Martin Chuzzlewit

Charles Dickens

Dec 2013 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Considered the last of Dickens' picaresque novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was released to the public in monthly installments. Sales of the monthly parts were disappointing, so Dickens changed the plot to send the title character to America. This satirical twist portrays America as a near wilderness, with pockets of civilization populated by deceptive, self-promoting hucksters.

Ratings and reviews

Typical Dickens - at first you think 'I'll never get into this!', but the more you do, the more impossible it becomes to put it down. 'Sarey Gamp' will stay with me forever. And her imaginary friend Mrs 'Arris was a triumph of his inventive imagination in this Dickens masterpiece.

About the author

Charles Dickens, perhaps the best British novelist of the Victorian era, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on February 7, 1812. His happy early childhood was interrupted when his father was sent to debtors' prison, and young Dickens had to go to work in a factory at age twelve. Later, he took jobs as an office boy and journalist before publishing essays and stories in the 1830s. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, made him a famous and popular author at the age of twenty-five. Subsequent works were published serially in periodicals and cemented his reputation as a master of colorful characterization, and as a harsh critic of social evils and corrupt institutions. His many books include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and the couple had nine children before separating in 1858 when he began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Despite the scandal, Dickens remained a public figure, appearing often to read his fiction. He died in 1870, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.