At the time of writing Dickens was convinced that Martin Chuzzlewit was his best book (amongst the lesser works which preceded it were such mediocre tomes as the Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby). Unfortunately the Victorian public did not agree with him, and its reputation as a minor work continues to this day.

Having re-read it now for the first time in fifteen years, I can see both why Dickens esteemed it so and why others regard it less fondly.

This is a novel which really shows the Inimitable’s love of language, it’s a witty book with many clever phrases and passages. Furthermore the author gives himself licence to create a set of fantastic grotesques. Throughout these pages we meet the likes of Pecksniff, Mrs Gamp, Chollop and others – over the top figures all, who embed themselves firmly in the mind.

However, this preponderance of grotesque figures ensures that there are few characters in this book to really care about. The ostensive hero is the young Martin Chuzzlewit (there are two Martin Chuzzlewit’s in the text), but even he – until he is forced to become humble and selfless by circumstance – is a distinctly unlikeable figure until about halfway through. As such there is a lack of empathy which means that the reader takes an interest, but is never fully engaged.

When published the book caused controversy for its portrayal of America. Dickens had not long visited and was scathing in his impressions. Reading from a 21st century viewpoint, the Stateside sections are only notable for being so dull. The young Martin Chuzzlewit and his companion Mark Tapley are marooned in swampland and the book feels stuck there with them. Once back in England the book is far more vigorous, as Dickens relates a world he understands, as opposed to heavy-handed satire. (And when Charles Dickens does heavy-handed satire, it really is heavy-handed).

This is far from a classic but has highly entertaining passages and is – for the most part – wonderfully written. If you’re a fan of Dickens but have never picked it up, then it shouldn’t be ignored; however, regardless of what he thought at the time, Charles was at his best elsewhere.

"Self; grasping, eager, narrow-ranging, overreaching self; with its long train of suspicions, lusts, deceits, and all their growing consequences; was the root of the vile tree."
And so we embark on a delightful trip down the self-centered lane and come out on the self knowledge avenue which for some characters is a long and arduous one. I found this book a delight to read and very different than other works of Mr Dickens, bearing in mind that this is one of his first but not in the least inferior to his other, more famous works.

It is now hard to pin down the main character, at one point, it is Martin the younger, other times it is Tom Pinch, the wonderful, humble and magnanimous hearted Tom Pinch, at other times it is Martin the eldest. The villains however loom menacingly tall and mighty, and we respond to them differently, with Pecksniff we laugh and pity his blindness and hypocrisy, not at all feeling sorry for him, for he blinds himself and does not want to acknowledge his true, petty self not even in the 12th beat of the clock, neither does Jonas Chuzzlewit, whose fear and malice blinds him to his destruction.

There are some heartbreaking instances when the characters, like Eustace Scrubb, have their scales taken off and they can see truly, themselves and others. And it is very interesting how the "minor" characters can see themselves and others as they genuinely are, the delightful Mark Tapley (what a great friend to have!) and John Westlock (what a man to fall in love with!) and Mary and Ruth (womanhood in its humblest, purest and loveliest form).

"Blindness vs true colours" is a theme much dealt with in Jane Austen's novels and it's great to see it explored with wit and irony in Mr Dickens's "Martin Chuzzlewit". Read it, you won't be disappointed!

Non avevo mai fatto così fatica a leggere Dickens, probabilmente non ero nel periodo adatto per affrontare questo romanzo, lui lo considerava il migliore dei suoi scritti, mi permetto umilmente di continuare a preferire Grandi Speranze e Il Circolo Picwick.

I love how Dickens gives us a protagonist who is clearly weak, or insipid, boring even, and then surrounds him with a sparkling cast of vile deceivers and eccentric charmers. To me, Tom Pinch is the sure-fire central character here, with Mark Tapley vying for attention - certainly one of Dicken's more delightful creations. Martin's character grows, but he is never the hero - and I get a kick out of that off-center way of telling a story. Wasn't so fond of the American parts, although I understand Dicken's anger that his novels were being unashamedly bootlegged there, and that he would've seen it as a country where people take advantage of the unsuspecting. Dickens and America do not go together for me. This is not my favorite of his novels, but that's like saying dark chocolate isn't my favorite chocolate. Dickens is always wonderful.

Loved this book! Great story. And, in a way I never experienced with any other Dickens' novel, a lot of LOL humor in the narrator's sharp-witted assessment of the preponderance of selfish, greedy, and hypocritical characters in this book, especially Mr. Pecksniff. But also some classic Dickens tear-jerking redemption in the end in which the repentant characters are truly rewarded with happiness, although not quite fully for one character. And the worst get their comeuppance. Always satisfying. Dickens considered this novel to be his best, although it was far from his most popular.

