Dickens's " Sairey Gamp and Betsy Prig" by Harold Copping Approximately 7 x 5 inches (18.8 x 12.5 cm) From Character Sketches from Dickens, facing p. 76. Scanned image, caption, and commentary below by Philip V. Allingham [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ] It is instructive to compare the original etching on steel by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz") with Copping's 1924 lithograph. According to critic Michael Steig, in the original serial of 1843-1844 Plate 35 (No. XVIII), "Mrs. Gamp propoges a toast," is the third and last [illustration in Phiz's narrative-pictorial program for the serial version of the novel] to feature Sairey Gamp in person.

This famous illustration, depicting the moment immediately preceding the apostasy of Betsey Prig [the moment which Fred Barnard in the Household Edition chose instead], is by and large a faithful reproduction of Dickens' description of the scene, down to the bursting bandboxes, the pattens, the pictures over the mantel, the umbrella, and the garments looking like a hanged double of Sairey. [DSA 2, 139] The scene which Copping has chosen to exemplify the comedic aspect of the picaresque novel, "Sairey Gamp and Betsey Prig," occurs in what was originally episode eighteen (chapter 49, "In Which Mrs. Harris, Assisted by a Teapot, is the Cause of a Division Between Friends," June 1844). Compare Copping's more realistic handling of his materials to Phiz's "Mrs. Gamp Propoges a Toast." Gone are the lovingly realized background details such as Sairey's additional outfits hanging above the friends about to experience a falling-out.

In one of his prefaces to Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens declares that his main object was "to exhibit in a variety of aspects the commonest of all vices; to show how selfishness propagates itself; and to what a grim giant it may grow, from small beginnings." In the person of Pecksniff he created a character that has become a by-word for hypocrisy, whilst other characters, such as Sairey Gamp and old Martin Chuzzlewit, have taken their place in the gallery of immortals. On the reverse side, equally inimitable, are to be found Tom Pinch, Mark Tapley, Ruth Pinch, John Westlock, and scores of others. The selections made from the book represent these phases. Old Martin is introduced in the first excerpt, delightful Ruth Pinch and her brother in the next, whilst the immortal tea party of Sairey Gamp and Betsy Prig forms the third. [Matz 68] If, as Margaret Cardwell suggests in her introduction to the World's Classics edition of the novel (1984), "The reader wants Mrs. Gamp and Mr.

Pecksniff to survive for ever, perpetually exhibiting the resilience which is theirs" (xiii), the reader's quintessential image of the indefatigable sick-room nurse is that provided by Phiz in "Mrs. Gamp propoges a toast," the captioned illustration for Chapter 49, "In Which Mrs. Harris, Assisted by a Teapot, is the Cause of a Division between Friends," Part 18 (June 1844) as the serial novel drew to its poetically just conclusion. Although Dickens originally aligned her with the novel's deceivers and hypocrites, the voluble alcoholic grew beyond that original orientation in the minds and hearts of the Victorian novel-reading public, becoming an endearing figure, so that, though the novelist must have felt the necessity to expose Mrs. Harris as a product of Sairey's fecund imagination and verbal creativity, one senses that Dickens felt that he could bring himself to explode Mrs. Harris's inventor. Despite her considerable bulk, boozy discourse, and obvious humbug, Sairey Gamp is akin to thirty-four-year-old Charles Dickens in that she too has constructed a character for her own satisfaction and affirmation. Mrs.

Harris exists primarily for the sake of advertisement, a fictive testimonial to the calibre of her friend's ministrations to those leaving this world and those entering it. Thus, the story-teller puts his reader in the odd position of ardently wishing to see Mrs. Harris dispatched as a Dickensian Bunbury, while feeling that Sairey should be left, psychologically speaking, intact. The memorable passage realized by Phiz in 1844 and Copping in 1924 occurs just prior to an explosion of Betsey Prigg's exasperation at yet another allusion to Mrs. Harris: "Betsey," said Mrs. Gamp, filling her own glass, and passing the teapot, "I will now propoge a toast. My frequent pardner, Betsey Prig!" "Which, altering the name to Sairah Gamp; I drink," said Mrs. Prig "with love and tenderness." — Martin Chuzzlewit, chapter 59. All too soon, their mutual tenderness will suddenly morph into chagrin, rancour, and vituperation as Betsey, imbibing too freely of the gin-charged teapot, pronounces upon Mrs.

Harris that fateful sentence of annihilation: "I don't believe there's no sich a person!" This falling out (or, confronting her latent disbelief) is all the more ironic in that Betsey, despite her employment in an institution (St. Bartholomew's Hospital), is a virtual twin to Sairey, not only in physique (as Phiz's illustration demonstrates) but in her slatternly conduct, brutal exploitation of patients in her charge, and utter ignorance of the principles of her professional practice. Perhaps, therefore, the falling out is prompted by jealousy, in that Betsey cannot brook the notion of her confidant's having another crony, no matter how elusive. Copping seems to have studied Phiz's original illustration carefully, for although his perspective has shifted from a frontal ('theatrical') to a side view (in Copping's plate we must be standing to one side of Betsey Prig), the later artist has included the cupboard (immediately behind Sairey, denoted by her large hat), the edge of mantelpiece with the picture of Mrs.

Harris, the assorted hat boxes, the mahogany chairs, the handle-less chest of drawers (depicted off-left in Phiz's plate), and the teapot strategically located between the imbibers. Since Copping has, as it were, zoomed in on the pair, he cannot show either the massive bed or the pair of gowns hanging above it. A curious departure is the red fringed tablecloth Copping has added. Although equally corpulent, Copping's nurses have less cartoon-like, more realistic faces, in keeping with his more realistic style of portraiture. Whereas Phiz's figures are almost lost in the detailed realisation of Mrs. Gamp's room, presented as if it were a stage set, Harold Copping fills his frame with his two subjects, whose glasses are clearly gin-filled and somewhat larger than their counterparts in the original monthly etching. Much of the charm of Sairey Gamp in the Phiz illustrations is lost in Copping's coloured but relatively colourless character study of an overweight, bleary-eyed, ungracefully aging slattern. Patient, plodding realism is the wrong mode for visualizing the distinctive voice of Dickens's Sairey Gamp.

The caricaturist Phiz, in contrast, presents the interior of the first floor front in all its detail as an extension of Sairey herself, jumbled, confused, whimsical, and thoroughly engaging: a Dickensian original, almost superfluous to the novel's plot but one of the best things in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. References Cardwell, Margaret. "Introduction." Charles Dicklens's The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit: His Relatives, Friends, and Enemies; Comprising All His Wills and His Ways: With an Historical Record of What He Did, and What He Didn't: Showing, Moreover, Who Inherited the Family Plate, Who Came in for the Silver Spoons, and Who for the Wooden Ladles. The Whole Forming a Complete Key to the House of Chuzzlewit. Edited by Boz. With Illustrations by "Phiz." (1843-44). Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1984. Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924.

Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University. Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. [ Complete text ] —. "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz." Dickens Studies Annual 2 (1972): 119-149. Last modified 15 February 2009 Postcards of the Past - Vintage Postcards of Martin Chuzzlewit ourselves with the remark that Truth would in the end prevail, and Virtue be triumphant; but not often. My loves, you recollect ?" "I have completed my America; and you will be surprised to hear that i am to be accompanied by Mark Tapley, upon whom I have stumbled strangely in London." Martin. "And even while the guard helped her man up with the trunk, did he send the glad echoes of his bugle careering down the chimneys of the distant Pecksniff, as if the coach expressed its exultation in the rescue of Tom Pinch".

This US Postage Stamp of Sarah Gamp is available in various denominations from Zazzle - just Martin Chuzzlewit Audiobook | Charles Dickens | Audible.com "It's worth the wait" The first few chapters of this delightful story center around one nasty character after another. Don't give up because there are dear friends to get to know -- Tom & Ruth, John, Mark Tapley (the best of all), young Martin at last, and more. I didn't want the story to end. The narrator is brilliant, with perhaps the best characterization of all being that of Sarah Gamp, whose fracturing of the English language is outrageously funny. I can't imagine reading her lines -- they must be unintelligible. Hearing them made me laugh out loud. And Dickens' satire of America is broad but true -- where every man has the title of "Major" or "General", befouls every surface with copious quantities of spat tobacco juice, brags about himself and his nation, swindles, and is cock-sure and greedy. He certainly nailed the worst of our faults, and, once again, presents the flaws and beauties of human nature. Enjoy!

"Dickens Comes to America!" Written in 1843, this is an excellent Dickens novel that deserves to be as well known as say Oliver Twist or Great Expectations. The author???s typical tongue-in-cheek humour is very present throughout the work. The number of characters is reasonable, they are relatively fleshed out and it is easy for the reader to sympathize with many. Surprisingly in a Dickens work, some live through phases of introspection and evolve significantly. The plot is characteristically implausible and includes completely improbable coincidences. It does however entail quite a bit of suspense. In fact, the novel may be perceived in some chapters as a prototype to murder mysteries (which of course had not yet been invented when it was written). Accordingly, despite the length of the book, the reader is constantly enticed to read on. It is quite fascinating to follow major characters as they emigrate to the United States. The narrator???s comments on America are marked certainly by the author???s own British prejudices. The absence of interest towards culture in the New World and the general obsession with money are developed without subtlety. The narrator???s observations are also coloured by the times.

So, New York is described as a ???vast, flat city???. Much more seriously, the paradox of slavery in a nation so proud to be founded on liberty is strongly underscored. Overall, this fascinating, well-written work is strongly recommended to all. "Sean Barrett rivals Simon Vance!" I loved this book, and now I'll have the dilemma of choosing between Sean Barrett and Simon Vance for the Dickens I haven't listened to yet. The narration is exquisite; Mr. Barrett has a lovely voice, and when you listen to Dickens's beautiful writing in Mr. Barrett's beautiful voice . . . well, it's mesmerizing. There are wonderful characters in Martin Chuzzlewit: in particular Mrs. Gamp, the alcoholic nurse who repeatedly violates the Hippocratic Oath, and jolly Mark Tapley, who seeks out trouble and misery because there is "no credit in being jolly" when you're in a good situation. The plot is classic Dickens and if you've read much of his work, you're familiar with his devices, but it's the writing, the characters, and the narration that make this one memorable.

As is often the case, Dickens gets pretty Hallmark-ish and treacly at the end, and in his handling of Ruth Pinch, but who cares? It's a great audiobook! Go for it. "Dickens Does America" Old Martin Chuzzlewit has come to hate his fortune as a misfortune because of its corruption of friends and relatives, and he fears that his money will do great harm whether he keeps it or gets rid of it. He has distanced himself from his family and hired an orphan girl named Mary Graham to be his constant companion, with the understanding that she'll inherit nothing so as to prevent her from hoping for anything. As Charles Dickens' novel Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44) begins, old Martin and Mary are traveling under the family radar when Martin takes ill so they have to stop at the Blue Dragon, an inn in a small Wiltshire town (near Salisbury). In this town, it develops, resides one of his relatives, one of Dickens' great villains, Mr. Pecksniff, and his two wonderfully misnamed daughters Mercy and Charity. Mr.

Pecksniff is an "architect" who takes in pupils as boarders, teaches them nothing, and steals their ideas. He is a seductively articulate scoundrel masquerading (almost to the point of believing his act) as a highly moral man. He takes a Samaritan-like interest in the ailing Martin, scheming to get him under his control so as to get his fortune. Dickens then introduces other members of the dysfunctional Chuzzlewit clan, including Martin's estranged brother Anthony and his son Jonas, who has been raised from the cradle to seize "the main chance," and Martin's grandson Martin, who was the only member of the family in old Martin's good graces and seemed destined to inherit the fortune until he made the mistake of declaring his love for Mary, which got him exiled from his grandfather. Dickens also introduces other characters connected to the plot, like Tom Pinch, a naïve, sweet, self-denying former pupil and current exploited employee of Pecksniff's; his good friend John Westlock, another former Pecksniff pupil; and Mark Tapley, a worker at the Blue Dragon who wants to earn merit in life by being jolly in terrible situations.

This big novel shows Dickens in full swing, taking pleasure in language and human nature. It features at least three villains, three saints, two rich old men trying to settle matters of inheritance, multiple young men trying to find their places in the world, and plenty of Dickensian grotesques, including Bailey Jr., an undersized boy with an old man's cynical personality; Mrs. Gamp, a midwife/night nurse who is more fond of alcohol than of her patients and has an imaginary friend; and Chuffey, an ancient, cracked, loving, often blind and deaf non-entity of a clerk. Dickens focuses his moral lens on "universal self": "Self; grasping, eager, narrow-ranging, overreaching self; with its long train of suspicions, lusts, deceits, and all their growing consequences; was the root of the vile tree." Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the novel occurs when two characters move to America and learn the hard way about its flaws. Apart from most American men chewing tobacco and spitting out the juice, most of Dickens' circa 1840 satire feels accurate in 2015.

His Americans are convinced of the superiority of their country: "the Great United States," "a model to the airth" for "the regeneration of man," "the envy of the world," "the most powerful and highly-civilised dominion that has ever graced the world." They are manipulated by their sordid morbid media, figure that the people of the world should keep up on American affairs, deal with any criticism of their country as an envious attack on their free institutions, and use freedom as an excuse to do whatever they want, supported by knives and guns. With outraged pleasure Dickens exposes the contradiction between freedom loving and slave owning ("of the noble patriot with many followers who dreamed of freedom in the arms of a slave and sold her offspring and his in public markets") and the racism of northern abolitionists. As one character says, the American eagle is a hybrid comprised of the bat for blindness, the cock for aggressiveness, the peacock for vanity, and the ostrich for ignorance.

