The Pickwick Papers

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.' The brightest light of the Pickwick Club is its founder member and illustrious leader, Samuel Pickwick. He is joined by his three friends and fellow club members: the poetic Augustus Snodgrass, the romantic Tracy Tupman, and the sporting Nathaniel Winkle. Their mission is to travel the country in search of interesting scenes and characters and to report back the results of their observations. What follows is a series of adventures and misadventures, encounters and intrigues which show the dazzling brilliancy of Charles Dickens' comic invention with regard to character and situation. Dickens' friend and biographer, John Forster, praised the novel for its 'genial and irrepressible enjoyment, affectionate heartiness of tone, unrestrained exuberance of mirth... its wonderful freshness and its unflagging animal spirits.' 'The Pickwick Papers' (also known as 'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club') was Ch