Pikwick's Adventures

Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-07-01
Features: Dickens was a writer who was very concerned with politics and major social issues. Every one of his works was written with serious objectives in mind. The Pickwick Papers was certainly not a collection of humorous stories, nor was it light reading for leisure. In the author's own words, it was filled with "great questions" about "pitiful laws," "elections," "prisons," "officials," "property," "the church," "schools," "poverty," and "wealth"—very serious issues. The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' long, one of his outstanding masterpieces. This work reflects an extremely broad spectrum of life and realistically depicts British society in the early 19th century. The plot summary is as follows: A single elderly gentleman, Mr. Pickwick, is a "man of letters" and a "scholar," as well as the founder of a club named after his surname ("Pickwick Club"). He takes a few "Pickwickians" on a journey, encountering various humorous and absurd people and events along the way. After about two years, both his followers and he himself feel that the journey has gone on long enough, the "Pickwick Club" is dissolved, Mr. Pickwick retires, and the story comes to an end.