The Pickwick Papers - Large Print Author:Charles Dickens Samuel Pickwick, Esq., is a portly amateur scientist, confirmed bachelor and determined optimist. — Dickens's first novel, serialized in 1836 and 1837, is a loosely structured series of comic travelers' tales following Samuel Pickwick and his three friends to various towns around England. The book is renowned for its easy good humor and r... more »ich cast of characters, but it is nevertheless not without a touch of Dickens's characteristic social criticism, which would become much more pronounced in his later novels.« less