This is a good example of why Dickens continues to give satisfaction and pleasure to lots of readers, even though his wordy narrative, his deus ex machina plots and his moral lessons are frequently considered outdated by the sophisticated literary public.
His secret is infinite love and compassion for all but the most evil of his characters. He is prepared to understand and forgive anyone who realizes that forgiveness is needed, and asks the readers to forgive with him, too.

P.S. Why the *#$@ isn't this novel called Thomas Pinch?

My most painful read of this year.

The story did not engage me to begin with. I went along with the hope that 'it will get better' as I leafed over the pages; just like the same lie I told myself about this year 2020 - it will get better. Atlast at page 775 (of 836 pages) I said 'Enough' and tossed the book aside.

My will power has been tested and I quite succeeded in my own standards.

But this is not going to stop me from reading 'Oliver Twist' or 'Bleakhouse' in the remote future, if not in the near future.

A very good book. Full of the typical cast of disreputable rogues and lovable good-hearted people engaged in all kinds of schemes. This book is a one-of-a-kind Dickens novel in that the main character does a turn in the United States of America for a time (with disastrous results). This visit apparently reflects some of the biases that Dickens developed during his original visit to America. There are some of Dickens' 'Saints' in here too; including Mark Tapley and Tom Pinch. It is said that Dickens considered Martin Chuzzlewit one of his better books, and I enjoyed it as such too. While not as well known as some of his novels, this is absolutely worth the read. Finally, I love the Dickens characterization, "Pecksniffian".

So again I’ve completed another of Charles Dickens’s less popular novels. I have yet to read some of his more famous books such as David Copperfield or Great Expectations because I’m trying to read them in the order they were written so I can get a sense of Dickens’s growth as a writer. I started out wrong, I know, reading Smike Nicholas Nickleby first. After that, I decided to read in order. I tried and failed to read the Pickwick Papers. After that I read Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge so, leaving off the holiday stuff, I’m well on my way with Martin Chuzzlewit. I’ll endeavor to a review it with all the Pecksniffian energy I can muster. Since this is a book full of secrets, if you are interested in what I think, or at least pretending to be out of courtesy, you’ll need to step with me under the Cone of Silence.

I really think I see some growth in Mr. Dickens’s writing style. For a novel of its length, it is, in my opinion, the best one yet. I’m giving it four stars but that should really read four and a half stars. I don’t understand why this book was unpopular when it was being released as a serial. I wonder if it would have been if it’d been generally known what a terrific payoff there was going to be at the end. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I love that sort of thing.

I understand that the Americans were not too happy with the way their country was portrayed in this book. I can see why. To be fair, it is satire which is always exaggerated. It’s not as if Charles was in the habit of going easy on his own country. Also, who can really deny that it contains some grains of truth? Dickens hated slavery, and you can hardly blame him for that. He visited the United States not long after Andrew Jackson had been president and there was something very Jacksonian about his portrayal of the endless faux military officers that Martin and Mark kept running into, armed to the teeth and ready to break into murderous violence at any moment. I have to admit, I’ve always found the custom, in that country, of giving men with no military affiliation titles like Colonel or Captain to be rather bizarre. Also, in many ways, the depiction of the United States in Huckleberry Finn was not really much different though, perhaps, a bit less exaggerated. Maybe Americans had an easier time taking that from Mark Twain than a foreigner.

Mr. Pecksniff is a near-perfect portrait of a manipulative sociopath and Dickens wrote him before the concept was really understood. Pecksniff is not the least bit subtle in his machinations. Of course, in the Dickensian extended universe, subtlety is a rare commodity. he managed to fool the guileless Tom Pinch, though I think Tom helped by needing to believe in him. The one he seems to have fooled most effectively was himself; such a breathtaking lack of self-awareness. I would put Seth Pecksniff right up there among the most hateable villains I’ve ever encountered. His oiliness alone made him repulsive. His final comeuppance was a pleasure to read.

I believe Dickens wanted all his readers to love Tom Pinch, the real hero of this book, and he succeeded with me. If the world were only filled with a great many people like him, we wouldn’t need visionaries like Thomas Edison, Richard Feynman, Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, men who were and are very good at being geniuses but very bad at being decent human beings. I want to raise the flame here and now for decent human beings everywhere, they are an all too rare and precious commodity.

