 Original cover issued in 1836 | |
| Author | Charles Dickens ("Boz") |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Containing a Faithful Record of the Perambulations, Perils, Travels, Adventures and Sporting Transactions of the Corresponding Members |
| Illustrator | Robert Seymour Robert William Buss Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Travels in the English Countryside |
| Genre | Novel |
| Published | Serialised March 1836 – November 1837; book format 1837 |
| Publisher | Chapman & Hall |
| Publication place | England |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Sketches by Boz |
| Followed by | Oliver Twist |
| Text | The Pickwick Papers atWikisource |
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known asThe Pickwick Papers) was thefirst novel by English authorCharles Dickens, first published in serial form from March 1836 to November 1837. Because of his success withSketches by Boz published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisherChapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustratorRobert Seymour,[1] and to connect them into a novel. The book became a publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances,Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise.[2] On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames inThe Atlantic writes, "'Literature' is not a big enough category forPickwick. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call 'entertainment'."[3] Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success ofThe Pickwick Papers popularisedserialised fiction andcliffhanger endings.[4]
Seymour's widow claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's, but Dickens strenuously denied any specific input in his preface to the 1867 edition: "Mr Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in the book."[5]
Dickens was working as a Parliamentary reporter and a roving journalist at the age of 24, and he had published a collection of sketches on London life asSketches by Boz. PublisherChapman & Hall was projecting a series of "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour. There was to be a club, the members of which were to be sent on hunting and fishing expeditions into the country. Their guns were to go off by accident, and fishhooks were to get caught in their hats and trousers, and these and other misadventures were to be depicted in Seymour's comic plates.[1] They asked Dickens to supply the description necessary to explain the plates and to connect them into a sort of picture novel that was fashionable at the time. He protested that he knew nothing of sport, but still accepted the commission.[1]
Only in a few instances did Dickens adjust his narrative to plates that had been prepared for him. Typically, he led the way with an instalment of his story, and the artist was compelled to illustrate what Dickens had already written. The story thus became the prime source of interest and the illustrations merely of secondary importance.[1] Seymour provided the illustrations for the first two instalments before his suicide.Robert William Buss illustrated the third instalment, but Dickens did not like his work, so the remaining instalments were illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), who illustrated most of Dickens's subsequent novels. The instalments were first published in book form in 1837.[6]
The Pickwick Papers is a sequence of loosely related adventures written for serialization in a periodical. The action is given as occurring 1827–28, though critics have noted some seeming anachronisms.[7] For example, Dickens satirized thecase ofGeorge Norton suingLord Melbourne in 1836.[8]
The novel's protagonistSamuel Pickwick, Esquire is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, the founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. Bored with the club's usual sporting activities, he suggests that he and the three other "Pickwickians" should make journeys to places remote from London and compose reports of what they see and experience. Their travels throughout the English countryside by coach provide the chief subject matter of the novel.[9] A romantic misunderstanding with hislandlady, the widowMrs Bardell, results in one of the most famous legal cases in English literature,Bardell v. Pickwick,[10][11] leading to them both being incarcerated in theFleet Prison for debt.[12]
Pickwick learns that the only way he can relieve the suffering of Mrs Bardell is by paying her costs in the action against himself, thus at the same time releasing himself from the prison.[7][13]
Pickwick, Sam Weller, and his father Tony briefly reappeared in 1840 in the magazineMaster Humphrey's Clock, named after a literary club founded by Mr Humphrey, whose members read out stories to the others.[14] Pickwick is a member, and there is a mirror club in the kitchen, "Mr Weller's Watch", run by Sam Weller.[14]
There was an early attempt at a theatrical adaptation with songs byW.T. Moncrieff and entitledSamuel Weller, or, The Pickwickians, in 1837. This was followed in 1871 byJohn Hollingshead's stage playBardell versus Pickwick. The first successful musical wasPickwick (sometimesPickwick, A Dramatic Cantata) bySir Francis Burnand andEdward Solomon and premiered at the Comedy Theatre on 7 February 1889.[15]
Pickwick byCyril Ornadel,Wolf Mankowitz, andLeslie Bricusse was a musical version which premiered inManchester in 1963 before transferring to theWest End. It originally starredHarry Secombe (later cast asMr Bumble in the film version ofOliver!) in the title role andRoy Castle as Sam Weller. Although it was a major success in London, running for 694 performances,Pickwick failed in the United States when it opened onBroadway in 1965.
Part ofThe Pickwick Papers were featured inCharles Dickens's Ghost Stories, a 60-minute animation made by Emerald City Films (1987). These includedThe Ghost in the Wardrobe,The Mail Coach Ghosts, andThe Goblin and the Gravedigger.
Stephen Jarvis's novelDeath and Mr Pickwick (2014) is in part a literary thriller, examining in forensic detail the question of whether the idea, character and physiognomy of Samuel Pickwick originated with Dickens, or with the original illustrator and instigator of the project, Robert Seymour. The conclusion of the narrator is that the accepted version of events given by Dickens and the publisherEdward Chapman is untrue.[16]
The novel has been adapted many times to film, radio, and television:
The novel was published in 19 issues over 20 months; the last was double-length and cost twoshillings. In mourning for his sister-in-lawMary Hogarth, Dickens missed a deadline and consequently, there was no number issued in May 1837. Numbers were typically issued on the last day of its given month:
Dickens drew on places that he knew from his childhood. He located the duel between Mr Winkle and Dr Slammer atFort Pitt, atChatham, Kent,[23] close to Ordnance Terrace where he had lived as a boy between 1817 and 1821.[24]
The popularity ofThe Pickwick Papers spawned many imitations and sequels in print, as well as actual clubs and societies inspired by the club in the novel. One example still in operation is the Pickwick Bicycle Club of London, established in 1870, the year of Charles Dickens's death.[25] The Dickens Pickwick Club was founded in 1976 byCedric Dickens, the author's great-grandson. Other clubs, groups, and societies operating under the name "The Pickwick Club" have existed since the original publication of the story.
In 1837, Dickens wrote to William Howison about the Edinburgh Pickwick Club. Dickens approved of the use of the name and the celebration of the characters and spirit of the novel. He wrote:
Other clubs include one meeting as early as December 1836 in the East of London and another meeting at the Sun Tavern inLong Acre in London. Dickens wrote to the secretary of the latter club in 1838 about attending a meeting:
In many Pickwick Clubs, members can take on the names of the characters in the novel. The website for the Pickwick Bicycle Club states: "Our rules state that 'Each Member shall adopt the sobriquet allocated by the Management Committee, being the name of some male character in the Pickwick Papers, and be addressed as such at all meetings of the Club'."[28]
A French translation byEugénie Niboyet appeared in 1838 in a two-volume edition. It was entitledLe Club des Pickwistes, roman comique. Later French translations have used titles such asAventures de Monsieur Pickwick.
Benito Pérez Galdós publishedAventuras de Pickwick, a Spanish translation of thePickwick Papers, in 1868. Although Pérez Galdós was not born until after the publication of Dickens' first novel, he is sometimes described as the Spanish equivalent of Dickens.[29]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Dickens, Charles".The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
The Pickwick Papers public domain audiobook atLibriVox
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