Martin Chuzzlewit
1844
Dickens himself considered this his finest work, a claim that seems almost reckless given his earlier triumphs. Yet Martin Chuzzlewit stands as his darkest, most savage novel: a black comedy about a family so consumed by selfishness that they'll destroy each other for a fortune. The story follows two cousins, both bearing the Chuzzlewit birthright of ruthless self-interest, as they journey toward radically different fates. Martin, young and humbled, seeks redemption through honest labor in America, while his uncle Jonas descends into murder and blackmail, becoming one of Dickens's most chilling villains. Pecksniff, the architect whose name has become synonymous with hypocritical virtue, remains one of literature's great con artists, a man whose moral preening masks only greed. Meanwhile, Mrs Gamp, the drunken nurse who speaks to her imaginary friend Mrs. Harris, is Dickens at his most grotesque and hilarious. The American sections, born from Dickens's real 1842 visit and his fury at American publishers pirating his work, blister with satire about hucksters, violence, and the emptiness of self-promotion. This is Dickens unchained from sentimentality, wielding wit like a blade.
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“He would make a lovely corpse.””
— Charles Dickens
“[S]he stood for some moments gazing at the sisters, with affection beaming in one eye, and calculation shining out of the other.””
— Charles Dickens
“The privileges of the side-table included the small prerogatives of sitting next to the toast, and taking two cups of tea to other people's one.””
— Charles Dickens
“if I was a painter, and was to paint the American Eagle, how should I do it?...I should want to draw it like a Bat, for its short-sightedness; like a Bantam. for its bragging; like a Magpie, for its honesty; like a Peacock, for its vanity; like an Ostrich, for putting its head in the mud, and thinking nobody sees it -' ...'And like a Phoenix, for its power of springing from the ashes of its faults and vices, and soaring up anew into the sky!””
— Charles Dickens
“The weather being hot, he had no cravat, and wore his shirt collar wide open; so that every time he spoke something was seen to twitch and jerk up in his throat, like the little hammers in a harpsichord when the notes are struck. Perhaps it was the Truth feebly endeavouring to leap to his lips. If so, it never reached them.””
— Charles Dickens
“Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration.””
— Charles Dickens
“The loveliest things in life are but shadows; they come and go, and change and fade away…””
— Charles Dickens
“Mr Pinch accordingly, after turning over the leaves of his book with as much care as if they were living and highly cherished creatures, made his own selection, and began to read.””
— Charles Dickens
“At length it became high time to remember the first clause of that great discovery made by the ancient philosopher, for securing health, riches, and wisdom; the infallibility of which has been for generations verified by the enormous fortunes constantly amassed by chimney-sweepers and other persons who get up early and go to bed betimes.””
— Charles Dickens