As an American, I wish Dickens had also satirized England's exploitation of India, but he does target many aspects of British culture in his other books, as in this one he deals with unsympathetic, venal, and smug doctors, nurses, and undertakers. At his worst, Dickens is too sentimental (as with Ruth Pinch, little woman, little creature, little figure, little child, with little hands, a little laugh, and a little heart), overwrites (as with a character's death, "Dead, dead, dead"), and gets too carried away on riffs (as with a literary levee featuring Transcendentalists). He's capable of brazen plot contrivances, as when some characters happen by chance to rent rooms from a landlord too convenient to the plot. Sometimes for the sake of (melo)drama he makes people do unbelievable things, as when one reformed character is egregiously unfair to an innocent friend. Sometimes he withholds key information as to motivation and character in order to surprise us in a way reminiscent of manipulative mysteries.

But Dickens' heart is in the right place, and his novel is so full of good-natured love of people, food, music, language, and life and satire of their opposites that it's hard to dislike most of what he writes, and when he's on his game he's unbeatable. His descriptions of gusty winds, stormy nights, shabby neighborhoods, dismal swamps, country walks, and alcoholic tea parties are prime. He writes funny and vivid lines, as in these on a lawyer's office, "with a great, black, sprawling splash upon the floor in one corner, as if some old clerk had cut his throat there, years ago, and had let out ink instead of blood." Sean Barrett revels in reading the audiobook! His savage, paranoid Jonas, flabby-faced, exalted Pecksniff, cracked, loving Chuffey, greedy, callous Mrs. Gamp, cheeky, precocious Bailey Jr., and coarse, laconic Americans are all splendid fun. Readers new to Dickens should start with his masterpieces David Copperfield and Great Expectations, but readers who've read a good bit of Dickens would find in Martin Chuzzlewit much delicious fare.

"Martin Chuzzlewit" Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb trailers and videos full cast and crew trivia official sites memorable quotes Overview 33 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Top quality acting all way through from Denmark 20 July 2000 This is an excellent adaptation of a fine novel. It is always a pleasure to see Dickens´s novels successfully made into films or TV series, and this version of Martin Chuzzlewit is without question the best adaptation of a Dickens novel that I have seen. Like in most of Dickens´s works the main plot is sometimes a bit difficult to keep track of because of the many secondary plots which attract our attention, but as far as I am concerned this is not a very serious disadvantage, since the far most important element in any Dickens novel is the wide range of interesting and peculiar characters that fill the pages, and since the cast of this TV production of Martin Chuzzlewit manages to make a number of the characters even more fascinating than they are in the book. All the actors and actresses in this TV-series are good; many of them are brilliant.

Most remarkable are Tom Wilkinson, Keith Allen, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Chambers, Philip Franks, Maggie Steed, and Julia Sawalha. Better acting than theirs in this production is not often seen. The entire cast seem in fact to have inspired and brought out the best in each other. An example of a character which has actually become more interesting as a result of the adaptation from novel to TV-series is the character of Jonas Chuzzlewit: Keith Allen´s interpretation lends him an even more profound air of gloomy desperation and twistedness than is expressed by the Jonas we meet in the novel. Pete Postlethwaite´s interpretation of Mr. Montague Tigg is likewise of such high class that it is almost an improvement on the book without being in the least degree unfaithful to it. I really cannot recommend this TV-series enough. People with a taste for Dickens can see it many times and still feel rewarded. Was the above review useful to you? 31 out of 34 people found the following review useful: A Good Production, but "Bowdlerized" from United States 12 November 2005 In 1842 Charles Dickens was at a critical point in his career.

His attempt at a series of stories told by different characters to each other, "Master Humphrey's Clock", was not a success, although it produced a popular novel ("The Old Curiosity Shop"), and a first attempt at a historical novel ("Barnaby Rudge"). He decided to take a trip to the United States. The results was bad. He found Americans thievish for not giving him copy-write protection. He found them hypocrites for screaming for freedom, but winking at slavery. He found their cities far less acceptable than the English ones. There was less gentility. There was more rough edged belligerence (especially to the old enemy: England). He hated it. He returned to England and wrote "American Notes". The book roundly attacked the Americans. He was not forgiven for years. He compounded the act in his next novel, "Martin Chuzzlewit", from 1843 - 1844. In this period, ironically, he was to start writing his small Christmas novels, the first of which ("A Christmas Carol") would become immortal - far more than "Chuzzlewit" actually did. But "Chuzzlewit" is regarded by critics as the best of Dickens comic novels.

Yet if one person out of five reads the novel today I'd be surprised. The novel deals with young Martin Chuzzlewit (Ben Walden), who is apprenticed to his cousin the architect Seth Pecksniff (Tom Wilkinson). Pecksniff is the British equivalent of Moliere's Tartuffe - the arch-hypocrite. As "tartuffel" is the term based on Moliere's character, so is the word "peck-sniff" due to Dickens (in "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man", an angry Mr. Belgoody - Thurston Hall - tells off Larson E. Whipsnade - W.C.Fields - calling him both a tartuffel and a peck-sniff). Pecksniff, pretending to be religious and good, back-stabs his way through the novel, stealing ideas from other architects (including Martin), and pushing his plans to gain control over Old Martin (the grandfather of the hero), a wealthy, retired merchant. Old Martin is played by Paul Schofield. Schofield also plays Old Martin's younger brother Anthony, who has a son Jonas (Keith Allen). Jonas wants to inherit too.

Dickens had demonstrated a grasp at the criminal mind in his handling of Bill Sykes and Fagin in "Oliver Twist". But the burglar and the thief trainer were relatively simple types (although Sykes fury at Nancy and his subsequent self-destruction was unique for British literature at that time). Jonas was a higher class criminal - a murderer who did it for money, not anger. He first destroys Anthony, and then goes after his cousin Montague Tigg, a cousin who is a swindler and a blackmailer. The killing of Tigg (whom Jonas ambushes while he is riding in a gig) is based (somewhat) on the murder of William Weare by John Thurtell in 1823. But there is more than that in Jonas. He is rejected by Pecksniff's daughter Charity (nicknamed Cherry / played by Emma Chambers), who subsequently gives in to his courting - only to discover he pursued her to punish her for initially rejecting him. He is blackmailed by Tigg into investing in a financial swindle, and purposely pulls his father-in-law Pecksniff into the swindle because he hates the man.

