I tend to overdo my pleasures. Very recently, I've read Dombey and Sons, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend, and the Mystery of Edwin Drood. So it's only to be expected that I should encounter a little Dickens fatigue. And along about page 600 of Martin Chuzzlewit, the thought kept popping into my mind, like those Interstate motel advertisements, "if this had been John Sanford's 'Prey on Greed', I would be home by now."

Yes, I'd had it with ole "Sairey" Gamp, who seemed to have no purpose in Dicken's universe, except to annoy the hell out of me with her quaint dialect stylings and her bottle on the mantelpiece when she was so "dispoged". Not to mention how she precipitated a debilitating series of Robin-Williams-in-Doubtfire-drag flashbacks.

And those Pecksniff hoes, Cherry and Merry? Like any time I want more of that action, there's a thousand starlet wannabe's on Youtube looking sideways at a web cam, mis-accenting their dialogue and raising their eyebrows like they all suffer from the same bizarre tic doloureux. Enuff a dat, thank you very much.

I did enjoy Martin Jr. and Mark Tapley, when - to hum a bit of Paul Simon - they "walked off to look for America." Dickens riff list of New York City newspapers was genius "The Sewer, The Stabber, The Family Spy, The Private Listener, The Peeper, The Plunderer, The Keyhole Reporter, and The Rowdy Journal." Indeed, what with wire photos, colored printing, the Internet , it's nice to see that a century of technological change hasn't really spoiled the industry, eh wot?

I found myself comparing Chuzzlewit to Our Mutual Friend. Both novels contained a universe of characters. In both, the ecology - the way they fed and fed on one another - was similarly complex. Both used major plot twists. But Our Mutual Friend has a much better flow (no pun about the Thames intended). And equivalent characters are much more interesting in Our Mutual Friend. Little Jenny Wren, for example, steals the show very much like Gamp does in Chuzzlewit, and has a role of equal proportion, but I think she's far more interesting and funny.

Bottom line - two things - first, if you're thinking of broadening your reading of Dickens, choose Our Mutual Friend over Martin Chuzzlewit; second, Chuzzlewit doesn't have much forward motion, so focus on enjoying the eccentricities of the characters rather than expecting much from the plot. ( )

Another great Dickens’ novel of biblical proportions. Even the pages of this edition have a scriptural feel to them - thin and vellum-like, with the added benefit of the original illustrations.

And the novel is everything that I have come to expect of Dickens. Plenty of memorable characters and scenes and a plot full of unexpectedly and unbelievable coincidences. You just have to suspend your modern cynicism and go with it - when you do, it’s incredibly satisfying. Every character, no matter how insignificant, gets their just desserts at the end.

This is also the novel where Dickens turns his satirical eye on the United States, since two of the characters immigrate in quest of their fortune, and are horribly disappointed. In the appendix, there is actually a postscript where Dickens attempts to make amends.

So heft a copy of this 800 page tome and give it a read - you won’t be disappointed. ( )

Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44) is Dickens sixth novel, written after his first visit to America. It is generally considered transitional between his earlier and later works of maturity, Dickens borrows less from the picaresque (Martin's trip to America) and begins to focus on character development and a central theme, creating a unique style of his own. The theme, as Dickens says in the Preface, is "selfishness". It was written at the same time he wrote A Christmas Carol, and at the time he thought of Chuzzlewit the best novel to date - he was particularly attached to his characters Tom and Mary Pinch. Today the novel is one of his lesser known and read, although still generally has a positive critical reception.

This is my sixth Dickens novel and they all take forever to read, at this point I have probably spent more time reading Dickens than any other novelist. The more I read the more I respect and enjoy, there is not a page that doesn't have an amazing passage, very often I find myself reading it aloud, acting out the scene and characters (something Dickens himself sometimes did while writing). There is a sense of the unlimited, of imagination unbounded - it's the same feeling I had when younger playing D&D or reading Lord of the Rings, a rich tapestry world with no end of possibility. His descriptions and choice of words are truly unique. Even if the plot is circumstantial and old-fashioned, Dickens can be read for his aesthetic and artistic beauty alone. The more immersed in Dickens one becomes, the more impressed upon the 19th century mind-set, emotions, way of thinking - a sense of the emotional, feeling, that no history book could portray.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )

Dickens' own personal favorite of his stories and I think one of mine too. An amazing satire on how selfish people can get. It's not on the short side, but if you can sit through it it's worth your while.

Martin Chuzzlewit is Charles Dickens' comic masterpiece about which his biographer, Forster, noted that it marked a crucial phase in the author's development as he began to delve deeper into the 'springs of character'.Old Martin Chuzzlewit, tormented by the greed and selfishness of his family, effectively drives his grandson, young Martin, to undertake a voyage to America. It is a voyage which will have crucial consequences not only for young Martin, but also for his grandfather and his grandfather's servant, Mary Graham with whom young Martin is in love. The commercial swindle of the Anglo-Bengalee company and the fraudulent Eden Land Corporation have a topicality in our own time. This strong sub-plot shows evidence of Dickens' mastery of crime where characters such as the criminal Jonas Chuzzlewit, the old nurse Mrs Gamp, and the arch-hypocrite Seth Pecksniff are the equal to any in his other great novels. ( )

4203 Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens (read 30 Aug 2006) I have a sort of aim to read all Dickens. This book was published in 1844 and is the 12th Dickens book I've read, leaving three major Dickens novels yet to read (Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend). Martin Chuzzlewit is the grandson of a man of the same name, with whom he quarrels and then goes to the United States. The events in the US are portrayed very unfavorably to Americans, so much so that in 1868 Dickens said nice things about the US and directed that those words be published with this novel in all future editions. Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit are deep-dyed villains but a lot of time is spent on Tom Pinch and his sister and Mrs. Gamp and others--all very Dickensian. There are familiar Dickens touches which do little to advance the story, and the book is long--752 pages, but I enjoyed it mostly though it is not one of his better novels in my thought--I am now watching the excellent PBS video of the novel (in three parts, two of which I watched yesterday). The movie is extremely faithful to the book, the dialog seems to be word for word. ( )