Speaking of decent and likable characters, how about Mark Tapley. I have to admit that that is one original eccentricity. When he talked about getting credit for being jolly in difficult situations, I couldn’t help but wonder who or what he thought he would get credit from. Was it God or the universe or some unknown judges somewhere keeping score or was this some variation on the concept of karma? Wherever it came from, the real world could use a good solid dose of that kind of strangeness.

Ever get the feeling that it’s a little far-fetched, in a city the size of London for the characters to keep running into each other the way they do, and not just in this book. You’d think London was just a small town and England just a modest little county.

I give you credit Charles, you really caught me unawares when Chevy Slyme showed up as a cop. Still as hilariously full of himself as ever, but a cop! I thought for sure he was going to take that bribe and Jonas would go off and meet with justice in some poetic fashion or other.

After growing up with the legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and all the other detective and murder mysteries we've been subjected to over the years, it comes across as almost silly to watch Jonas, a man whose hardness could only have been a front, go all, “Oh my God! I’ve committed… M-M-MURDER!!!” If Pecksniff had done it, he would have forgiven the victim and been more pleased with himself than ever.

Ah, Chuffey. I hope you live a very long time and take good care of poor Merry. No one deserves what she got.

Sarah Gamp, what a hoot. And Mrs. Harris agrees heartily. She told me so just this morning after telling me what a great guy I was.

I loved the way this book progressed. We got to watch old Martin Chuzzlewit run a game on everyone, particularly that odious Pecksniff. I suppose it would’ve been awful for anyone who didn’t notice or realize the significance of the massive blinking neon sign that Charles put up pointing to the fact that old Martin didn’t look back when he left Pecksniff in London. If you did pick up on that, you would’ve had a great time watching Martin hand Pecksniff ever more rope to hang himself with. You could easily have guessed where the anonymous twenty pounds that bankrolled young Martin’s trip to America came from. You might’ve been surprised at Tigg’s role in it all. (I was, anyway) When old Marten gathered everyone together into that room for the final reckoning, it was priceless.

First, we had Little Nell, and coming up we have Little Dorrit, in this book we have Little Ruth. How many more Littles will we have? I haven’t read all of Charles Dickens novels yet, so I don’t know. I wonder, though, if Charles could’ve preempted Louisa May Alcott with all his little women.

I’m just wondering, were we supposed to be pleased when Charity Pecksniff was left at the altar? I know she wasn’t a nice person and maybe she pushed the kid into it, but I really just felt sorry for her, especially since she ended up stuck with her dear old dad. It felt disproportionate and kind of mean-spirited.

Another long and colorful journey through the magical realm of Charles Dickens. I don’t regret signing aboard for this one.

4.5 stars

"In every single circumstance, whether it were cruel, cowardly, or false, he saw the flowering of the same pregnant seed. Self; grasping, eager, narrow–ranging, overreaching self; with its long train of suspicions, lusts, deceits, and all their growing consequences; was the root of the vile tree."

Here we have the central theme of Martin Chuzzlewit, which is not really about Martin Chuzzlewit (there are in fact two Martin Chuzzlewits in the novel). There are many characters and none of them take center stage, although if there is a main character I would say it would be Tom Pinch. The theme of self & greed takes center stage and the many characters who are after Martin Chuzzlewit's (senior) fortune dance to its tune.

I enjoyed this, all the characters tripping over one another in London. It's Dickens being Dickens, creating wonderful characters who go through life entertaining readers. But there is something readers need to know. This is not a novel. Dickens fools us into thinking there is a plot when there isn't one. There are just characters running around London entertaining us until Dickens tires of them or runs out of words. Read it for what it is, and not for what it isn't.

Mr. Pecksniff's oily hypocrisy and self-serving behavior know no earthly bounds. Oh, but isn't he a joy to poke fun of. "Martin Chuzzlewit" is a darkly humoresque social commentary on the sort of contagious greed that always seems to surface in particular circumstances - in this case, the declining health of an elderly, and childless, wealthy relative. Who will get to inherit his fortune? Between the rather unsavory lot of family members, which include the aforementioned Pecksniff and his two unmarried (and equally selfish) daughters, a prodigal grandson, a miserly and scheming brother and his quite possibly murderous son, the choice doesn't appear to be a very sensible one whomsoever he chooses. Like most Dickensian novels, it is a rather long one, with so many -albeit richly drawn- characters and subplots, it can get a little confusing at times. If this sort of description intimidates you, I recommend first checking out the brilliant 1994 BBC adaptation available on Netflix. If you want to see Dickens in his element, though, best read the book afterward. A true classic.