The Pickwick Papers

This novel, written when Dickens was only 25 years old, immediately brought him immense popularity. Presenting a host of now-classic characters in a series of adventures, it displays the richness of his skills of characterization and description. Mr. Samuel Pickwick is general chairman of the Pickwick Club, whose members - Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle - form a society to report their adventures and observations. From these reports emerge the rascal Jingle and his servant, Job Trotter, Mr. Wardle in his hospitable Dingley Dell, the engaging Sam Weller, the greedy drunkard Stiggins, and many more of Dickens's best-loved characters.