The larger-than-life Mr. Pickwick, a benevolent and well-to-do gentleman, travels about the country righting wrongs and occasionally--but unintentionally--wreaking havoc. Accompanying him is his faithful valet Sam Weller, and crossing paths with the Pickwickians is comic villain Alfred Jingle, whose misadventures repeatedly land the group in trouble. The Pickwick Papers began as a series of tales to accompany illustrations by caricaturist Robert Seymour, but soon took on a life of their own to become one of Dickens's best-loved comic stories.