Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

Adam White (The Open University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1843 - 1844

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Martin Chuzzlewit is arguably, as James R. Kincaid puts it, Dickens’s “funniest novel” (132). It is a work transitional between the loosely plotted comedy of The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1) and the more tightly plotted social criticism of Dombey and Son (1846-8). It is built around the tale of the misanthropic and selfish Martin Chuzzlewit whose wealthy grandfather (of the same name) denies his suit to marry a young orphan he has adopted, Mary Graham, and who then ships for America as an architect for the Eden Land Corporation (a name which satirically conjoins paradise to capitalism), a fraudulent concern which ruins and nearly kills him, thus allowing him to return to England a sadder and wiser man, now …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

4641 words

Citation: White, Adam. "Martin Chuzzlewit". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3719, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Save this article