Pickwick Monthly Archive
This Rosenbach’s Biblioventure series was a journey through Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was the first serialized novel written by Dickens and was published in 20 monthly parts (2-3 chapters per month) from March 1836-October 1837. It was a paid subscriber series, but we have now released it for everyone to watch free.
Edward G. Pettit and a rotating set of Dickensian cohosts talked about each serialized part once a month from March 2023-October 2024. You will relive Dickens’ funniest novel just as his first readers did. This program is free for anyone to watch (live or recorded) on the Rosenbach’s YouTube channel: Pickwick Monthly.
Episode Archive
Pickwick Monthly aired live for 20 months from March 25, 2023 – October 19, 2024. You can watch all of the episodes on our Pickwick Monthly YouTube channel.
Episode Guide
(All chapter numbers correspond to most modern editions. In the original serial, Ch 28 was used for two successive chapters, so the numbers in the serial in the pdfs are always one number behind after Chapter 28.)
March 25, 2023 – No. 1 Chs 1-2
(all serial parts courtesy of the University of Victoria Library)
April 22, 2023 – No. 2 Chs 3-5
May 20, 2023 – No. 3 Chs 6-8
June 24, 2023 – No. 4 Chs 9-11
July 15, 2023 – No. 5 Chs 12-14
August 19, 2023 – No. 6 Chs 15-17
September 23, 2023 – No. 7 Chs 18-20
October 21, 2023 – No. 8 Chs 21-23
November 18, 2023 – No. 9 Chs 24-26
December 16, 2023 – No. 10 Chs 27-29
January 20, 2024 – No. 11 Chs 30-32
February 17, 2024 – No. 12 Chs 33-34
March 16, 2024 – No 13. Chs 35-37
April 20, 2024 – No 14. Chs 38-40
pdf Pickwick Advertiser No. 14
May 18, 2024 – no issue because of the death of Mary Hogarth, but we’ll have a show talking about this
June 22, 2024 – No 15. Chs 41-43
pdf of No. 15 of Pickwick Papers (with advertisements)
July 20, 2024 – No. 16 Chs 44-46
pdf of No. 16 of Pickwick Papers (with advertisements)
August 17, 2024 – No. 17 Chs 47-49
pdf of No. 17 of Pickwick Papers (with advertisements)
September 21, 2024 – No. 18 Chs 50-52
pdf of No. 18 of Pickwick Papers (with advertisements)
October 19, 2024 – Nos. 19-20 Chs 53-57
pdf of Nos. 19-20 of Pickwick Papers (with advertisements)
Meet the Host
Edward G. Pettit is the Sunstein Senior Manager of Public Programs at the Rosenbach and has been presenter for the weekly Biblioventures series: Sundays with Dracula, Sundays with Frankenstein, Sundays with Jane Eyre, and Austen Mondays: Pride and Prejudice. Pettit has taught many reading courses at the Rosenbach, including Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, and Dickens’ Christmas Books. He is a member of the Dickens Fellowship, the Philadelphia Pickwick Club, and in 2012, was the Charles Dickens Ambassador for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s year-long bicentenary celebration of Dickens’ birth. When not reading, he can be found working on his TARDIS so he can return to the Nineteenth Century.
Meet the Cohosts
Kevin Quinn photo curtesy of the New York Times
Kevin Quinn was described in the New York Times as being able to “discuss the particulars of Dickens and commercial trucking with equal proficiency,” As a member of the Friends of Dickens of NY (a branch of the worldwide Dickens Fellowship), Kevin has participated in many Dickens readings, attended Dickensian conferences and events in the US & the UK, and was once seen on BBC Kent walking about Rochester in a topper and tails. Kevin resides in Cranford, NJ.
Courtney Krolczyk is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at Rutgers University. Her dissertation focuses on Victorian illustration and the limits and affordances of adaptation, and features a chapter on George Cruikshank’s illustrations to Dickens’s Oliver Twist. Courtney’s Dickensian interests also extend beyond the world of academia, and even include an ever-growing collection of Dickens-themed ceramics!
Dr. Jacob Romanow is a scholar of nineteenth-century British literature and culture and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Literatures in English at Bryn Mawr College. His research focuses on literary form and developing concepts of privacy and nationhood in the Victorian period, and he has published on Anthony Trollope, William Wordsworth, and other nineteenth-century writers. He has taught Dickens in courses at Rutgers University and led seminars at Dickens Universe, and is delighted to be returning to Pickwick!
James Armstrong teaches at the City University of New York and is author of the new book Romantic Actors, Romantic Dramas: British Tragedy on the Regency Stage. His adaptation of A Christmas Carol was recently produced by Passage Theatre Company in Trenton, NJ, and his play Dickens Condensed has been performed internationally from Staten Island to Japan. He is a member of the Dickens Fellowship, the Dickens Society, and the Dramatists Guild of America.