Dickens made Jonas an in depth study of evil, and he becomes a center of fascination in the plot. Meanwhile Young Martin goes to America when he breaks with the thieving Pecksniff. He goes with his friend Mark Tapley (Steve Nicholson). They find nothing likable about Americans who are nasty brutes for the most part. They have bought land from the Eden Land Company, only to find it is swamp land. The only good point is that young Martin's personality does change - he becomes less selfish because Mark and he have to depend on each other for survival. The other comic person in the novel is Sairey Gamp (Elizabeth Spriggs), a drunken midwife who assists Jonas at times. She keeps her acquaintance Betsy Prigg (Joan Sims) informed all the time of her best friend, Mrs "Arris". George Orwell puts it into proper perspective: More details are given about Mrs. Harris than found in any biography about a real person - for only the drunken Mrs. Gamp sees Ms Harris. Betsy finally calls her up short on this claiming, "I don't think there is such a person." Horrified, Mrs. Gamp insists there is.

Later, a desperate Jonas requires a woman to watch someone - Mrs. Gamp, almost heroically, pushes for Mrs. Harris. The series was quite good in what it showed from the novel, but it cut out the entire American section - really the heart of the novel as it deals with the hero. It was found to be too negative an image. Whether it was or not it weakened the production. What is left is quite good, but one wishes the American chapters had been left in as well. Was the above review useful to you? 16 out of 16 people found the following review useful: From lightest comedy to darkest crime. A superb production from London 1 May 2007 This was a novel about dishonesty. Dishonesty ranging from mild deception to robbery and murder most foul. And it is the dishonest who are the most memorable characters in the book - and in this TV adaptation. The tone too, ranges from comic to the most sombre shade. At its most comic is Sairey Gamp, grubby drunken "nurse" to the sick and helpless.

Her dishonesty is as much self deception: the constant good opinion of herself held by the mysterious never to be seen "Mrs Harris" which Sairey Gamp endlessly quotes to the increasing irritation of her partner in nursing (and in drink) which leads to an explosive comic confrontation between all - three? Remarkable actor Pete Postlethwaite performs a remarkable transformation from down and out Tigg Montague to grandest of swindlers Montague Tigg, founder of The Anglo-Bengalee Assurance Company whose prospectus promises a paid up capital of "a two and as many oughts as the printer can get in the line". Dishonesty of another kind is represented by one of Dickens greatest creations: the odious sanctimonious hypocritical serial-forgiver and would be seducer Pecksniff (excellently played by Tom Wilkinson). Finally dishonesty of the blackest kind is represented by Jonas Chuzzlewit, murderer for money -with poison and bludgeon. When justice catches up with Jonas, actor Keith Allen vividly portrays a man suddenly in the shadow of the noose.

In comparison the good, the prudent and the merely imprudent (Tom Pinch, Old Martin Chuzzlewit, and young Martin) are in comparison and perhaps inevitably - as in the book - a little colourless.) The silly recklessness of Mercy Pecksniff and the sour realism of her sister are particularly well brought out. Finally the dialogue - its unobtrusiveness as it goes between Dickens' original and David Lodge's own is exemplary. So too is the distinctive music - often with a loping rhythm suggestive of careful and wary footsteps. A really excellent and entertaining production with a fine cast giving full measure to the most memorable characters and scenes. It is difficult to imagine it being bettered. Was the above review useful to you? 16 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Stunning, compelling, totally convincing and a feast to watch!! 18 December 2006 *** This review may contain spoilers *** I was absolutely stunned by this BBC-miniseries: it's almost perfect in every way.

It succeeded in producing the exact atmosphere of Dickens' novel as I recall it, with all the fine irony, the dark and the good sides of human nature, the description of the beautiful countryside as well as the ugly corners of the big city, the sumptuous costumes, I could go on and on, everything seemed to be in perfect place and exactly right. Like in most of Dickens' novels there are so many characters that you'll sometimes get a little confused, but in this mini-series there's ample time (some 6 hours!!) to let all the stories and side-stories roll by in their own pace and develop and intertwine, there's never any feeling of haste or too much density. On the contrary, I even had the feeling that some of the characters got more room than even the (overcrowded) novel itself provided. For all the aforesaid due credit should go to the director (and to the writer, who did a great job in translating some 700 pages of Charles Dickens into a manageable script). The fact, already mentioned by another comment, that the whole American section of the novel is left out, didn't bother me that much.

Of course that story is important for the novel and particularly for the personal growth as a man of young Martin, but it's almost a novel within a novel, and since with the adaptation of novels of this scale one always has to make some concessions, it seemed a very sensible choice to comprise the American adventure to some reading of letters and one or two short scenes. To me at least it worked adequately. But now about the actors, they really deserve the highest credit, it's unbelievable how a whole cast can be of such high standards, it really was a treat to watch and it almost makes me ashamed to pick some of them out! But I have to mention Tom Wilkinson as the hypocritical, greedy en pompous Pecksniff, Wilkinson plays him SO good and convincing, if there's an Oscar for best actor in a miniseries HE should have won that with this one!! Equally good and entertaining was Pete Postlethwaite and I also should mention Elizabeth Spriggs as the scruffy, boozing and ad-libbing Mrs. Gamp, the "nurse" who you wouldn't trust with your worst enemy let alone with a patient!

And Julia Sawalha (Absolutely Fabulous) and Emma Chambers (Notting Hill) as the Pecksniff-offspring are not only hilarious but also develop their part in a very convincing and in the end touching way. And, on the other, more dark side of the spectrum of Dickens-characters: Keith Allen as the ominous Jonas Chuzzlewit, who's actually blood-chilling in his portrayal of a cruel and relentless son and husband. And so I could go on, until even such small parts as the spicy young Bailey (Paul Francis - how DO they get such a young kid to play so natural and easy?!). If any, to me there's only one minor flaw in this production: the role of young Martin Chuzzlewit by Ben Walden. I don't know what to make of it. Here's a young actor with a handsome yet rather uncommon face, an awkward way of acting and a curious almost mumbling kind of diction! He seemed a strange choice to play one of the major protagonists in the story. But another comment on this site mentioned of him, that he "casts a spell with his eyes and voice", so maybe that's another way of looking at him.

I give this production a heartfelt 10 out of 10. Was the above review useful to you? 17 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Very good acting and filled with humor! from Utrecht, The Netherlands 6 June 2005 I read that someone called it a dark and gloomy adaptation. I have to disagree with that ! I thought it a very funny TV-series. Of course there's a lot of scheming and some people get treated very badly. But all the characters are played in such a manner that you can't help but see them as ridiculous. Tom Wilkinson is marvelous as the pompous Seth Pecksniff and i would like to mention Elizabeth Spriggs who makes her part as Mrs. Gamp unforgettable. If you like a period drama with a good deal of humor this one is for you ! The series lasts 337 minutes. It's a shame that it's still not released on DVD. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long ! If you like the wit of Jane Austen you will like this series too ( yes there is a love story in it as well). Was the above review useful to you?

