"I have been brought up from childhood with great expectations, and have always been taught to believe that I should be, one day, very rich." — Martin Chuzzlewit to Tom Pinch, Ch. 6.
Introductory Materials
Biographical Aspects of the Novel
- Dickens's 1842 Reading Tour: Launching the Copyright
Question in Tempestuous Seas
- Dickens's Impressions of the Mississippi valley at Cairo, Illinois, the original of "Eden" in Martin Chuzzlewit
- Marcus Stone's Illustrations for American Notes
Genre, Narration, and Setting
- A Bad Trip: The Trouble with Martin Chuzzlewit
- From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphery's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit [chapter from Steig's Dickens and Phiz]
- The Dickensian Narrator as Wisdom Speaker
- The Dualistic Chronological Setting of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit
Characterization
- The critics and the characters in Martin Chuzzlewit
- The Names of Dickens's American Originals in Martin Chuzzlewit
- Seth Pecksniff, Architect
- The Divine Sairey Gamp: An Enduring Comic Masterpiece
- "Jolly" Mark Tapley in Martin Chuzzlewit — one of Dickens's most popular originals
- Dickens's Jonas in Martin Chuzzlewit and Milton's Satan
- Tom Pinch's love of bookstores
The Novel's Themes and Contemporary Issues
- The Figure of the Governess (based on Pearsall's Night's Black Angels)
- Dickens on the plight of the governess
- Mr. Pecksniff travels by coach and thinks about life and pleasure
- Tom compares country and city coaches as he travels to London
- Dickens’s portrait of Americans in Martin Chuzzlewit to Trollope’s Slope
- “Well, Oliver, how do you like it?”: Dickens, Funerals, and Undertakers
- Dickens, Slavery, Abolition and Martin Chuzzlewit
Illustrations of the Novel
- Illustrations by Which to Read Martin Chuzzlewit: The Phiz Steels (1843-44) or the Barnard Woodcuts (c. 1875)
- Illustrations by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
- Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr.
- Illustrations by Fred Barnard
- Illustrations by Harry Furniss
- Illustrations by Kyd (Clayton J. Clarke)
Primary References
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872.
_____. Martin Chuzzlewit. Edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. The Works of Charles Dickens in Thirty-four Volumes, vol. III. The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Volume 7 of the Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
Kyd. Characters from Dickens. Nottingham: John Player & Sons, 1910.
Last modified 23 March 2019