"The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" by Charles Dickens and illustrated with 43 plates by R. Seymour and Phiz - Chapman & Hall, London - 1837 first UK edition - 18cmx15cm - condition: good, in half leather binding with decorative spine, with some wear and rubbing to boards and edges, engraved title page, frontispiece present and other 41 plates, scattered foxing, some first issue points present, some corrected as most clothbound and leather rebound copies do. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) was the first novel serialised from March 1836 to November 1837 by English author Charles Dickens. 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,[1] and to connect them into a novel. The book became a publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise.[2] On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames in The Atlantic writes, "'Literature' is not a big enough category for Pickwick. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call 'entertainment'."[3] Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success of The Pickwick Papers popularised serialised fiction and cliffhanger endings.[4] Seymour's widow claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's, but Dickens strenuously denied any specific input in his preface to the 1867 edition: "Mr Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in the book