A master storyteller and quite the intriguing story. Charles Dickens creates characters with exceptional personalities and in this work as with the other of his stories I've read he has a full array of the good, the bad and somewhere in between. I enjoyed this story although when it was released in serial format it was not as popular as some of his other novels. I highly recommend it but only if someone has the desire to read quite a long novel and does not choose it as a first read for this author.

I would probably give this one more of a 3.5 stars instead of 4. The book is so long at over 600 pages and many parts of the book are unnecessary to the story.
The theme is what selfishness and gaining riches without caring for others can do to a person. Dickens asks what causes problems and then tells us: "; Self: grasping, eager, narrow-ranging, overreaching self; with its long train of suspicions, lusts, deceits, and all their growing consequences; was the root of the vile tree." Mr Pecksmith, Jonas Chuzzlewit, and old Martin Chuzzlewit illustrate selfishness while Tom Pinch and his sister Ruth and his friend John illustrate kindness. Is it possible to change your character? Yes, absolutely as we see in both the older and the younger Martin.

dont read dickens

Dickens aveva la capacità, con le sue storie e con i suoi personaggi, di far entrare il lettore dentro le sue pagine, e Martin Chuzzlewit non fa eccezione: l'incantesimo è più potente che mai! Sfido chiunque a non empatizzare sin da subito con il povero Tom Pinch dal cuore d'oro, o a non considerare sin da subito nella cerchia degli amici più stretti l'allegro (fin troppo!) Mark Tapley!
Insomma, l'ennesimo capolavoro di Dickens, in un'ottima edizione Adelphi impreziosita dalle bellissime illustrazioni di Phiz.

Almost gave up on this halfway through. It started out well, got *extremely* boring and diffuse, then ended up back together neatly enough, though it took Dickens flat changing the personalities of some of the characters to do so. If I wasn't committed to reading everything of Dickens's, I would not have finished this one.