Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens - Book 7, Part 3

Title: Martin Chuzzlewit

Overview: The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (commonly known as Martin Chuzzlewit) is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialized between 1842 and 1844. While he was writing it Dickens told a friend that he thought it was his best work, but it was one of his least popular novels. The late nineteenth-century English novelist George Gissing read the novel in February 1888 "for refreshment" but felt that it showed "incomprehensible weakness of story". Like nearly all of Dickens's novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was first published in monthly installments. Early sales of the monthly parts were disappointing, compared to previous works, so Dickens changed the plot to send the title character to the United States. Dickens had visited America in 1842 in part as a failed attempt to get the US publishers to honor copyright laws. He satirized the country as a place filled with self-promoting hucksters, eager to sell land sight unseen. In later editions, and in his second visit 24 years later to the much-changed US, he made clear it was satire and not a balanced image of the nation in a speech and then included that speech in all future editions. The main theme of the novel, according to Dickens's preface, is selfishness, portrayed in a satirical fashion using all the members of the Chuzzlewit family. The novel is also notable for two of Dickens's great villains, Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit. Dickens introduced the first private detective character in this novel. It is dedicated to Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, a friend of Dickens.

Published: 1843

List: 100 Classic Book Collection

Author: Charles Dickens

Genre: Novel, Serial Novel, Social Criticism Novel, Novella, Bildungsroman, Fiction Novel

Episode: Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens - Book 7, Part 3

Part: 3 of 6

Length Part: 4:59:56

Book: 7

Length Book: 31:32:18

Episodes: 21 - 29 of 56

Narrator: Peter John Keeble

Language: English

Edition: Unabridged Audiobook

Keywords: determination, persistence, kindness, human spirit, debt, morality play, perception, discovery, hope, united states, selfishness, villains, private detective, satire, seth pecksniff, jonas chuzzlewit,

Credits: All LibriVox Recordings are in the Public Domain. Wikipedia (c) Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. WOMBO Dream.

Open Air with Cheri Huber - March 20, 2007