I just realized that I did not write a review for this book. I'm sure it is because I read it over such an extreme stretch of time and must sadly admit that it was the first Dickens that I really did not enjoy. It left such a poor impression that I feel completely inadequate to write a review now. This notation is mainly to record that it has been read.

Reading (or in this case listening to) Dickens novels is like admiring one of those delightful handmade, patchwork quilts. They are built of a wide variety of patterns and colours of cloth, some pieces garish some more subdued, some represented by single squares, others provide a repeated pattern that runs across the finished whole. Taken in isolation some pieces are very attractive in themselves, some would be hideous seen on their own; but, when taken as a completed and finished piece, it can be appreciated for its craft and skill, its richness and variety, even for its beauty.

To take a few of Dickens’ patchwork squares, one of the chief of these is Pecksniff. As always with his villains, from first appearance he is being built-up from beginning to end for his fall. He is drawn, as are a number of the characters in this novel, with a degree of more subtle shading than those in earlier novels. Dickens creates with Pecksniff a greater breadth of emotional response, from the comedy of many of his appearances, to the complete revulsion he creates in the reader, as he tries by physical force and emotional blackmail, to force his attentions on Mary Graham. The final appearance of Pecksniff and his shrewish daughter, living in much reduced circumstances, and bemoaning his fate in an ale shop and decrying Tom Pinch, has more impact than many of the more extreme comeuppances handed out to other villains of Dickens’ novels.

Jonas Chuzzlewit is another example of the way his villains have developed from earlier books, say Quilp. Jonas & Quilp have much in common. Both are bullies, both abuse their wives, both have great reserves of malice, both attempt by their manoeuvrings to engineer the downfall of other characters. But Quilp, for all his malice, has more of the qualities of a pantomime or puppet theatre villain - humour and even a bizarre kind of attractiveness. Jonas on the other hand has a character more in keeping with the villains of melodrama. There is more psychological reality about him than Quilp. He is never in any sense of the word, attractive; It is never possible to feel affection of any kind for him.

Sarah Gamp is one of those morally ambivalent characters that Dickens creates. A comic delight in her speech most of the time, (although this does become irritating at times when drawn on too much), she shows considerable compassion, particularly for the ill-used Mercy Pecksniff, but on the other hand little concern or compassion for her patients. In most things she’s self-serving in whatever causes she speaks out for, but not wholly so. There is a satisfaction at the end in both the truth of Old Martin’s judgement of her, and also in the feeling that Mrs Gamp, hopefully a little reformed by Martin’s words, remains essentially the same comic figure.

Some squares are necessary to the completion of the overall plot, they fit in as a square with a formal pattern given a central position within the patchwork of the novel. However, they are given little character interest. Old Martin Chuzzlewit provides the major example. He acts as a judge in the same sense as an old testament God, declaiming far- reaching judgements on the behaviour and moral qualities of the various characters. His verdicts, his rewards and punishments restore order after chaos, in similar way to that seen in the conclusions of Shakespeare’s comedies.

One final pattern of squares from the many others is those provided by the combination of young Martin Chuzzlewit & Mark Tapley. For the greatest part of the novel the two characters provide a series of composite squares. The rather vague & neutral toned squares representing Martin (like his grandfather never develops into a character of great interest in himself), are overlaid with the vivid, simple & well-defined pattern which is Mark Tapley, who brings colour with his efforts to be “jolly” in the most trying of circumstances.

All-in-all I loved the book and have to confess to beginning to listen to it with great enjoyment immediately after finishing it. For any shortcomings in plot or character or style, Dickens always overcomes any reservations with the sheer energy, colour and delights of his writing.

The reading of this by Sean Barrett was excellent. E read it with great animation and drama. His very varied voices which gave very effective individual identity to each of the characters was beautifully done.

