'Martin Chuzzlewit' by Charles Dickens

While writing Martin Chuzzlewit - his sixth novel - Dickens declared it 'immeasurably the best of my stories.' He was already famous as the author of The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist.

Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842, the novel includes a searing satire on the United States. Martin Chuzzlewit is the story of two Chuzzlewits, Martin and Jonas, who have inherited the characteristic Chuzzlewit selfishness. It contrasts their diverse fates of moral redemption and worldly success for one, with increasingly desperate crime for the other. This powerful black comedy involves hypocrisy, greed and blackmail, as well as the most famous of Dickens's grotesques, Mrs Gamp.

MY THOUGHTS: 

I was on the look-out for my next Dickens novel, and chose Martin Chuzzlewit because of its claims of comic genius and well-beloved characters. It didn't let me down. 

Old Martin Chuzzlewit is a grouchy and cynical rich man who's convinced that most people in his life are solely after his money. He adopts a young orphan girl named Mary Graham, and tells her outright that although she'll inherit nothing, he'll provide her financial needs for as long as he's alive, in return for her looking after him. This is his orchestration to ensure that it will be in at least one person's best interests to keep him alive. But when his grandson, also named Martin, falls in love with Mary, family harmony gets rocky. It culminates in young Martin leaving home in a huff, to make his own way without his grandfather's help. 

Young Martin claims he's lucky to have dodged the Chuzzlewit traits of stubbornness and selfishness, while his attitude and behaviour prove that he's inherited generous doses of both. Martin has been brought up as an entitled brat, but at 21, he's young enough to change, and we anticipate that this story will rip the scales from his eyes. Indeed, I was thinking early on, 'Hooray, this boy will get character development!' 

He's so full of himself near the start that when his new friend Tom Pinch gives him a generous handout, young Martin reflects what a great guy he must be to have made such a positive impression on Tom! I still find him easy to like, even at this stage. Mary gives Martin credit for trying to be resourceful and independent although he's been stripped of everything, and so should we. He has plenty of get-up-and-go, and although he's self-centered, he isn't cruel and manipulative like the story's villain, his cousin Jonas (or second cousin, if we're splitting hairs). And best of all, unlike this story's shadier characters, he is teachable!

Martin makes an impulsive decision to head across the ocean to seek his fortune in America. He's accompanied by the merry Mark Tapley, a long-term optimist who brushes off all compliments that he's an uplifting guy to have around. Mark believe he's never been put to the test, and is always seeking an opportunity horrendous enough to deserve the praise. Seriously, this guy leaves Pollyanna far behind. Needless to say, America delivers what he's looking for.

It seems Martin Chuzzlewit was a controversial book of its time, as well as being Dickens' only novel with part of the action taking place on foreign soil. (With the exception of the French action in A Tale of Two Cities.) Some Americans resented him for showing them in a really bad light. But considering their current history at his time of writing, I think they provided the sort of story fodder he liked to jump on. He saw a nation that regarded individual freedom so highly they broke away from Britain in an intense war to achieve it, calling the Motherland a despot and tyrant, then without blinking committed the atrocity of keeping slaves. How could a satirist and hater of hypocrisy like Dickens possibly resist? 

I love it when the migrating duo invests in a land package, sight unseen, in the inaptly named town of Eden, then arrive to discover a foetid, pestilential swamp which has killed several people. So while Mark gets the opportunity to put his jollity to the ultimate test, the place becomes a stunning eucatastrophe for Martin, revealing his personal shortcomings in a way nothing else ever has. There is always plenty happening plotwise in the story, but this pause for a reflective payoff between setting and character is my favourite part.

Other characters are brilliantly executed too, such as the pious-speaking Mr Pecksniff, whose audacious hypocrisy has no limits. This tubby fraud aims to come across in a kindly, paternal style similar to Mr Pickwick from The Pickwick Papers, but he's a real wolf in sheep's clothing. For a start, he claims to teach students architecture, but plagiarises their designs and dodges discovery like a pro. 

I think my second favourite part of the story is when archetypal good guy, Tom Pinch, accidentally discovers the true colours of the man he has idolised from boyhood. Understanding the real Pecksniff should be liberating but it's a huge blow for Tom to face the fact that a lifetime of admiration has been entirely misplaced. As the narrator puts it, 'The star of his whole life from boyhood had become in a moment putrid vapour. The man he venerated had never existed. Pecksniff had gone out of the world. Never been in it.' Wow, Tom's experience begs the question, what do we do under such circumstances? Do we consider years of delusion a sad write-off, or somehow manage to weave them into our life review as a valuable lesson learned?  

I find the trajectory of the cruel and heartless villain, Jonas Chuzzlewit, intriguing. His downfall doesn't have to be as rough as he makes it, until he feels the need to keep endlessly covering up his cover-ups. Scarily enough, he reminded me of some of the boys I knew at school. Is a nasty, brutal nature one of destiny's tools? In other words, although it's obvious on the surface he didn't have to make the choices we read, did his vicious streak actually drive him to do it? It all started with greed, of course. 

On the whole, Martin Chuzzlewit was really enjoyable and interesting, but I've now read enough Dickens to sense straight off that it probably won't be in my Top 5. I think I would have liked the threads of young Martin and the villainous Jonas to converge even more than they did. And although I loved young Martin, I was never a fan of old Martin. Just because a guy has money gives him no right to play God with other people's lives, throwing tantrums if they came up with ideas before he does. His autocratic attitude could have easily resulted  in the death of his grandson, who he treats like dirt just to prove a point. That's taking tough love to a sick extreme! I can't imagine how Mary could have stayed devoted to the old codger, since he started playing messy games with the guy she loved. (Whenever old Martin hobbles onto a scene, I imagine him looking like Mr Burns from The Simpsons, and wonder if it's just me, for Dickens doesn't describe him as such.)

Romance is quite low key. I like the Mary/Martin relationship, but we don't really get enough of it. Instead, we get the super-sentimental John Westlock/Ruth Pinch match up, which verges on sickly sweet, plus the two Pecksniff girls vying with each other for that horrible Jonas Chuzzlewit, which is just off this planet. I mean, of all the men out there... why?!!  

But hey, it's given me lots of food for thought. 

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