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Pickwick Papers, a story by Charles Dickens. It was published in serial form during 1836-37. The full title is The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, and the hero is Mr. Samuel Pickwick, founder of the Pickwick Club. This was in reality Dickens' first attempt at writing a work of any length; the preceding volume, Sketches by Boz, being, as the title indicates, a collection of brief sketches, published originally in a London newspaper.

The Pickwick Papers, which had an enormous commercial success, commences also an era in English literature. It was the first of a series of fictitious works exhibiting the life and manners of the middle and lower classes which up to that time had had scarcely any exponent. In one respect, however, this book had neither predecessor nor progeny. Neither before nor since has there ever been such an embodiment of healthy animal spirits. There is none like it for unflagging but never unwise merriment--for humour that is very much the reverse of dry. That Mr. Dickens gave us no more Pickwick Papers is to be lamented, but may be easily explained by the fact, that he never had the advantage of being five-and-twenty again.--Chambers's Encyclopedia.