The last Dickens I read was David Copperfield which I Loved completely & totally! This book was a little bit different in the many perspectives that kind of confused me; to also have a number of characters addressed as Mr Chuzzlewits and 2 of them with the exact same name (Martin Chuzzlewit) confused the issue even further so it took some time for me to appreciate who's who. I still enjoyed his beautiful descriptive prose and whilst I do like that all his characters got their just deserts at the end, none of these characters appeal to me. Sometimes I do find it annoying how he praised some character's good trait and crushed another's not-so-good trait; it felt too much like a parental lecture. I still wished that I liked these characters better but all in all, it was a pretty good read especially after I grasped the threads & characters.

1- Dickens really won with the chapter titles in this one. like look at this-
- In which some people are precocious, others professional, and others mysterious all in their own way
also,
- In which Miss Pecksniff makes Love, Mr. Jonas makes Wrath, Mrs. Gamp makes Tea, and Mr. Chuffey makes business
and finally,
-Gives the author great concern. For it is the last in the book
2- Mark Tapley, Tom Pinch, Mr. Bailey, and Mrs. Gamp made this book glorious

A most remarkable book. Melodrama by the master of sentimentality. The bit on the United States was above average for wit and humor, a very dark humor but humor nonetheless. to WORD...

Of the few Dickens novels that I have read, ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ is easily my favorite (in truth, the only other books having been ‘Bleak House’ and ‘Great Expectations’). ‘The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, His Relations, Friends, and Enemies. Comprising All His Wills and His Ways, With an Historic Record of What He Did, and What he didn’t; Showing, Moreover, Who Inherited the Family Plate, Who Came in for the Silver Spoons, and Who for the Wooden Ladles. The Whole Forming a Complete Key to the House of Chuzzlewit.’ (hereafter referred to as ‘MC’) is the most uproarious and chucklesome book that ever I have read; pratfalls galore (page 144, see Pecksniff get drunk).

Words that have changed their meanings; phrases that have become obtuse; the book is 175-years old; it is a wordy jungle of prose. It all contributes to some head-scratching moments. But the wit always shines through. When Dickens has his characters speak in their native dialect, hilarity ensues. Sarah Palin would fit it in ever so nice with Sarah Gamp; producing word salads complete with “cowcumbers”.

Without a doubt, ‘MC’ is my type of book. For me it exemplifies the joy of reading. In Claire Tomalin’s biography of Dickens, she explains that he wrote his books to be read aloud for the very good reason that back in 1840 there were many who could not read; therefore, being read to, was a common entertainment. Charles Dickens always kept his readers in mind. Being a word reader, a Dickens novel meets and exceeds my own great expectations.

Of itself, the trip young Martin Chuzzlewit and Mark Tapley of the Blue Dragon take to the United States makes ‘MC’ worth the reading. Page 239 relates the violence of elections: the purity of election and the freedom of opinion is fortified by the breaking of arms and legs and by the slitting of noses. (We do have a grand and glorious history of honest elections.) A land where it seems every other man is a major or a colonel and if he is not of the military profession, then he is either a most remarkable professor or doctor. The characters our heroes meet during their travails and travels are enough to curdle the blood; of note is the filth, both public and personal, the ubiquitous corruption of government, businesses that were nothing but a swindle, the adoration and worship of the almighty dollar, the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery, the lack of civic justice, the beastly table manners, chewed cuds of tobacco everywhere under foot. It is all exactly as Dickens, to his horror, encountered on his first trip to the U.S.A. “He was the greatest patriot, in their eyes, who brawled the loudest, and who cared the least for decency.” Dear Lord, but we have not travelled far in reaching for a higher plane of existence. Within these chapters are Dickens’ best laugh-out-loud passages in the book.

From page 726, “with the exception of Slyme, who was still occupied with his nuts.” There were more than a few sentences of this sort that would have attracted the pen of a modern editor. So, it’s Beavis, Butt-Head, and Tom. And forgive me, here is another passage from page 368, regarding the beauteous Mary Graham and the humble servant Tom Pinch. “when she sang, he sat like one entranced. She touched his organ, and from that bright epoch, even it, the old companion of his happiest hours, incapable as he had thought of elevation, began a new and deified existence.” I better stop now while my writing is at such a high level.

Now on to, ‘A House for Mr Biswas’.

