What was Charles Dickens’ first novel?

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) is Charles Dickens's first novel. He was asked to contribute to the project as an up-and-coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836 (most of Dickens' novels were issued in shilling installments before being published as complete volumes). Dickens (still writing under the pseudonym of Boz) increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publication after the original illustrator Robert Seymour had committed suicide.

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26 Comments

Bill Coe

I would think that Bruce Lawrence would have had a point had 1834 been correct. The question doesn't say, "Which of Dicken's novels was PUBLISHED first?" It says, "What was Dickens' FIRST NOVEL?" Life of Our Lord was written between 1846 and 1849. However, that is a moot point because, by the time he was writing Life of Our Lord he was already writing David Copperfield and the Pickwick Papers were well done.

Debi Septon

Kim Lyons, that’s what I thought too!

hdfernandez

Got it

Michael Watson

Agreed Carol Biel,

Kim Lyons

david Copperfield was the first novel, not Pickwick papers

Carol Biel

The Pickwick Papers was not a novel! Oliver Twist was the first novel. Pickwick Papers was a collection of short writing that came out over a period of time overlapping with Twist.

John Moore

David Copperfield was his first published novel.

Alan Straff

I would have thought this question should have been under literature rather than history, however, I got it right regardless. Not Dickens best but definitely his first.