a public-domain ebook, this edition is easy to search and carry, suited to reading in short sessions on a commute or before bed. While reading, note the loose structure between chapters and treat it as a series of sketches of manners rather than a tightly plotted novel; readers interested in Victorian English society will find this a light but substantial introduction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who love classic English literature and want to see where Dickens began
  • Readers who enjoy humorous sketches of manners and do not need a strongly plotted narrative
  • Students who need a public-domain English original for language study or textual research
  • General readers interested in Victorian street life and the justice system

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting a tight, suspenseful main plot and a highly concentrated narrative
  • Beginners unused to nineteenth-century English syntax and serial structure
  • Readers who only want Dickens's mature masterpieces and have limited interest in his early work

Reading tips

  1. Read in sections by chapter or club event, two or three chapters at a time, to avoid losing patience with the loose structure.
  2. Start with the dialogue between Pickwick and Sam Weller to get a feel for the characters' speech, then read the whole book.
  3. Read alongside simple notes on Victorian background, pausing briefly at passages on the law and provincial customs.
  4. If the English original is hard going, learn the main character relationships first and proceed gradually; there is no need to finish it in one go.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
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  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103
  104. 104
  105. 105
  106. 106
  107. 107
  108. 108
  109. 109
  110. 110
  111. 111
  112. 112
  113. 113
  114. 114
  115. 115
  116. 116
  117. 117
  118. 118
  119. 119
  120. 120
  121. 121
  122. 122
  123. 123
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  125. 125
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  133. 133
  134. 134
  135. 135
  136. 136
  137. 137
  138. 138
  139. 139
  140. 140
  141. 141
  142. 142
  143. 143
  144. 144
  145. 145
  146. 146
  147. 147
  148. 148
  149. 149
  150. 150
  151. 151
  152. 152
  153. 153
  154. 154
  155. 155
  156. 156
  157. 157
  158. 158
  159. 159
  160. 160
  161. 161
  162. 162
  163. 163
  164. 164
  165. 165
  166. 166
  167. 167
  168. 168
  169. 169
  170. 170
  171. 171
  172. 172
  173. 173
  174. 174
  175. 175

FAQ

How difficult is this book compared with Dickens's other works?
As Dickens's first novel, it is looser in structure than his later works, with the plot driven by a series of travel episodes. The English syntax has a nineteenth-century flavor, but the humor and dialogue are lively. Readers unfamiliar with classic English may need more patience; overall difficulty is moderate to high.
Can I start with this book if I have never read Dickens?
Yes. It is where Dickens began, and it shows his early humor and character portrayal. If you prefer a mature, fully structured plot, however, you might read a later work first and then come back to enjoy the looseness and sketches of manners in this first novel.
What is this ebook edition suitable for?
This is a public-domain electronic text, suitable for personal reading, English text searching, and classroom citation. Because it is a free ebook, formatting and notes vary by platform; check the file format before reading and have background materials on hand to aid understanding.

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About the author

Charles Dickens (Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870) is one of the most influential novelists in the history of English literature. The library holds 115 of his works, including novels, novellas and short stories; representative titles include The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. He was known for serialized fiction, with plot twists and vivid characters, and he used humor and satire to portray Victorian society, paying particular attention to poor children, the lower classes and education, and his works often convey warmth and moral concern. In the library his works are often classified under "inspirational growth," and many of his novels have been adapted for stage and screen and are widely circulated. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.

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