NEW Dickensalong - Martin Chuzzlewit 2024-2025

[Piggywaspushed]

Come along and join me in the next Dickens readalong.

We have chosen Martin Chuzzlewit which was originally published by Dickens in 19 instalments, all exactly 32 pages long!

I propose condensing this to an eight month read, using Dickens' shorter sections as a guide (this is one fewer than NN). We begin in August, as follows:

August - Chapters 1 - 8
September - Chapters 9-15
October - Chapters 16-23
November - Chapters 24-29
December - Chapters 30-35
January 2025 - Chapters 36-41
February - Chapters 42-47
and finishing in
March 2025 - Chapters 48 - end

This on its publication history is interesting:

The early monthly numbers were not as successful as Dickens's previous work and sold about 20,000 copies each, as compared to 40,000 to 50,000 for the monthly numbers of the Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby, and 60,000 to 70,000 for the weekly issues of The Old Curiosity Shop. The lack of success of the novel caused a rift between Dickens and his publishers when they invoked a penalty clause in his contract requiring him to pay back money they had lent him to cover their costs.
Dickens responded to the disappointing early sales of the monthly parts compared to sales of previous works as monthly instalments; he changed the plot to send the title character to the United States. This allowed the author to portray the United States, which he had visited in 1842, satirically, as a near-wilderness with pockets of civilisation filled with deceitful and self-promoting hucksters.
Dickens's satire of American modes and manners in the novel won him no friends on the other side of the Atlantic, where the instalments containing the offending chapters were greeted with a "frenzy of wrath". As a consequence Dickens received abusive mail and newspaper clippings from the United States

Summoning old faithfuls and newcomers, one and all!

Well now 😁

Oh no I do think Martin's reformed (fair play for getting lost in my swamp of blah lol) and we're now set up for him x Mary (facilitated by Tom).
I expect Tom will remain one of Dickens' lovable lovelorns, favourite uncle of all future little Chuzzlewits, and his sister's children, maybe even Charity's wee Moddles 😆 (I did laugh at how creeped out even Tom was by Charity's sudden friendship)

Ahh. I read it again and get it now.

Oh haha, did anyone get it? Doubt it.

No, they didn't - but I did!! And that's what counts.

I hope it's OK if I join this readalong very very late! I meant to join from the start, but didn't manage it. I've been reading the novel like mad for the past week, and have just caught up, hurrah. Have greatly enjoyed everyone's comments.

The American satire was a highlight for me, but gosh, it wasn't very subtle, was it. That first trip Dickens took to America obviously didn't endear him to the country. Certain aspects of his caricature of Americans seem very prescient though: the fondness for weaponry, as you say Piggy, and the fact that large quantities of food are eaten very fast. Also, the way Americans praise freedom, whilst seemingly remaining blind to their country's failure to live up to its own ideals. Cringe. For instance, this bit about Mr Chollop in Ch. 33: He always introduced himself to strangers as a worshipper of Freedom; was the consistent advocate of Lynch law, and slavery; and invariably recommended, both in print and speech, the 'tarring and feathering' of any unpopular person who differed from himself.

And a few sentences later he's showing off his revolver and boasting that he's shot a man down with it. 'Did you, indeed!' said Mark, without the slightest agitation. 'Very free of you. And very independent!'

I'm sure Florida would ban Martin Chuzzlewit for wokeness, on the basis of passages like that, but presumably they're so busy trying to stamp out critical race theory that there's no time left for Dickens.

Like inaptonym I was very struck by Dickens' bold critique of slavery in this novel. I was a bit surprised because I read Zadie Smith's historical novel The Fraud last year and (though I can't recall the details now) had come away with the impression that Dickens could be quite racist. I had a quick google and found an interesting wikipedia page called 'Racism in the Work of Charles Dickens'. His stance on race is contradictory, apparently. He was opposed to slavery but also said some pretty awful things in the contexts of race and colonialism.

Anyway, I'm finding the novel very engaging and readable, but I think my reading experience is suffering from the fact that we read Nicholas Nickleby in the previous readalong and I loved that novel so much more. Both novels are described as picaresque apparently, with the episodic structure and the young heroes having a series of slightly mad adventures, but the cast of characters in Nicholas Nickleby was both funnier and more endearing. I'm trying to put my affection for NN aside though and appreciate Martin Chuzzlewit on its own terms.

Great point inaptonym about how both Martin and Tom Pinch are having epiphanies in parallel. Tom's change of heart seems more plausible to me though than Martin's one. It makes sense to me that once he stops believing in Pecksniff's virtue, he can never see Pecksniff in the same way again. Pecksniff was like God to him and he's lost his religion. Whereas Martin's recognition of his own selfishness made me wonder whether people can really change that fast (life-threatening illnesses or no). It's a great device for the story though!

I thought Pecksniff making moves on Mary was very well done: the way he is physically touching her and intimidating her. It made me wince, her discomfort was depicted so vividly.

P.S. Just realised that what I said about Pecksniff and Mary pretty much directly contradicts what you said, inaptonym, about how his advances on Mary make him into a more cartoon-like character. I do see your point. The lecherous male religious hypocrite is certainly a cliche: Moliere's Tartuffe for example.

I guess it's also a plot development meant to create suspense. Mary is at her most vulnerable with her ally Tom Pinch gone, and Martin Senior losing his marbles. Martin Junior needs to turn up at the right moment and rescue her...

I read The Fraud too and had that impression but Victorian life is full of contradictions (Smith loves Dickens as a writer) and Dickens was also a difficult one in terms of ideas about women, too. Darwin is extraordinarily difficult to like as a man.

