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A review by sashshearman
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
2.0
I tried and tried and tried to enjoy this book, but I just didn't care and ended up putting it down just as Martin C is about to get hoodwinked by an American con-man.
I love much of Dickens writing; Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend and Great Expectations are some of my favorite novels. But MC left me cold. The characters were too black and white, even for Dickens and the story meandered here and there and there was little tension. He was brutal about America and Americans, they were either con artists or snobbish hypocrites. The English characters fared better, most of them were just hypocrites.
Dickens loved this most of all his books and thought it the best of his novels. His readers, at the time it was published in serial form, disagreed. So do I.
I love much of Dickens writing; Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend and Great Expectations are some of my favorite novels. But MC left me cold. The characters were too black and white, even for Dickens and the story meandered here and there and there was little tension. He was brutal about America and Americans, they were either con artists or snobbish hypocrites. The English characters fared better, most of them were just hypocrites.
Dickens loved this most of all his books and thought it the best of his novels. His readers, at the time it was published in serial form, disagreed. So do I.