The FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. Dicken's first novel began as a romp, a series of amusing observations based on the travels of Mr Pickwick and his friends Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass, Tracy Tupman and valet Sam Weller. Their adventures increasingly highlight hypocrisy and avarice in the lives of everyday folk, beset by the doubtful actions of lawyers, politicians and local dignitaries. The reprehensible Alfred Jingle is often encountered in bizarre and awkward scenes, a lightning rod for the ills in society where marriage is not always accompanied by love, the victim not the guilty are imprisoned, and the poor are treated with barely concealed contempt. Pickwick's jovial stature allows Dickens a light touch on his social commentary and Pickwick Papers remains one of his most popular books.