3.5, rounding up to 4, basically because I like Dickens so much. It took me some time to finally finish this book, but it was definitely worth it. Not the author’s best work, but I enjoyed this a lot.

Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens

Martin Chuzzlewit has been raised by his grandfather and namesake.

Years before Martin senior took the precaution of raising an orphaned girl, Mary Graham, to be his companion and nursemaid, with the understanding that she will receive income from him only as long as Martin senior lives.

Old Martin considers that this gives her a motive to keep him alive, in contrast to his relatives, who want to inherit his money.

His grandson Martin falls in love with Mary and wishes to marry her, conflicting with Old Martin's plans. Martin and his grandfather argue, each too proud to yield to a resolution.

Martin leaves home to live on his own and old Martin disinherits him.

Martin becomes an apprentice, at the late age of 21, to Seth Pecksniff, a relative and greedy architect.

Instead of teaching his students he lives off their tuition fees and has them do draughting work that he passes off as his own.

He has two spoiled daughters, Charity and Mercy, nicknamed Cherry and Merry.

Pecksniff takes Martin on to establish closer ties with his wealthy grandfather.

Young Martin befriends Tom Pinch, a kind-hearted soul whose late grandmother gave Pecksniff all she had in the belief that Pecksniff would make an architect and a gentleman of him.

Pinch is incapable of believing any of the bad things others tell him of Pecksniff, and always defends him vociferously. Pinch works for exploitatively low wages while believing that he is the unworthy recipient of Pecksniff's charity, rather than a man of many talents. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز یازدهم ماه نوامبر سال2015میلادی

موضوع: زندگی و ماجراجویی‌های مارتین چوزلویت؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده19م

چارلز دیکنز با نام «چارلز جان هوفام دیکنز» در روز هفتم ماه فوریه سال1812میلادی در «لندپورت» به دنیا آمدند، ایشان دومین پسر «جان دیکنز»، کارمند اداري نیروی دریایی بودند؛ پدر «چارلز» اهل خوش‌گذرانی، و قمار بود، و پايش به زندان نیز باز شد؛ به همین دلیل مادرش، «دیکنزِ» دوزاده ساله را، برای تامین خرج خانه، به کارخانه‌ي واکس‌سازی فرستادند، «ديکنز» تا آزادی پدرش از زندان، مجبور به کار در آن کارخانه بودند، تا اينکه سرانجام پس از بازگشت پدرش به خانه، ایشان توانستند دوباره به مدرسه برگردند، و تحصيلات خویش را ادامه دهند؛ «چارلز ديکنز» پس از پايان دوره‌ ی مدرسه، در دفتر یک وکيل مشغول به کار شدند؛ در همين سال‌ها بود که به نویسندگی علاقمند شدند و برای اينکه بتوانند در این راه کار انجام دهند، به دفتر روزنامه‌ ی شهر رفتند و تقاضای کار دادند؛ پی از مدتی ایشان در دفتر روزنامه دلمشغول به کار نویسندگی شدند

در این داستان «دیکنز»، «مارتین چوزلویت» را، پدربزرگ و همنام خود ایشان، بزرگوار کرده، سال‌ها پیش نیز «مارتین بزرگ» دختری یتیم، به نام «مری گراهام» را به عنوان همراه و پرستار خویش میپذیرد، با این شرط که تنها تا زمانی که «مارتین بزرگ» زنده هستند، از او درآمدی دریافت کند، «مارتین پیر» میاندیشید که این شرط به پرستارش انگیزه میدهد، تا او را هماره زنده نگاه دارد، برخلاف بستگانش که همگی میخواهند پولهای او را به ارث ببرند؛ نوه ی او «مارتین» عاشق «مری» میشود، و آرزوی ازدواج با او را دارد، که با نقشه های «مارتین پیر» در تضاد است؛ «مارتین» و پدربزرگش با هم گفتگو و مشاجره می‌کنند؛ «مارتین» خانه را ترک میکند، تا تنها زندگی کند، و «مارتین پیر» هم او را از ارث خویش محروم میکند؛ و «مارتین» در پایان سن بیست و یک سالگی خویش، شاگرد «ست پکسنیف»، معمار خویشاوند و حریص میشود، و ...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 13/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

The first time I ever heard of this book was in The Man Who Invented Christmas, when Dan Stevens, playing Dickens, says he knows that Martin Chuzzlewit hadn't been his best.

