250TH ANNIVERSARY
Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit
(1844)
Like all of Dickens' major fiction, Martin Chuzzlewit, his sixth novel, was written for serial publication. Dickens counted on the payments to support his growing family.
A standard monthly installment was thirty-two pages and contained two to three chapters.
As an aide-mémoire, Dickens prepared sheets with titles, plot ideas and characters' names. Still, he wished "in the progress of this Tale to resist the temptation of the current Monthly number."
This novel on families and selfishness, which attacked American mores and institutions, enraged his overseas readers. As a friend wrote, "[Dickens] sent his humour and his art into the core of the vices of the time."
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