Reading 1001 discussion

Read 2014:
The story: This is of the Chuzzlewit family and is a study of hypocrisy and selfishness and this book is a study of character. Some might say exaggerated but they do represent people in society. The Peckniffs and Sarah Gamp, the Jonas and the Martins Chuzzlewits. The book is called the last of Dickens picaresque novels. Another unique element is the American portion of the story which is a caricature of America. Dickens had just returned from a tour to the US and from this book, he was not impressed with us. Some could find this offensive but the more I read it the more I accepted that it did represent the US as a character that is no different that characters of England that Dickens has featured in his books. And last, this is a story of romance and endings that will not disappoint.

I am glad to have read this book. I needed to read about Sarah Gamp. Being educated as a nurse with a background of having worked in hospitals, Ms Gamp has always been a stereotype that I’ve encountered but hadn’t read the book. Dickens mentions that she was not atypical of attendants at the time and many hospitals were poor institutes at best.

Dickens never disappoints. It takes awhile to get into the rhythm of his books but they are always good. I have to say, that Sean Barrett did such a wonderful job of reading the story. Every character had their own voices, women were women (some were manly women) and men voices were men's’ voices except for the whiny barber. If willing to read a pdf file, the one listed above is of excellent quality and contains Dickens comments about the American part of the story.

In Martin Chuzzlewit, we have Dickens skewering the rich and selfish, while protecting and rewarding the good at heart and the selfless. It is a theme he is well grounded in and he pulls off this long book with many characters in a delightful way. As I finished up, I was once again reminded of his amazing ability to draw caricatures in extreme and amusing portraits and still manage to bring out what is uniquely human about that character. This particular Dickens was not my favorite. The long sojourn in the US did serve to mock the country appropriately and to bring the relationship of Mark and young Martin to an equal footing but it felt like a very long interlude for the middle of the book. Likewise, the ending was wrapped up by a twist and a trick rather than because all of the secondary characters finally rise up to give the bad guys their just desserts. However, I was entertained along the long way, laughed out loud frequently and came to care about many of the characters, particularly Mark Tapley as the embodiment of the hardworking and selfless. The arrogant are brought low, the good women all get their man while the bad women are left alone and a few of the characters named Martin Chuzzelwit actually change over the course of the book to recognize their own hubris and to adopt a more humble profile. Alls well that ends well, as they say.

I gave this one 3 stars. Definitely not my favorite Dickens, or the critics' either, but it did have some features I really liked. Dickens' take on America at a time when it was asserting itself as the free new world, but still had slavery after Britain had abolished it was a highlight.

Part of why it may have fell a little flat for me in the first half at least is just all of the major characters are amoral and self serving in the same way in it's a bit redundant and flat.

Pre-2016 review:

*** 1/2

This is standard Dickens, with his incredibly witty pen, his characters with peculiar names and sometimes overblown traits and his meandering plots at times opaque, at times threadbare. Here we follow the story of Martin Chuzzlewit, an old rich man spending the rest of his life deflecting various approaches from his relatives and other covetous people to obtain part or all of his riches. As Dickens indicated in his preface, this story purported to show how selfishness could propagate; it left a cast of memorable characters, from the hypocritical Pecksniff to the murderous arch-villain Jonas Chuzzlewit, the loquacious swindler Tigg Montague (or Montague Tigg), the alcoholic "nurse" Mrs Gamp, the ever jolly Mark Tapley and the ultra naive good-hearted Tom Pinch. As usual, a very enjoyable read, but definitely not his best.