Read here

The Pickwick Papers

Name: The Pickwick Papers
Author: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens · Public domain text

299,290 words · about 20 h 58 min to read

Read Listen

About this edition

The text of The Pickwick Papers comes from Project Gutenberg e-text #580. It is in English and public domain in the United States. Project Gutenberg’s header and license text are removed, and RedLectern sets the text out for reading on screen; no words of the book are rewritten or summarized. More formats (EPUB, Kindle) · How RedLectern is built

This book is long enough to be split into 11 parts, so each one loads quickly on its own.

About this book

From Wikipedia

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) was the first novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form from March 1836 to November 1837. Because of his success with Sketches by Boz published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour, and to connect them into a novel.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article “The Pickwick Papers” (revision 1380924419), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Not written by RedLectern.

Author: Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
Language: English
Subjects: Humorous stories, England › Fiction, Men › Societies and clubs › Fiction, Male friendship › Fiction
Length: 299,290 words · about 20 h 58 min
Sections: 17 reader sections · Table of contents
Audiobook: Listen free (LibriVox)
Source: Project Gutenberg #580

Contents (17)

Opening under 1 min
LVII. IN WHICH THE PICKWICK CLUB IS FINALLY DISSOLVED about 5 min
I. THE PICKWICKIANS about 7 min
II. THE FIRST DAY’S JOURNEY, AND THE FIRST EVENING’S ADVENTURES; WITH THEIR CONSEQUENCES about 2 h 20 min
VIII. STRONGLY ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE POSITION, THAT THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE IS NOT A RAILWAY about 19 min
IX. A DISCOVERY AND A CHASE about 2 h 33 min
XVI. TOO FULL OF ADVENTURE TO BE BRIEFLY DESCRIBED about 1 h
XIX. A PLEASANT DAY WITH AN UNPLEASANT TERMINATION about 3 h 1 min
XXVII. SAMUEL WELLER MAKES A PILGRIMAGE TO DORKING, AND BEHOLDS HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW about 15 min
XXVIII. A GOOD-HUMOURED CHRISTMAS CHAPTER, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF A WEDDING, AND SOME OTHER SPORTS BESIDE: WHICH ALTHOUGH IN THEIR WAY, EVEN AS GOOD CUSTOMS AS MARRIAGE ITSELF, ARE NOT QUITE SO RELIGIOUSLY KEPT UP, IN THESE DEGENERATE TIMES about 37 min
XXIX. THE STORY OF THE GOBLINS WHO STOLE A SEXTON about 17 min
XXX. HOW THE PICKWICKIANS MADE AND CULTIVATED THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A COUPLE OF NICE YOUNG MEN BELONGING TO ONE OF THE LIBERAL PROFESSIONS; HOW THEY DISPORTED THEMSELVES ON THE ICE; AND HOW THEIR VISIT CAME TO A CONCLUSION about 18 min
XXXI. WHICH IS ALL ABOUT THE LAW, AND SUNDRY GREAT AUTHORITIES LEARNED THEREIN about 1 h 53 min
XXXV. IN WHICH MR. PICKWICK THINKS HE HAD BETTER GO TO BATH; AND GOES ACCORDINGLY about 1 h 52 min
XL. INTRODUCES MR. PICKWICK TO A NEW AND NOT UNINTERESTING SCENE IN THE GREAT DRAMA OF LIFE about 1 h 5 min
XLIII. SHOWING HOW MR. SAMUEL WELLER GOT INTO DIFFICULTIES about 2 h 5 min
XLIX. CONTAINING THE STORY OF THE BAGMAN’S UNCLE about 3 h 10 min

The opening of I. THE PICKWICKIANS

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.
‘May 12, 1827. Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C. [Perpetual Vice- President--Member Pickwick Club], presiding. The following resolutions unanimously agreed to:--
‘That this Association has heard read, with feelings of unmingled satisfaction, and unqualified approval, the paper communicated by Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C. [General Chairman--Member Pickwick Club], entitled “Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats;” and that this Association does hereby return its warmest thanks to the said Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., for the same.

Read on in Part 1 →