Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France

About this issue

Pickwick Abroad: The Tour in France by George W. M. Reynolds (1864) is a continuation of Dickens's Pickwick Papers, in which Reynolds follows the Pickwick Club to Paris. Issued in monthly numbers and now collected in bound form, the work features forty steel engravings by Crowquill and thirty-three woodcuts depicting Parisian landmarks and environs. The narrative interweaves comic misadventures of the Pickwickians in France with episodic tales and legends tied to specific buildings, nearly all composed as original works for this publication. Numerous songs and poems supplement the text. Reynolds includes an anecdote involving the Duke of Wellington and French marshals (page 117), which generated contemporary controversy; the preface contains a published correction addressing discrepancies in the account. The work is accompanied by critical notices praising Reynolds's vivid portrayal of French customs and manners. Reynolds intended the book to serve as an informal travel guide for English visitors to France while fostering Anglo-French sympathies.