Zen Cho's Reviews > Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit
by
by
Reread. Martin Chuzzlewit is one of my favourite Dickenses; I love (and invariably start rereading at) the part where Martin falls ill in an American swamp and becomes a better person. Also I adore Mark Tapley.
Things I noticed about the book that I hadn't noticed before:
1. Gosh, that's a lot of vitriol against America. I am touched by Dickens's postscript, in which he takes pains to emphasise how great Americans were on his second trip there, and which he says "so long as my descendants have any legal right in my books, I shall cause to be republished, as an appendix to every copy of those two books of mine in which I have referred to America", as "an act of plain justice and honour". Go Dickens.
2. The food! The food! Dickens loves describing food. I get so hungry reading him, even though it is vile British food that I am not a big fan of.
I wonder why the sexism in Dickens doesn't bother me as much as it does in Heinlein. More obvious objectification of women in Heinlein? Or is it just that I was younger and more happy to ignore these things when I first started reading Dickens?
Things I noticed about the book that I hadn't noticed before:
1. Gosh, that's a lot of vitriol against America. I am touched by Dickens's postscript, in which he takes pains to emphasise how great Americans were on his second trip there, and which he says "so long as my descendants have any legal right in my books, I shall cause to be republished, as an appendix to every copy of those two books of mine in which I have referred to America", as "an act of plain justice and honour". Go Dickens.
2. The food! The food! Dickens loves describing food. I get so hungry reading him, even though it is vile British food that I am not a big fan of.
I wonder why the sexism in Dickens doesn't bother me as much as it does in Heinlein. More obvious objectification of women in Heinlein? Or is it just that I was younger and more happy to ignore these things when I first started reading Dickens?
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
December 1, 2007
–
Finished Reading
December 5, 2007
– Shelved
December 5, 2007
– Shelved as:
comfortreading
December 5, 2007
– Shelved as:
oldschool
December 5, 2007
– Shelved as:
victorian
I love all the American scenes in his book. How quickly he got to the essence of things that are peculiarly of the New World.
Alex