18 out of 22 people found the following review useful: If you are indecisive, just give it a try! from Cologne, Germany 13 February 2005 Although this BBC production of "Martin Chuzzlewit" from 1994 is not widely known, it is definitely a very good one. The characters are true to Dickens' novel, some of them being rather multi-layered, such as the bitter and twisted Jonas Chuzzlewit, very well portrayed by Keith Allen, or the desperate young Martin Chuzzlewit (Ben Walden), who from his very first scene casts a spell with his eyes and voice. For those BBC drama collectors who consider buying the video: This is not as light as the fine Jane Austen film versions, but rather dark and gloomy. In my view this contributes to the film's attraction, and I can recommend "Martin Chuzzlewit" without hesitation. A piece of advice concerning the videotape: Watch it as soon as you purchased it because there are some tapes on which visual noise appears every now and then. You might perhaps have to exchange it. Was the above review useful to you?

11 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Best possible adaptation (in 6 hours), Excellent 22 August 2009 *** This review may contain spoilers *** This is the first Dickens full novel adaptation that has not greatly disappointed me. Far from it. This was wonderful! I had just finished the book when I watched it (as always), and so was keenly aware of alterations, and there were quite a few, which I'll get to presently. However, with one notable exception, this production did not suffer greatly for the deleted or redesigned sequences, as all other Dickens adaptations seem to. This success I believe is creditable first to diligent and careful writing - to David Lodge (who hasn't done any Dickens since, which is a shame). He clearly knew the work intimately, and had studied the story and characters in great detail. To distill and, as needed, to disassemble and reassemble a novel of this breadth to fit into a six hour production, without trampling and flattening, or mangling, the story, and without omitting significant characters or subplots, is a rare accomplishment.

I don't know much about directing, but I know when it stinks, and I know when it's good, and in this case it was excellent. I don't know Pedr James, but for his direction he surely deserves a large share of the credit for this fine production. The casting of this production was genius, and the performances consistently outstanding. In particular, among the major roles: I couldn't imagine a better Seth Pecksniff than Tom Wilkinson, and he was brilliant as always. He seemed to truly enjoy this role, and oozed imperious Pecksniffian arrogance and false modesty. Paul Scofield as Martin Chuzzlewit was equally wonderful, and so deliciously playful as he came to life and sprang the trap into which he has lured Pecksniff. Pete Postlethwait was marvelous as Tigg Montague/Montague Tigg, a difficult double role of sorts, and so closely resembled in appearance and behaviour the character I imagined as I read the book, that I'm not sure I ever had any image of Tigg in my mind but his.

Philip Franks as Tom Pinch nearly steals the show (as does the character in the novel), with a perfect portrayal of that subtle combination of sweet naiveté, chivalrous dignity, and defender of the meek and decent that is Tom Pinch. Elizabeth Spriggs breathed, as it were, liquor-saturated life, into one of the most uniquely Dickensian characters (and a bizarrely dialectic one too) in this story. Marvelous! Keith Allen provided a Jonas Chuzzlewit perhaps even more vile and sinister, and ultimately self-tormented, than the one Dickens himself conceived. Likewise, Emma Chambers' Charity Pecksniff surpassed the original, owning every scene in which she appeared, and simultaneously evoking great empathy for the wrong done to her by her father, and antipathy for her own callous treatment of her sister. The high quality of writing, direction and performance in this series were further complimented by excellence in all artistic contributions, from set design, costume and make-up (somebody actually read Dickens' descriptions of the characters and studied the original Phiz illustrations! What a novel idea!), and musical score, and by masterful editing, seamless and tight, with not an awkward or wasted frame.

Where I always have issues with Dickens adaptations is in the deletions and alterations that invariably occur, and that apparently must occur. This series stands out to me as one that did not suffer much on this score, even though much of the dialog was shortened, some scenes were melded together, others deleted or compressed, and time-lines were occasionally teased slightly. I hate that generally, but as I've said, I credit the lack of damage done in this process to the skill and hard effort of the writer, David Lodge. I can even forgive the significant re-writing of the climax and epilogue chapters (the omission Westlock's proposal to Ruth, of Charity being left at the alter, and of Tom in the future, at the organ, with Ruth's children) because what was done worked so well and was so fully consistent with the story and characters that it might have been an alternative ending written by Dickens himself. The one major issue I did have along these lines was with the severe watering down, almost to nothing (Mary reading letters from Martin), of young Martin's and Mark's trip to America. This was an important aspect of the novel, to which many chapters were devoted.

First, this is necessary to tell the story of the critical change that occurs in young Martin when he is sick - for a month! - in Eden, (being selflessly cared for by Mark) and realizes the folly of his selfish ways. Second, the things that Martin and Mark witness and experience in America provide the reader/viewer with Dickens' own impressions of, and satirical commentary on, pre-civil war America - the slave-owning, ill-mannered, ever-spitting, money-grubbing, agrammatical, thieving, vain, violent, ignorant, swindling, bastard kin of the mother country. It's hysterical! I'm sure it was cut for political correctness, and that is sad. I believe that this is as close to a perfect production of a Dickens novel as can be done in a six hour time-frame (other than the unfortunate treatment of the American episodes). To truly do full justice to a major Dickens novel, I believe a production must devote one full hour to each of the original 'episodes' as published (three or four chapters were published each month - all of Dickens novels were first published that way).

Because Dickens wrote in this episodic way, there is a built in episodic quality to his work, and it is therefore already organized for the corresponding number of film episodes. Martin Chuzzlewit was published in 19 episodes (18 months with a double episode the last month). The best possible adaptation, in my opinion, would follow this episode list. Was the above review useful to you? 9 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Chuzzlewit Family Values from Buffalo, New York 5 October 2008 Martin Chuzzlewit as written by Charles Dickens becomes another of his young men who rise to success stories with a combination of their own perseverance and an unseen hand of fate which seems to be in control of destiny. Others like this are the more well known David Copperfield and Pip from Great Expectations. There are two Martin Chuzzlewits, the first is the young Dickensian hero who is played by Ben Walden and there is grandfather Martin Chuzzlewit who is Paul Scofield who also plays his own brother Anthony Chuzzlewit. The old Martin is one rich dude who is a doddering and miserly sort of man worried as to who might deserve the riches he's accumulated in life.

