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The Pickwick Papers.
Charles Dickens.
Title.
Author.
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About the author
Charles John Huffam Dickens
(February 7, 1812 - June 9, 1870),
pen-name "Boz", was a British nov-
elist of the Victorian era. The popu-
larity of his books during his lifetime
and in present days is demonstrated
by the fact that none of his novels
has ever gone out of print.
On April 2, 1836 Charles married Catherine Hogarth with whom
he was to have ten children. In 1842 they traveled together to the
United States, the trip is described in the short travelog American
Notes and is also used as the basis of some of the episodes in David
Copperfield.
Charles was born in Portsmouth, England, to John Dickens, a na-
val pay clerk, and his wife Elizabeth Barrow. When Charles was five,
the family moved to Chatham, Kent. When he was ten, the family
relocated to Camden Town in London.
He received some education at a private school but when his fa-
ther was imprisoned for debt, Charles wound up working 10-hours a
day in a London boot-blacking factory located near to the present day
Charing Cross railway station, when he was twelve. Resentment of his
situation and the conditions working-class people lived under became
major themes of his works. Dickens wrote, "No advice, no counsel, no
encouragement, no consolation, no support from anyone that I can call
to mind, so help me God!"
Dickens became a journalist, reporting parliamentary debate and
travelling Britain by stagecoach to cover election campaigns. His jour-
nalism informed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz and he
continued to contribute to and edit journals for much of his life. In his
early twenties he made a name for himself with his first novel The
Pickwick Papers.
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Contents
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1
The Pickwick
Papers.
Chapter 1.
The Pickwickians.
The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a
dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the
public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is
derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of
the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest
pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention,
indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search
among the multifarious documents confided to him has been con-
ducted.
‘May 12, 1827. Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C. [Perpetual
Vice-President—Member Pickwick Club], presiding. The following
resolutions unanimously agreed to:—
‘That this Association has heard read, with feelings of unmingled
satisfaction, and unqualified approval, the paper communicated by
Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C. [General Chairman—Member
Pickwick Club], entitled “Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead
Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats;” and that
this Association does hereby return its warmest thanks to the said
THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB
NOTICE
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3
Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., for the same.
‘That while this Association is deeply sensible of the advantages
which must accrue to the cause of science, from the production to
which they have just adverted—no less than from the unwearied re-
searches of Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., in Hornsey, Highgate,
Brixton, and Camberwell—they cannot but entertain a lively sense of
the inestimable benefits which must inevitably result from carrying
the speculations of that learned man into a wider field, from extending
his travels, and, consequently, enlarging his sphere of observation, to
the advancement of knowledge, and the diffusion of learning.
‘That, with the view just mentioned, this Association has taken
into its serious consideration a proposal, emanating from the aforesaid,
Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., and three other Pickwickians here-
inafter named, for forming a new branch of United Pickwickians, under
the title of The Corresponding Society of the Pickwick Club.
‘That the said proposal has received the sanction and approval of
this Association. ‘That the Corresponding Society of the Pickwick Club
is therefore hereby constituted; and that Samuel Pickwick, Esq.,
G.C.M.P.C., Tracy Tupman, Esq., M.P.C., Augustus Snodgrass, Esq.,
M.P.C., and Nathaniel Winkle, Esq., M.P.C., are hereby nominated
and appointed members of the same; and that they be requested to
forward, from time to time, authenticated accounts of their journeys
and investigations, of their observations of character and manners, and
of the whole of their adventures, together with all tales and papers to
which local scenery or associations may give rise, to the Pickwick Club,
stationed in London.
‘That this Association cordially recognises the principle of every
member of the Corresponding Society defraying his own travelling
expenses; and that it sees no objection whatever to the members of the
said society pursuing their inquiries for any length of time they please,
upon the same terms.
‘That the members of the aforesaid Corresponding Society be, and
are hereby informed, that their proposal to pay the postage of their
letters, and the carriage of their parcels, has been deliberated upon by
this Association: that this Association considers such proposal worthy
of the great minds from which it emanated, and that it hereby signifies
its perfect acquiescence therein.’
A casual observer, adds the secretary, to whose notes we are in-
debted for the following account—a casual observer might possibly
have remarked nothing extraordinary in the bald head, and circular
spectacles, which were intently turned towards his (the secretary’s)
face, during the reading of the above resolutions: to those who knew
that the gigantic brain of Pickwick was working beneath that forehead,
and that the beaming eyes of Pickwick were twinkling behind those
glasses, the sight was indeed an interesting one. There sat the man
who had traced to their source the mighty ponds of Hampstead, and
agitated the scientific world with his Theory of Tittlebats, as calm and
unmoved as the deep waters of the one on a frosty day, or as a solitary
specimen of the other in the inmost recesses of an earthen jar. And
how much more interesting did the spectacle become, when, starting
into full life and animation, as a simultaneous call for ‘Pickwick’ burst
from his followers, that illustrious man slowly mounted into the Windsor
chair, on which he had been previously seated, and addressed the club
himself had founded. What a study for an artist did that exciting scene
present! The eloquent Pickwick, with one hand gracefully concealed
behind his coat tails, and the other waving in air to assist his glowing
declamation; his elevated position revealing those tights and gaiters,
which, had they clothed an ordinary man, might have passed without
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