The Pickwick Papers · 1837
Dickens's first novel: the genial Mr Pickwick and his companions travel about the English countryside, tumbling from one adventure and scrape into the next. A string of comic scenes that gave rise to the famous pairing of Pickwick and his servant Sam Weller.
Oliver Twist · 1838
An orphan raised in a workhouse makes his way to London and falls in among a gang of thieves. One of Dickens's best-known novels, where comedy and melodrama sit beside a portrait of the city's underworld.