Jump to content

A Pickwick Club book I have not been able to find anywhere


Brian N

Recommended Posts

I have a Charles Dickens Pickwick Club book that I can not find anything having spent 10's of hours and sever book specialists trying to find sold information on. Here is the gist.

 

Summary: I can not find another book anywhere that looks like this one. It is not dated has both volume 1 and 2 in it and is Printed in New York but published bu George Routledge and sons. I do not want to know the value I just want to know the story behind this book. It is far to fragile to keep opening and I cant find another one like it anywhere. The print almost looks hand typed as if by a typewriter of some kind.

 

46801562_321825011997297_63142691740592346521360_321825005330631_49556153987844046796923_321825125330619_84385864900191146713602_321825098663955_669490809086672

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Brian, what a beautiful book! 

 

My first thought was, since Routledge is still a publishing company, it could be a possibility to contact them about the book and see if they can give you any information. You never know! 

I'm definitely not an expert, but Routledge became 'George Routledge and Sons' in 1865, so it would have been published after that. It's interesting that it's New York too, it might be worth finding out when Routledge established offices in America, since they were originally in London. 

If it's of interest, the illustration in the front is by Robert Seymour, who committed suicide before finishing the illustrations for Pickwick (I think it was after the first two numbers... as the story was originally serialised).

 

Welcome to the forum by the way :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Hayley said:

Hi Brian, what a beautiful book! 

 

My first thought was, since Routledge is still a publishing company, it could be a possibility to contact them about the book and see if they can give you any information. You never know! 

I'm definitely not an expert, but Routledge became 'George Routledge and Sons' in 1865, so it would have been published after that. It's interesting that it's New York too, it might be worth finding out when Routledge established offices in America, since they were originally in London. 

If it's of interest, the illustration in the front is by Robert Seymour, who committed suicide before finishing the illustrations for Pickwick (I think it was after the first two numbers... as the story was originally serialised).

 

Welcome to the forum by the way :) 

Yeah I read about that when trying to find information on this book. It seems Robert Seymour's wife was convinced Robert was the mastermind behind these writings but Charles Dickens refuted any such talk. I think personally that is, that is part of the reason Robert Seymour did commit suicide because he wasn't getting the credit for works he was a major part of. I just can't find another copy that looks like this anywhere. I wouldn't try the company because its all new age cats that work there in the realm of digital and doubt any of them even working for the company would know much about the original prints. Thank you by the way, I am just bummed I cant actually read my book because of how fragile the pages are now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is a shame it's so fragile. At least it has a beautiful cover to display though!

 

That's an interesting theory on Seymour that I didn't know as well. I did hear that Seymour's friends blamed Dickens for his death though. I'm not sure how likely it is that he was the mastermind behind the writing, because then we'd expect Dickens' writing to be different after Seymour's suicide, and I don't think it really was. Another theory is that Dickens had just told him he was being replaced by another illustrator, although I think if that prompted him to commit suicide he must have already been suffering.

 

I hope someone with more knowledge than me might be able to give you more information on the book! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not saying that Seymour was behind the writing but behind the idea behind the writing. It is a debated subject but it makes it even more controversial considering Dickens wrote an entire denial piece on the matter doing his best to keep his name clean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been enjoying the story behind Charles Dickens and the story behind the scenes having owned this book and researching all of it than I think I ever would have just reading the book. We have a better non fiction story about Charles Dickens and the drama behind the scenes of his life than any fiction he put in his stories.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...