The story can be somewhat confusing as there are many characters and many story-lines that are followed for over 800 pages, but still if you have the time it is something you may want to invest in. Boiled down, it is a novel about a grandson and a grandfather (the Martin Chuzzlewits(s)) who go their own ways due to their similar prideful natures. There are many characters who intersect their story-lines, who bring a playful nature to the book. In fact, it is not the leading men who run the show, but the men and women in their lives who move the story along.
Of course, by the end of the novel, everyone is reformed (sort of) in true Dicksonian fashion, but it is funny to see how they get there.
Now it must be said that there is something distasteful about this book that I have not encountered with Dickens before. In the book Dickens makes a mockery of Americans, and when I say mockery, I mean it. Americans are depicted as an ignorant, vain, low-class people. The Americans that the younger Chuzzlewit meet seem to be a foolish sort of people, who like to seem to think they know everything, but in actuality, know nothing. For instance, they keep explaining to Martin how his own government works, and are of course, getting it all wrong. While Dickens does apologize at the end of the novel, it really doesn't help, to me at least. I am not sure who Dickens met on his travels throughout America, but clearly, they were not our best representatives.
So all in all, if you have the time to read the book, go ahead and give it a try. I do have to say that it might be best to try a more well known Dickens novel before attempting this one however. Give Oliver Twist or David Copperfield a try first before you head into this one.
So my next post will be on a novel by another British author--one of the Bronte sisters. Who can guess which novel and which sister?
Until next time,
R.F.F.
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