Martin Chuzzlewit

by Charles Dickens

It's my tenth Dickens novel this year!

While Martin Chuzzlewit is perhaps not the most famous novel by Dickens, it possesses all of the qualities of a typical novel by him: it is very wordy, it contains so many characters (all of them colorful) that you may confuse some of them, it pits good vs. evil/poor vs. rich, and it has an extremely happy ending.

Basics: Martin Chuzzlewit is a rich old man who is suspicious of everyone's motives, particularly his family's motives. He trusts no one because he is sure that everyone is out to get his fortune. The novel's central plot revolves around Chuzzlewit's distrust of family and friends and his desire to know whose motives are pure. Along the way, readers meet the truly pure Tom Pinch and the ultimate hypocrite, Seth Pecksniff. Both characters are truly Dickensian!

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it starts out extremely slow. The first 100 pages are rough. On the other hand, the characters are amazing, there's great humor involved, and the ending is quite satisfying. While it's not for beginners, seasoned readers of Dickens will enjoy Martin Chuzzlewit.

10/7/08