Those segments you picked out on America are brilliant - I did like it when MC suddenly starting muttering darkly at them! I am loving the idea of a Victorian politician scouring through a lengthy Dickens and having the vapours. I suspect they might not get the satire though...

Welcome on board cassandre - pun intended! Great to have you with us.

It's great to have you along with us again cassandre! I enjoyed reading* *your posts.

While there are some good aspects to it and some enjoyable moments in it, I don't think that Martin Chuzzlewit will make my favourites list. I think it's worth reading but probably not one I would read again (unlike Nicholas Nickleby!)

Hi @cassandre <nudges spittoon closer to you in friendly fashion>

Lots of thoughts but basically they all boil down to what you and Piggy have both said re Dickens in The Fraud and I totally agree with: contradictory (even opposite) things can be true! No gunfights needed 😉

So e.g. I agree that the Pecksniff assault scene was well written and emotionally engaging (enraging) and gave the plot some momentum AND that it was a hackneyed trope that felt like moving backwards. Probably I got overexcited by the brief glimpse of Mary's independence and insight very early on, but it seems she's getting the usual virtuous damsel in distress storyline. Maybe I'll be proved wrong yet, but I guess it was a bit optimistic to expect something closer to my favourite late-career heroines when we've Dora and Esther yet to come 😛

I am enjoying seeing the evolution of his style away from the earlier picaresque books, teething issues and dead ends and all. (Though your collective fondness for NN is making me want to reread it, and see if I like it more than I did 15 years ago.)

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh 'oozy swamp deathbed' 😁I missed this earlier but absolute lol aside, Eden was another graveyard wasn't it! So Martin's rebirth reenacts his namesake's not!deathbed way back in the opening chapters.
I also liked the twist that M's spiritual rebirth (renouncing his selfishness) came out of his nursing of Mark rather than his own brush with death, tying into Mrs Gamp's dual births and deaths deal.
Even both Mercy and Charity's marriages are death/births - Mercy's far more so, of course! I just reread the scene with Old Martin's warning to her - also delivered in a churchyard, and in very fairytale terms of 'make one wish, your life is on the line'. Ch. 24 if anyone else fancies revisiting - it's so good! Though makes me annoyed again that we aren't getting more of OM actually being active, rather than old cipher McMoneybags.

Eden was the absolute pits @inaptonym
What a joke of a name! I felt so sorry for the ones they left behind. Only the hardiest must have survived. I did like Mark Tapley managing to scrawl 'jolly' on his slate. Grim laughter here!

Interesting ruminations on death and rebirth in comparing the two Martins, the sister (Mercy?) who is pregnant but whose life is at risk from some murderous scheme afoot. I remember the grim warning in the churchyard! It's true that Mrs Gamp embodies both birth and death in her professional roles :/

I thought though that it was by making the comparison of how many friends Mark had who cared for him while he lay sick, that was the turning point for Martin? Not his friend's suffering per se but how many more people cared for him rather than for Martin? I'm not sure, but that's how I read it. If true, it has spurred him on to be a better person which can only be a good thing. And he does seem to have become fond of Mark.

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

@Piggywaspushed I agree that even if the right-wing American censors did manage to read MC, the satire would go over their heads. I was getting carried away there!

@inaptonym I agree with what you say about Mary. When it comes to literary interpretation, I'm very much a 'both/and' person rather than an 'either/or' person. A good friend of mine (a historian and archivist) used to have as her motto, 'It's always more complicated', and I think about that a lot.

Thanks too for the insights into birth and death... and rebirth. The Mercy storyline is compelling and chilling in equal measure.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh very true about the name Eden. Another example of Dickens being madly unsubtle in his anti-American satire! It's a pretty ghastly unmasking of the American dream.

And good point about how it was actually Martin witnessing how much Mark was loved that pushed him to the realisation of his own selfishness. So his character 'rebirth' is more psychologically nuanced than I originally gave Dickens credit for.

I also did like the American sections, commentary from Dickens did get abit acidic at times but was also surprised to read opinions on Slavery.

I fell like the ending is going to be very rushed with all the lose ends that need tying up

So long as we have met all the characters by now 😅

Don't tempt fate!!

Ha ha 😂

Just a bump and reminder for tomorrow. Not sure I have any deep insights but am blaming fuzzy for the appearance of one , maybe even two, new characters!

4/5 through, he's upped the pace hasn't he? More Pinches and pies than expected.

Oops Piggy 😄You did warn me not to say anything!
I'll have to look over the chapters again and whizz through them tonight. All I can remember is that Tom Pinch has started to stand on his own two feet and become his own person.

Yoho! I have read these chapters again and I still don't know what is going on!

Well ,we have a peck of Pinches , a pinch of Pecksniffs , an old Pecksniff employee, new shadowy and reticent figures, a boat no one gets on, cloaks and attempted disguise, an unknown and unseen possible benefactor and lots of Chuzzlewit, Jonas but no Chuzzlewit, Martin.

What's not to understand ?

What is clear, Piggy, is that you get a star for your review of this section! ⭐️

I really liked the humour in this section particularly relating to Tom Pinch and his distrust of the locals in London. I think it helped that it was funny even if it is quite baffling and we still don't know what the big picture is.

There are lots of good lines. Here's one throwaway line from Jonas about the clerk, Nadgett: 'Oh! Old what's-his-name: looking (as usual) as if he wanted to skulk up the chimney!'