内容简介
Charles Dickens's satirical masterpiece, "The Pickwick
Papers," catapulted the young writer into literary fame when it was
first serialized in 1836-37. It recounts the rollicking adventures
of the members of the Pickwick Club as they travel about England
getting into all sorts of mischief. Laugh-out-loud funny and
endlessly entertaining, the book also reveals Dickens's burgeoning
interest in the parliamentary system, lawyers, the Poor Laws, and
the ills of debtors' prisons. As G. K. Chesterton noted, "Before
Dickens] wrote a single real story, he had a kind of vision . . . a
map full of fantastic towns, thundering coaches, clamorous
market-places, uproarious inns, strange and swaggering figures.
That vision was Pickwick."
作者简介
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in
Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. In 1824, his father was imprisoned
for debt, so Charles was sent to work in a shoe-dye factory. He
later became a clerk in a law firm, a shorthand reporter in the
courts, and a parliamentary and newspaper reporter. In 1833,
Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to
periodicals, heralding the start of a glittering and prolific
literary career. He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, with whom he
had nine surviving children before they separated in 1858. Dickens
died suddenly at home on June 9, 1870, leaving behind an
internationally acclaimed canon of work, including Oliver Twist
(1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838), David Copperfield (1849-50),
Bleak House (1852-53), Little Dorrit (1855-57), A Tale of Two
Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-61) and Our Mutual Friend
(1864-65). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Michael Slater is
Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the
University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and
President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has
published many books and articles on Dickens.