Even though I’ve read more than 40 books thus far in 2008 (a number that I’m very happy with, as I usually don’t get through that many titles this quickly), I’ve only tackled a couple of classics along the way. I started feeling guilty about the lack of “quality” works on my list, so I decided to get back into the swing of things by picking up a volume of Dickens. I’ve read a number of his books, and enjoyed most, so I figured he would be the best choice. I settled on Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit — and wasn’t disappointed in the least.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Like most of Dickens’ lengthy works, Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit features several major and minor plots that wend their way through the entire book. The main plot involves young Martin Chuzzlewit, who has recently been disinherited and exiled by his grandfather (also named Martin Chuzzlewit) for the “crime” of falling in love with the elder Martin’s personal attendant, a poor girl named Mary. Young Martin at first bristles against his grandfather’s decision, but soon comes to accept it, whereupon he strikes off for America with a man named Mark Tapley in order to make his fortune there.

The second major plot involves the elder Martin’s nephew Jonas, who, after the death of his father Anthony (under mysterious circumstances), gets tangled up with unsavory characters while operating an insurance company that is little more than a Ponzi scheme. When the scheme is about to collapse and Jonas realizes that one of the other partners has potentially damaging blackmail material about him, Jonas plots to kill the man.

A third plot involves a young man named Tom Pinch who studied architecture with Seth Pecksniff, and ended up working for Pecksniff for years. It seemed that everyone except Tom could immediately tell what a terrible person Pecksniff was. Instead, Tom defended Pecksniff’s honor at every opportunity — until he learned that Pecksniff made inappropriate advances towards young Martin’s girl Mary (whom Tom also secretly loved). After that, Tom has an epiphany and moves away from Pecksniff’s to a much better position, where he can be with his sister and earn a better living thanks to a mysterious benefactor.

Dickens weaves these various narratives together throughout the novel, and by the end, shows readers exactly how they’re all connected and how they all become resolved. As with most of Dickens’ works, everyone ends up getting more or less what they deserve, with the good folks living happily ever after and the bad ones suffering more ignominious fates.

My Reaction: As with most Dickens novels, it took a while for the action in Martin Chuzzlewit to really get going. The beginning was filled with lots of descriptions and character introductions, and since there were so many characters in the book, this naturally took some time. It was a bit boring, really, but once everything was established, the story began to pick up.

For me, the key to Dickens lies in the characters he creates rather than the rather coincidental, unbelievable situations that they inevitably get into (and extricate themselves from). Thus, it’s a good thing that Dickens succeeded in making young Martin and Tom Pinch so likable, as well as making Pecksniff and Jonas just as detestable. A middle ground wouldn’t have sufficed with these characters in a sweeping epic like this one, so I’m glad Dickens didn’t settle for that.

Yes, this is yet another Dickens novel that would greatly benefit from an editor’s judicious cuts. There are several passages that contain the famous Dickensian-length descriptions of ordinary scenes, as well as a number of tangential discourses on politics and America, which serve little to advance the actual plot. If you can get through these, however, there’s a good story waiting to be revealed.

Overall, I thought Martin Chuzzlewit was one of the better Dickens novels I’ve read. It’s not my favorite or anything, but I could very well picture myself reading it again in a decade or so!