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Charles Dickenss satirical masterpiece, The Pickwick Papers, catapulted the young writer into literary fame when it was first serialized in 183637. 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 Dickenss 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. [via]