The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as
The Pickwick Papers) is
Charles Dickens's first novel. He was asked to contribute to the project as an up-and-coming writer following the success of
Sketches by Boz, published in 1836 (most of Dickens' novels were issued in
shilling instalments before being published as complete volumes). Dickens (still writing under the pseudonym of Boz) increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publication after the original illustrator
Robert Seymour had committed suicide.