Scofield has a flock of relatives who are hanging on every word and every breath hoping to find favor with the old guy. For strangely enough he's cut off young Walden and now the rest of them just think his fortune is up for grabs with his dying breath. The worst of the Chuzzlewit relatives is a cousin named Seth Pecksniff who is an ostentatiously pious and inwardly scheming individual. He worms his way into Scofield's confidence and tries to undermine everyone else so that he and his daughters may profit. He's not above using his daughters for that end either though the daughters played by Julia Sawalha and Emma Chambers. Pecksniff is one of Dickens's most enduring if villainous characters and here he's played with full unctuousness going on all cylinders by Tom Wilkinson. One of the daughters in fact at Wilkinson's urging marries an equally villainous cousin Jonas Chuzzlewit played by Keith Allen to further the Pecksniff fortunes. He also takes in 'students' to 'learn' architecture and he's got a lovely racket there in passing off promising student's drawings as his own work and living off the money they pay him to allegedly learn.

He deals young Walden dirty that way, but most catch on to him including Walden with exception of good hearted Tom Pinch played by Philip Allen. Even he gets wise at one point. Martin Chuzzlewit was written after Dickens had returned from an American tour and part of the novel has young Martin and a friend going to America to seek a fortune of his own. Dickens was not happy with what he saw in America and the Americans you see here are a merciless bunch of greedy film flam businessmen. That part of the novel got a short shrift in this production. Considering how Dickens portrayed some of his own countrymen I can't really fault him for writing what he saw in the USA of the 1840s. Just the Chuzzlewit family or most of them are enough to make you gag. This is a fine BBC productions impeccably cast and giving us a good picture of the United Kingdom of the early Victorian years. Best in the cast is Tom Wilkinson as Pecksniff. The word itself became a noun in the English language for hypocrite just mccarthyism became a synonym for slanderous accusation without proof. When one of your characters becomes a noun, that's the greatest success you can have.

Was the above review useful to you? 3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Classic Dickens from United Kingdom 18 September 2013 Martin Chuzzlewit is perhaps not Dickens at his best but it has the ingredients that make him such a great author in the first place and it deserves to be better known. This 1994 adaptation is fabulous in all areas, one of the best Dickens adaptations of the past 25 years. The production values are splendidly evocative, not too bleak or too squeaky clean, and the adaptation is shot with natural skill. The dialogue is very Dickenesian, with its fair share of funny and affecting parts, while the story while leaving some things out is compelling and faithful in spirit and style to Dickens, respecting his work rather than disregarding it. The pace is just right, the drama is given time to breathe but there's no signs of tedium, while as to hope from a Dickens adaptation the characterisations are rich. Of the fine performances, Tom Wilkinson dominates, a brilliant performance and he hits the arrogant and hypocritical sides of Pecksniff spot on. Phillip Franks is incredibly moving as Tom Pinch.

Paul Scofield's titular character is played with splendid dottiness and the much missed Pete Postlethwaite is superb, and we also have an unforgettably hilarious Elizabeth Spriggs and Keith Allen who has never been better. All in all, an underrated book given classic treatment. 10/10 Bethany Cox Was the above review useful to you? 3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: A great production 11 May 2013 Tremendous adaptation of the Dickens novel the author himself considered his best work. Perfectly cast in every role its difficult to single out any one as best. Scofield of course is brilliant but perhaps the real standout is Phillip Franks as Tom Pinch, outwardly an odd looking man who possesses a soul of great compassion and kindness he gives an emotional heart to the entire enterprise. Set in beautifully realized surroundings with impressive attention to detail and directed so that the story never bogs down and focuses too long on any one plot thread this is perfect for any fan of the BBC or classic literature. Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 2: Martin Chuzzlewit Audiobook at qbba by beneras owesete - issuu issuu Issuu on Google+ Martin Chuzzlewit First published in 1843-4, the novel which Dickens considered 'in a hundred points immeasurably the best of my stories' concerns the Chuzzlewit family in all various branches. At the heart of the story is young Martin, who is disowned by his wealthy grandfather and dismissed from the household of the architect Pecksniff, and sets out to make his own way in the world and win the hands of Mary Graham, an orphan raised by his grandfather. Moving from comic absurdity to the darkest corners of human nature, 'Martin Chuzzlewit' is a study in greed, selfishness and hypocrisy; and contains some of Dickens's most memorable characters - from the villainous Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit to the selfless Tom Pinch, the 'jolly' Mark Tapley, and the drunken nurse and midwife Sarah Gamp - considered by many to be Dickens's finest comic creation.

Author: Charles Dickens Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited Reader: Paul Scofield Audiobook length: 5 hours and 51 min. Category: Classics > British Literature Listen to a sample of this audiobook online at Qbba.com All pages: Martin Chuzzlewit Audiobook at qbba beneras owesete Follow publisher Unfollow publisher Be the first to know about new publications. David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page - Martin Chuzzlewit Martin Chuzzlewit FAQ & Email At the death of Anthony Chuzzlewit Mr. Mould, the undertaker, provides the customary 19th century funeral which Dickens mocks in many of his novels. Paid mourners and mutes (most likely drunks) follow the hearse feigning grief for the departed. Those in attendance were provided black ribbons, gloves, and scarves. Black feathers adorned the horses and hearse. At Anthony's funeral the only person to feel honest emotion for the departed, Mr Chuffey, is rebuked by the other 'mourners'. Dickens' will directed that 'those attending my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hat-band, or other such revolting absurdity'.

Even among the bizarre cast of characters in Dickens, Mrs Gamp is a piece of work. She is a nurse of sorts whose specialty lies in the polar extremities of life, the lying in and the laying out. More... Dickens' life during the serialization of Martin Chuzzlewit Jan 1843 - Jul 1844 Son Francis Jeffrey (Frank) Dickens born June 1844 A falling out with publishers Chapman and Hall , brewing since A Christmas Carol wasn't as profitable as he hoped, Dickens moves to new publishers Bradbury and Evans . July 1844 After finishing Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens and family travel to Genoa, Italy for nearly a year. Martin Chuzzlewit - Published in monthly parts Jan 1843 - July 1844 | Illustrations | Locations Dickens sixth novel, written after taking a year off during which he visited America for the first time, was less than enthusiastically received. The novel deals with the greed of Old Martin's relatives, chiefly Mr. Pecksniff, hoping to inherit his wealth. In the sixth installment, hoping to fend off lagging sales, Dickens has young Martin Chuzzlewit, the old man's grandson, go off to America.

Dickens goes on to vent some of his ill feelings for the former colony he recently visited, American audiences were outraged. In preparing installments of Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens began developing a design for the entire novel in advance of the monthly numbers. This represents a change from his early novels and is further developed in his next novel, Dombey and Son . During the writing of Martin Chuzzlewit, and sales of the monthly parts disappointingly low, Dickens was experiencing financial difficulty. He had borrowed from his publishers for his American trip in 1842 and his wife Kate was expecting their fifth child. He responded by planning a small book for the Christmas season of 1843 which followed the theme of greed he was writing in Martin Chuzzlewit. The result was the classic A Christmas Carol , published in December 1843. Principal Characters: Martin Chuzzlewit Summary - eNotes.com Martin Chuzzlewit Summary link Link Selfishness is a strong family trait in Martin and Anthony Chuzzlewit, two aged brothers. From his cradle, Anthony’s son, Jonas, has been taught to think only of money and gain; in his eagerness to possess his father’s wealth, he often grows impatient for the old man to die.