Which is a blatant lie. In my opinion this was the best of his books so far. And according to the preface, he thought so, too. Full of distinctive characters (Mark Tapley! Mrs Gamp! Mister Pecksniff! Mrs Gamp's imaginary friend Mrs Harris!), this is the story of not just Martin, but everyone around him, their struggles, successes, and failures. And it deeply underscores how selfishness can ruin not only one life, but many.

It's also hilarious AF.

And furthermore, the middle section is set in America, based on Dickens' own experience on a reading tour, and is absolutely SCATHING. It reads like Mark Twain at his most satirical. I was laughing outright, and then had to find out if he ever dared set foot in the US again. (Apparently he did apologize . . .)

Then of course there's the chapter that is not unlike the climactic scene in Knives Out.

You heard me.

PS- I mostly listened to the audiobook narrated by Derek Jacobi. His voice for Mrs Gamp in particular just KILLED me.

This may be Dickens' most underrated book. It's right in the middle of what I like to call his forgotten period which is made up of three books, written consecutively, which I think are commonly ignored; Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Dombey and Son.

This novel is interesting because a lot of it actually takes place in America, as opposed to England. It's written from Dickens' personal voyage to the States in the months prior to writing this novel. And guys, oh my god, Dickens rips the shit out of America. He says he gave a "satirical" view of the US but guys, Dickens basically mocks America and Americans and it's honestly the best thing. There's also a great perspective on slavery and the deep South in this novel (spoilers: Dickens' doesn't tolerate either).

Why the average rating then Barry? Well, because the second-half of this novel exists. They come back from America and then it turns into a murder mystery. It's honestly as if Dickens' just stitched on a completely different novel to the end of this book. Eh, it's kinda disappointing but this is what you get with serialised novels.

Overall, I liked this novel though. The America bits and the scathing social commentary make up for the saggy second half. I still think this is criminally overlooked in his canon though.

A tale of hypocrisy, greed, selfishness and evil versus kindness, love and generosity. As always, each and every character has a major and important role in the story and is never forgotten. As always every person, every scene, every smell and every object is described so vividly, that one can picture it in one's mind.

'Martin Chuzzlewit' (serialized 1842-1844) by Charles Dickens is considered by some as one of Dicken's finest comic fiction novels that focused on various social portraits of selfishness - generational pride, the suck-ups and kiss-asses, the paranoid and the criminal. I don't agree that this novel is a great one. However, it certainly is fun to read - as long as one does not mind 1,000 pages of 19th-century domestic farce revolving around characters in two London families and their servants. The novel was adapted from a serialization in a London publication. Also, there is an infamous section about a visit of two characters to America which was not at all complementary. Dickens was forced to give an apology of sorts twenty-five years later in an added appendix, but in my humble opinion, he really did not need to do so. He captured the same things about a certain class of Americans that Mark Twain did, only with more satiric bite.

The basic story:

Old Martin Chuzzlewitt is paranoid because he is a very rich man. He suspects everyone around him of being insincere suck-ups. He isn't entirely wrong. But he cannot distinguish the decent relatives and servants from the morally rotten ones. As a result, he falls under the power of various malignant suck-ups like Seth Pecksniff, and he chases out of his house, and his will, those around him who have basic decency. Relatives like his grandson. Young Martin Chuzzlewitt suffers from oblivious selfishness, a much more benign sort than Pecksniff's. It is possible young Martin can yet become more evolved and aware. He is very attracted to a ward of his grandfather, Mary Graham, a moneyless servant, a being who definitely has the soul of a saint.

Pecksniff is a crook who hides under the umbrella of sanctimonious Morality while stealing the architecture designs of the students he tutors. His shallow privileged daughters, Charity and Mercy, act as his approving Greek chorus. Pecksniff hopes to get old Martin's fortune by marrying one of his daughters to young Martin. Meanwhile, he has befriended a somewhat simple man, Tom Pinch, a former architecture student and now assistant, using him shamelessly in unpaid work, a scapegoat for anything which goes wrong.

