Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
"Martin Chuzzlewit" is (to my mind) one of Dickens' best novels, and is both funny and serious at the same time. It tells the story of the different members of the Chuzzlewit family. Some of Dickens's best characters are in this book - drunken Mrs Gamp and her imaginary friend, and Mr Pecksniff, the epitome of the free-loading hypocrite.
But what is most notable in the book is its picture of a self-mythologising America, a country where "they're so fond of Liberty that they buy her and sell her and carry her to market with 'em. They've such a passion for Liberty, that they can't help taking liberties with her," a country which holds itself up as an example to the rest of the world, and where any criticism of an individual American is held to be a criticism of its "institutions" and defended as such. It's a picture that has many echoes more than 150 years on.
An excellent read!
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Ouch! But does sound like a good read.