Old Martin Chuzzlewit suspects the world of having designs on his fortune; his distrust and lack of generosity have turned his grandson, his namesake, into a model of selfishness and obstinacy. The old man’s heart is not as hard as it seems, for he has taken into his house as his companion and ward an orphan named Mary Graham. He tells her that she will have a comfortable home as long as he lives but that she should expect nothing at his death. His secret wish is that love might grow between her and his grandson, but when young Martin tells him that he has chosen Mary for his own, old Martin is displeased, afraid that the young couple are acting in their own interests. A disagreement follows, and the old man turns his grandson out of his house. Thrown on his own resources, young Martin decides to become an architect. He arranges to study with Mr. Pecksniff, an architect and land surveyor, who lives in a little Wiltshire village not far from Salisbury. Mr. Pecksniff agrees to train two or three pupils in return for a large premium and exorbitant charges for board and lodging.

He thinks highly of himself as a moral man, and he has a copybook maxim to quote for every occasion. He and old Martin Chuzzlewit are cousins, but even though there has been bad feeling between them in the past, Mr. Pecksniff sees in young Martin a possible suitor for one of his daughters, and he accepts him as a student without requiring the customary fee. Mr. Pecksniff has never been known to build anything, a fact that takes nothing away from his reputation. With him live his two affected daughters, Charity and Mercy, both as hypocritical and mean-spirited as their father. His assistant is a former pupil named Tom Pinch, a meek, prematurely aged draftsman who looks upon Mr. Pecksniff as a tower of knowledge. Young Martin arrives in Wiltshire and takes the place of John Westlock in Mr. Pecksniff’s establishment. Westlock was never a favorite in the household, his contempt for Mr. Pecksniff having been as great as his regard for the honest, loyal Tom Pinch. At first, Martin treats Tom in a patronizing manner.

Tom, accustomed to the snubs and ridicule of Charity and Mercy, returns Martin’s slights with simple goodwill; before long, the two become friends. One day, Mr. Pecksniff and his daughters depart suddenly for London, summoned there by old Martin Chuzzlewit. The old man calls on them at Mrs. Todgers’s shabbily genteel rooming house and accuses his grandson of having deceived the worthy man who shelters him. Mr. Pecksniff pretends to be pained and shocked to learn that Mr. Chuzzlewit has disowned his grandson. When the visitor hints at future goodwill and expectations if the architect will send the young man away at once, Mr. Pecksniff—even though the old man’s proposal is treacherous and his language insulting—agrees eagerly. Returning to Wiltshire, he puts on a virtuous appearance as he announces that young Martin has ill treated the best and noblest of men and has taken advantage of his own unsuspecting nature. His humble roof, Mr. Pecksniff declares, can never shelter so base an ingrate and impostor. Homeless once more, Martin makes his way to London in the hope of finding employment.

As the weeks pass, his small store of money dwindles steadily. At last, when he has nothing left to pawn, he decides to try his fortunes in America. A twenty-pound note in a letter from an unknown sender gives him the wherewithal for his passage. Mark Tapley, the hostler of the Blue Dragon Inn in Wiltshire, accompanies him on his adventure. Mark is a jolly fellow with a desire to see the world. Martin cannot leave London, however, without seeing Mary Graham. He reads her a letter he has written to Tom Pinch, in which he asks his friend to show her kindness if the two should ever meet. Martin also arranges to write to Mary in care of Tom. As steerage passengers, Martin and Mark have a miserable voyage to New York. Martin is not fond of the bumptious, tobacco-chewing Americans he meets, but he is excited by accounts of the fortunes to be made out West. Taken in by a group of land promoters, he writes to Mary, telling her of his bright prospects. Meanwhile, old Anthony Chuzzlewit dies suddenly in the presence of his son, Mr. Pecksniff, and a faithful clerk, Chuffey.

Sarah Gamp is called in to prepare the body for burial. She is a fat, middle-aged Cockney with a fondness for the... (The entire section is 1922 words.) Get Free Access Start your free trial with eNotes for complete access to this resource and thousands more. 30,000+ Study Guides Save time with thousands of teacher-approved book and topic summaries. Get Homework Help Ask real teachers questions on any subject or search 300,000+ answers. On the Go Access An Overview of Dickens's Picaresque Novel Martin Chuzzlewit [ Victorian Web Home —> Authors —> Charles Dickens —> Works —> Martin Chuzzlewit ] n the vein of agitation for social reform that characterizes Oliver Twist (1837-38), Dickens is critical of drunken nurses who mistreat their poor patients, but still has a touch of genial warmth for the loquacious Sairey Gamp, identified by her tag line about "Mrs. Harris" and her umbrella (in Cockney slang, a 'gamp'). Martin Chuzzlewit also reflects Dickens's disillusionment resulting from his recent trip to the United States, often referred to as his first American reading tour.

The picaresque novel has three elements essentially: the Pecksniff-Jonas plot, focusing on the destructiveness of selfishness and hypocrisy, and involve a psychological study of a criminal and a crime-and-detection plot; the young Martin-Mark Tapley journey to Eden ('Don Quixote and Sancho Panza' in the Mississippi Valley of the United States), a Swiftian political satire of the young republic; the Sairey Gamp-and-associates plot, that is interwoven with the first. On one level, Dickens is still the preacher of domestic sentiment and social reform, but on another he is an artist reflecting the brutality and creative energy of early Victorian society. As is the case with Paul Sweedlepipes, some of Dickens's best-remembered characters have little to do with the main plots of their respective books. His use of crime-and-detection intrigue (murderer Jonas and swindler Tigg) and suspense (the detective Nadgett), and of a long-lost heir (young Martin) is as intrinsic to his plotting here as in Oliver Twist. The genealogy of the opening chapter seems to reflect the novelist's difficulty in beginning the story.

His extensive use of pathetic fallacy in this book begins with his animation of the wind in the second chapter: part of Dickens's comedy is that, while things behave like people (personification), people behave like machines (dehumanization), a double technique seen again in Dickens's Hard Times in particular. The world of this novel is one of steep contrasts: the idyllic countryside near Salisbury contrasting with the slums near Todgers's in London and the swamp of Eden in the United States. Although this novel was written in the railway age, Dickens harkens back to the England of the Regency with its coaches and turnpike roads; nevertheless, as in the case of Tigg's personal carriage and Martin's arrival in America, there is a sense of rapid movement. The description of the wind is characteristic of the humorous style of the early Sketches by Boz , Dickens employing a farcical note to introduce the story's butt, the sham architect Seth Pecksniff. The daughters' names, Mercy and Charity, initially suit "the moral Pecksniff," but prove to be ironic since he is "a direction-post which is always telling the way . . .