Old Martin's brother, Anthony Chuzzlewit, a miser and an owner of a business, is physically failing under the weight of many ailments caused by age. He is increasingly under the power of his son, Jonas. Jonas Chuzzlewit is a hardened vicious man. He hopes to help his old father die a little quicker than he seems to be doing in order to inherit his father's money and business. Jonas has his eye on marrying one of the Pecksniff girls.

But bad guys are not immune from other money-making schemes. Pecksniff, and especially Jonas, are lured into investing into an insurance company, the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company. It pays off early policyholders' claims with premiums from more recent policyholders. The company has been set up overnight by a con man, Tigg Montegue. Tigg, in order to gain more power over Jonas, hires a secretive spy, Mr. Nadgett. Many sources say this is the first mention of a private investigator in print!

I think this novel is too sprawling and it does not keep its themes in focus. Even the love affairs are muted. It encompasses the usual Dickens' thematic plot designs about social injustices, crime and class snobberies in an unusually muddy fashion. But as a consolation, Dickens appears to have become enchanted with his powers of description, going long. These are unquestionably wonderful passages, gentle reader!

" A dark and dreary night; people nestling in their beds or circling late about the fire; Want, colder than Charity, shivering at the street corners; church-towers humming with the faint vibration of their own tongues, but newly resting from the ghostly preachment 'One!' The earth covered with a sable pall as for the burial of yesterday; the clumps of dark trees, its giant plumes of funeral feathers, waving to and fro: all hushed, all noiseless, and in deep repose, save the swift clouds that skim across the moon, and the cautious wind, as, creeping after them upon the ground, it stops to listen, and goes rustling on, stops again, and follows, like a savage on the trail.

Whither go the clouds and wind so eagerly? If, like guilty spirits, they repair to some dread conference with powers like themselves, in what wild regions do the elements hold council, or where unbend in terrible disport?

Here! Free from that cramped prison called the earth, and out upon the waste of waters. Here, roaring, raging, shrieking, howling, all night long. Hither come the sounding voices from the caverns on the coast of that small island, sleeping a thousand miles away, so quietly in the midst of angry waves; and hither, to meet them, rush the blasts from unknown desert places of the world. Here, in the fury of their unchecked liberty, they storm and buffet with each other, until the sea, lashed into a passion like their own, leaps up, in ravings mightier than theirs, and the whole scene is madness.

On, on, on, over the countless miles of angry space roll the long heaving billows. Mountains and caves are here, and yet are not; for what is now the one, is now the other; then all is but a boiling heap of rushing water. Pursuit, and flight, and mad return of wave on wave, and savage struggle, ending in a spouting-up of foam that whitens the black night; incessant change of place, and form, and hue; constancy in nothing, but eternal strife; on, on on, they roll, and darker grows the night, and louder howls the wind, and more clamourous and fierce become the million voices in the sea, when a wild cry goes forth upon the storm 'A ship!' "


O _ O

I would have written "it was a stormy night by the beach when a ship was spotted." Dickens just didn't understand the editorial advice commonly given of writing sparely and to the point for his audience, right? Right?

Kidding.

What a marathon! I have just finished listening to this as an Audible book, read by Frederick Davidson, who does a superb job. It clocks in at over 35 hours of listening, and I have to say that I thought there was a fair amount of padding in there. Not surprising given that Dickens was writing it as a serial and was no doubt paid by the yard.

There were some great descriptions of the countryside gradually becoming the city as one of the characters rode in a coach towards London, and another of a coach ride during a ferocious storm. There is murder, greed, selfishness, slyness, sentimentality, all of it served in large dollops. I feel quite exhausted! And I must confess that I find characters like Sarah Gamp, who is supposed to be funny, utterly unfunny. My loss no doubt.

I'm glad I listened to it, but doubt I shall do so again. It has confirmed to me that my preference for Trollope is entirely reasonable.