The Pickwick Papers

The book that made Dickens famous overnight. First serialised in 1836–37, The Pickwick Papers follows the rotund, endlessly good-natured Samuel Pickwick and his fellow club members as they bumble their way through London's noisy streets and the inns of rural England — getting entangled in romantic misunderstandings, legal disasters, and all manner of comic absurdity. With the quick-witted cockney Sam Weller as his manservant, Pickwick meets a gallery of rascals and eccentrics: the smooth-talking schemer Mr Jingle, the unscrupulous lawyers Dodson and Fogg, and the legendary Fat Boy. Overflowing with warmth, slapstick, and sharp social satire, G. K. Chesterton called it "the great example of everything that made Dickens great — a supreme masterpiece." Vintage Old Books, Mom’s personal collection