Reading Order
Martin ChuzzlewitCharles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit Reading Order
Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) is his most explicitly thematic early novel — organized around the idea of selfishness as a moral disease that infects every character and institution the novel touches. The novel's most memorable creation is Mrs. Sarah Gamp, the drunken monthly nurse who is one of Dickens's greatest comic characters; and the American chapters — in which young Martin goes to America and finds its self-congratulation and fraud as bad as anything in England — are the sharpest satire Dickens ever produced.
Where to start
Martin Chuzzlewit
Complete Martin Chuzzlewit Book List
- 1Buy
Martin Chuzzlewit
Charles Dickens·1844·Start here — Dickens's most thematically focused early novel and the home of Mrs. Gamp, his greatest comic character; often called the last of the "early" Dickens before the transition to the mature social panoramas. - 2Buy
Nicholas Nickleby
Charles Dickens·1839·Dickens's earlier picaresque novel — the most direct predecessor to Martin Chuzzlewit in its energy and its portrait of a young man making his way through a world populated by comic villains and generous friends. - 3Buy
Dombey and Son
Charles Dickens·1848·The novel immediately following Martin Chuzzlewit — the first fully planned Dickens novel and the transition to his mature style; where Martin Chuzzlewit treats selfishness as a comic theme, Dombey and Son treats it as a tragic one. - 4Buy
Pickwick Papers
Charles Dickens·1837·Dickens's debut novel and the work that established the comic energy Martin Chuzzlewit would later deploy at full power; the essential context for understanding how Dickens developed from pure comedy to thematic satire. - 5Buy
American Notes
Charles Dickens·1842·Dickens's non-fiction account of his first American tour — the source material for the American chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit; reading American Notes before Martin Chuzzlewit gives the factual basis for Dickens's comic and satirical portrait of America.
Martin Chuzzlewit — Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Dickens's American readers dislike Martin Chuzzlewit?
The American chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit — in which young Martin visits America and finds it a place of hypocritical self-congratulation, financial fraud, and press manipulation — were not well received in the United States. Dickens had visited America in 1842 and published American Notes about the trip; his criticism of American slavery and press practices had already created antagonism. Martin Chuzzlewit's satirical portrait of 'Eden' (a fraudulent real estate development in the fever-ridden American wilderness) and its American characters who endlessly congratulate themselves on their freedom while tolerating slavery was seen as ungrateful and unfair.
Who is Mrs. Gamp and why is she so famous?
Sarah Gamp — the drunken, disreputable monthly nurse who carries an enormous umbrella and constantly quotes the opinions of the probably-imaginary Mrs. Harris — is one of the most celebrated comic characters in all Victorian fiction. She appears in the darker subplot of Martin Chuzzlewit (involving the murderer Jonas Chuzzlewit) but her comedy is entirely her own: her self-satisfied monologues, her cheerful incompetence, her philosophical equanimity in the face of birth, illness, and death. Her name became a word in English (a 'gamp' is an umbrella), and she directly influenced the creation of many subsequent comic nursing characters in Victorian fiction and drama.
Is Martin Chuzzlewit a good introduction to Dickens?
It's a good third or fourth Dickens, but not the best starting point. The novel has an uneven first section, and the thematic argument about selfishness is stated more baldly than in the mature novels. Great Expectations, David Copperfield, or Nicholas Nickleby are better entry points; Martin Chuzzlewit is most rewarding for readers who already appreciate Dickens's range and want to see him working out the moral concerns that the great novels will express with greater formal control.
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