Early in 1836, the 23-year old Dickens, still primarily a journalist and successful author of "Sketches by Boz", was invited by his publishers to write a "monthly something" illustrated by sporting plates.

The Pickwick Club was born and its supposed "papers" grew into a comic novel which also satirized pre-Victorian London.

This edition presents the Clarendon text established by Professor Kinsley in 1986 and includes a new introduction and explanatory notes by the same.

These were revised by Kathleen Tillotson in 1987. James Kinsley was co-editor of the Clarendon Dickens with Kathleen Tillotson and Professor of English at Nottingham University till his death in 1984.