, and never gets there." Pecksniff anticipates the sleek, soft, oily hypocrisy of Uriah Heep in David Copperfield . Dickens tendentiously surrounds anything he dislikes with unpleasant connotations. Objects have value only in their positive or negative effects on the human situation. Dickens can charge a situation with either horror or amiability and exuberance. His point of view is often that of an imaginative yet frightened child in an enchanted forest of grotesque and divine shapes. For Dickens only individual acts of generosity can improve human circumstances. Dickens portrays Sairey Gamp the nurse and Seth Pecksniff the architect as frauds and hypocrites, but he gradually loses his indignation as he offers amusing details about their characters, particularly their speech and appearance. More inarticulate characters have little of the high-blown rhetoric Dickens gives these two, but rather reveal themselves through expressive actions (such as Mary Graham's giving young Martin her ring). As in most of his other works, in Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens employs a picaresque journey (often, as in Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop , involving the flight of a child from danger and conveying that terrified child's point of view).

Young Martin's journey is a reflection of Dickens's own, not only from social naivete and financial insecurity towards self-knowledge and affluence, but also to the United States and back again, a political Odyssey of sorts. In January, 1842, Dickens and his wife entrusted the care of their young family to their great friend, the actor-manager William Macready, and sailed for America. Initially, Dickens proclaimed himself a republican at heart, and longed to visit this classless society founded upon the egalitarian principles of the Enlightenment. His intention was to persuade Americans to honour British copyright, using the lamentable case of Sir Walter Scott to justify his position that American publishers should not be permitted to pirate the works of British authors (America joined the International Copyright Union only in 1896, after Canadians had pirated Twain and other American authors). Astonished at the gross conceit of Americans and their lofty condescension to foreigners, as well as their tendency to use violence instead of compromise to solve disputes, Dickens noted the inconsistencies between American ideals and conduct.

However, while American Notes is essentially a non-fiction account of that visit based on his letters to John Forster , Martin Chuzzlewit is a Swiftian satire of human nature, without the naive persona of Gulliver (instead, Dickens uses the callow Martin as an ironic observer of the American social and political scene). Like his eighteenth-century master, Henry Fielding, Dickens makes editorial intrusions into the action of the novel, emphasizing the theme which runs through all his works, the inhumanity to man inherent in social institutions. Dickens's extensive use of coincidence (notice, for example, that Tigg's confidential detective turns out to be the Pinches' landlord) reflects his feeling that the world is highly changeable and insecure. Despite the weaknesses of the episodic, picaresque plot, Martin Chuzzlewit is saved by its author's sense of the theatrical. Dickens uses the novel as a fantastic stage which teems with action and rings with voices of all classes and conditions. He builds from crisis to crisis in the manner of contemporary melodrama, maintaining interest by tantalizing the reader towards the end of each monthly instalment (part).

Deftly he brings on new characters and settings to re- engage the reader just when interest seems to flag. For example, with the sales of the green-covered, 32-page fifth instalment falling, in the last chapter of the sixth monthly number (June 1843) Dickens adopted the radical expedient of sending his youthful protagonist not merely to London as Fielding had done in Tom Jones , but to America. The book's picaresque technique provides him with a large canvas and plenty of opportunity for farce, melodrama, and social criticism. Martin Chuzzlewit , though highly popular throughout the nineteenth century, is today regarded as something of an artistic failure because its central character is a mere cipher overshadowed by a legion of fascinating, quirky minor characters. To the modern reader as to American novelist and critic Henry James, Martin Chuzzlewit exemplifies the "loose, baggy monster" that was the Victorian novel. Dickens's sense of character and atmosphere is strong, his dialogue is often brilliant in its individualizing the characters, but the plotting seems creaky.

Both David Copperfield (1849-50) and Great Expectations (1861) are more highly regarded today because of their highly integrated plots and introspective, first-person narrative points-of-view. A Bibliography of Suggested Readings Philip V. Allingham's "The Names of Dickens's American Originals in Martin Chuzzlewit " in Dickens Quarterly 7, 3 (Sept., 1990): 329-337. James J. and Patience P. Barnes' entry "Copyright," in Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. Sally Mitchell (New York: Garland, 1988): 192-3. Joseph Brogunier's "The Dreams of Montague Tigg and Jonas Chuzzlewit," in the Dickensian , 58 (1962): 165-170. Charles Dickensï¿½ Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-4), ed.

Margaret Cardwell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982) for excellent reproductions of Phiz 's plates, "Dickens's Instructions to the Illustrator" (842-5), Dickens's 1868 postscript (855-6). The "Forged Letter" of 3 May, 1842, and the New York Evening Tattler's response to it on 11 August, 1842. The American newspaper Brother Jonathan's unsigned review of the novel: 29 July, 1843, reprinted in the Dickensian , vol, 10 (1914): 97-99. Susan Eilenberg's "Mortal Pages: Wordsworth and the Reform of Copyright," ELH 56, 2 (1989): 351-374. George H. Ford's entry on Dickens in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Victorian Novelists Before 1885, vol. 21, ed. Ira B. Nadel and William E. Fredeman (Detroit: Gale Research, 1983): 89-124.

T. W. Hill's "Notes on Martin Chuzzlewit in the Dickensian , vol. 42 (1946):141-148, 196-203; vol. 47, 28-35; vol. 49, 167-. Robert L. Patten's "Trouble in Eden: American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit ," Ch. 7 in Charles Dickens and His Publishers (Oxford: Claredon, 1978): 119-138. Ronald Pearsall's " The Figure of the Governess in Nineteenth-Century Britain" in Night's Black Angels: The Forms and Faces of Victorian Cruelty (London:1975): 45-8. Mary Rosner's "Dickens's Use of Animals in Martin Chuzzlewit," in Dickens Studies Newsletter 10 , 2 (1979): 40-51. Anne Summersï¿½ "The Mysterious Demise of Sarah Gamp: The Domiciliary Nurse and Her Detractors, c.

1830-1860," in Victorian Studies (Spring, 1989): 365-386. Michael Steig's "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz," in Dickens Studies Annual 2 (1972): 119-149. Kathleen Walesï¿½ "The Claims of Kinship: The Opening Chapter of Martin Chuzzlewit ," in the Dickensian 83, 3 (Autumn, 1987): 167-179.

Question: 'Sarah Gamp', 'Tom Pinch', and 'Mark Tapley' are characters in which Dickens novel?
Answer: 'MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT'