Martin Chuzzlewit (Vintage Classics Promo 103)

Martin Chuzzlewit (Vintage Classics Promo 103)

by Charles Dickens (Author), SimonCallow (Introduction)

Synopsis

This title is presented with an introduction by Simon Callow. Wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit is surrounded by a host of grasping, unscrupulous relatives and suspects the family vices of selfishness and greed are already showing in his grandson. The younger Martin is therefore cast out upon the world to learn to fend for himself. Apprenticed to the oily hypocrite Peckniff, he meets both the sweet-tempered Tom Pinch and the irrepressible Mark Tapley, with whom he sets forth to America to find his fortune. Dickens created some of his most gleefully repulsive and enduring characters in this tale of corruption and virtue, murder and unrequited love.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 960
Publisher: Vintage Classics
Published: 04 Nov 2010

ISBN 10: 0099540851
ISBN 13: 9780099540854
Book Overview: Martin Chuzzlewit is a comic masterpiece which courted controversy on publication with its scathing portrayal of nineteenth-century America

Media Reviews
A novel that British readers love, and American readers love to hate...the American scenes are among the most powerful things Dickens ever did in fiction * Guardian *
Peckniff, the arch villain of Martin Chuzzlewit, is in some ways the archetypal hypocrite and yet he's constantly surprising you...vivid detail -- David Lodge * Time Out *
One of my favourite characters in English literature is the redoubtable Mark Tapley - a curious hybrid of Jeeves and Pollyanna who inhabits the pages of Dickens's great novel, Martin Chuzzlewit. -- Michael Simkins * Daily Telegraph *
Like all Dickens' novels it manages to combine social justice with humour -- Author Nicholas Rhea
After leaving school, I sought refuge from the perils of office life by reading under my desk or on park benches during the lunch hour. Dickens was my preferred means of escape -- Jeremy Lewis * Daily Telegraph *
Author Bio
Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Landport in Portsmouth. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office who often ended up in financial trouble. When Dickens was twelve years' old he was sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his father had been imprisoned for debt.In 1833 he began to publish short stories and essays in newspapers and magazines. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836, the same year that he married Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and Dickens became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He also set up and edited the journals Household Words (1850-9) and All the Year Round (1859-70). Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870 leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.