DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Death and Mr Pickwick

Stephen Jarvis author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:12th May '16

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Death and Mr Pickwick cover

An extraordinary novel about an extraordinary novel - Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers

The journalist's real name is Charles Dickens.

The Pickwick Papers soon becomes a phenomenal, unprecedented sensation, read and discussed by the entire British Isles. It is a story of colossal triumph and of the depths of tragedy, based on real events - and an expose of how an ambitious young writer stole another man's ideas.

Shortlisted for the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown

It is 31 March 1836. A new monthly periodical is launched entitled The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Conceived and created by the artist Robert Seymour, it contains four of his illustrations. The words to accompany them are written by a young journalist, under the pen-name Boz. The journalist's real name is Charles Dickens.

The Pickwick Papers soon becomes a phenomenal, unprecedented sensation, read and discussed by the entire British Isles. Before long, its success is worldwide.

Stephen Jarvis's novel tells of the dawning of the age of global celebrity. It is a story of colossal triumph and of the depths of tragedy, based on real events - and an expose of how an ambitious young writer stole another man's ideas.

An outstanding debut novel. -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times *
This is a masterpiece of imagination supported by a mountain of research. -- Christian House, 4 stars * Sunday Telegraph *
This is a masterpiece of imagination supported by a mountain of research. -- Christian House, 4 stars * Sunday Telegraph *
A novel as crowded, rude and brilliantly inventive as the great pre-Dickensian caricatures it celebrates. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Observer *
Some may view this book as a remarkable piece of literary detection, others a dazzlingly written and superbly imagined exposition on how art and writing are gestated and born. Or both. * Daily Mail *

  • Long-listed for Walter Scott Prize 2016 (UK)
  • Long-listed for HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown 2016 (UK)

ISBN: 9780099593485

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 34mm

Weight: 562g

816 pages