Playful and light-hearted adventure stories, The Pickwick Papers was Dickens? first complete novel. Featuring loosely connected stories he had originally written for an English periodical over a period of almost two years, the novel follows the adventures of Samuel Pickwick, the elderly and rich founder of the Pickwick Club. As Pickwick sets out to explore his homeland, along with a few select members of his society, the group finds themselves embroiled in highly amusing escapades that not only offer a glimpse into the life and times of nineteenth- century England, but also highlight all that is absurd and delightfully ironical.