Dear Serial Readers,
We've read several Dickens novels already (Dombey, Drood, Dorrit), but this 1843-44 serial is the earliest of the lot. In this opener, I recognize the Dickensian journey to the interior--it's gradual, from the scene setting of chapter one with all the somewhat abstract description of nation and world traveling, and the rise and fall of Chuzzlewits whose "high and lofty station" and "vast importance" delivered with irony at best. The Pecksniffs, father and daughters, have grandiose ideas of themselves, the father especially. And finally in this last chapter of the opening installment, we have a character with some merit--the childlike young woman (a stock character in Dickens--think Little Amy Dorrit) who accompanies the elder Martin Chuzzlewit on his travels. There's a will and wealth plot afloat here too--Martin senior has lots of money, but he sees only the corrupting power of that wealth and seems reluctant to leave the money to his grandson who, claims Mary, has "the strongest natural claim upon you." How many Dickens novels showcase the hazards of wealth for character and for familial ties?
Intriguing and Dickensian is Martin's final diatribe against the self plot, which he suspects his grandson of pursuing: "A new plot; a new plot! Oh self, self, self! At every turn, nothing but self!" And "Oh self, self self! Every man for himself, and no creature for me!" The ultimate sentence of the installment: "Universal self! Was there nothing of its shadows in these reflections, and in the history of Martin Chuzzlewit, on his own showing?" It seems like selflessness is the virtue of the day, one lacking in the male Chuzzlewit line, but modeled by little orphan Mary.
We're set up to wait for the young Martin, successor to the old: Chuzzlewit and Grandson. Traveling seems a key note in this opener too. Your thoughts on this serial launch?
Next installment: chapters 4-5. What about accelerating our travels with this novel, and reading two installments per week? I'll see if anyone has thoughts about a quicker pace (please comment), and perhaps we'll adjust for upcoming segments.
Serially starting,
Susan
4 comments:
Dickens novel, with the references to William the Conqueror and Adam and his descendants whose qualities, in the narrator’s view, line up best with those of swine. Sounds like were in for the dark side. Mr. Pecksniff, we’re told, is “a moral man,” who says, “Every pleasure is transitory.” He’s Buddhist, perhaps? We’re also told (I don’t remember by whom) that we aren’t all arrayed in the two opposites of character, offensive and defensive, that some walk in between. Let’s hope we see some in-betweeners, since I fear that young Mary is going to error on the side of Goody Two Shoes, and on the other, woe to the moneyed.
Wish I could, but I doubt I’ll be able to keep pace with two installments per week.
It's fascinating how slowly this novel starts! I don't really mean that as criticism -- I'm pretty content to linger in a Dickens novel for as long as it runs -- but I just can't imagine an opening chapter like this one appearing in fiction any more. It's deliberately paced, dry, does nothing to introduce our protagonist directly, and doesn't even advance the plot. Very interesting. I guess if you're a successful serial novelist that buys you some charity from your readers (though I note in my Penguin copy that this novel was relatively unsuccessful compared to his earlier works).
Pecksniff seems like fun. I enjoyed the narrator's sly use of "some might say" phrases to sneak criticism in without directly stating that Pecksniff is a hypocrite and not a moral exemplar.
And since I persist in violating the serial reading principles by reading the prologues, I thought this was worth mentioning: Dickens declares that he has "endeavoured in the progress of this Tale, to resist the temptation of the current Monthly Number, and to keep a steadier eye upon the general purpose and design." I'll be interested to see whether this actually happens as he hopes.
Looking forward to more serial reading! I'll read one or two installments a week; whatever everyone else prefers is fine by me.
Hello, fellow readers!
Like Josh, I enjoyed the leisurely pacing of this number, especially its first two chapters, which certainly felt like stagecoach (rather than steam-whistle) Dickens! The scene painting of Chapter 2 struck me as quite Romantic (Wordsworthian? Coleridgian, Keatsian?), with its various relays and transitions between nature, agriculture, and human influence. We spend so much time here tracing the path and influence of light--between grass, hedges, stream, birds, church spire, windows, and then, finally, the "bright importance" of the village forge, which gives the "melancholy" night a persistent and conforting glow. I'm reminded of rustic scene painting here--George Eliot's later 'Dutch landscapes' (as in the opening scene of Mill on the Floss, with "moistness" everywhere).
But then we move on, from these detailed landscapes, to a distinctively comic Dickensian moment. Who but Dickens would evoke wind, first as the fanciful "angry" rival to the forge (and "boisterous" bully of leaves), but then as opening the door to Pecksniff's house and actually knocking him down flat? Here the novel seems almost to be mocking ideas of influence, correspondence, and causality. We've already heard a great deal about historical influence and continuity--the exalted antiquity of the Chuzzlewits--and we'll go on to hear much more about other family/non-family patterns and feelings. How random that Pecksniff just happens to attend to Martin Chuzzlewit in his lodgings--and is his cousin? And, similarly, how fitting that Martin insists he speak to Pecksniff as a "total stranger"--and that his attendant Mary is also no relation whatsoever (and thus has no "interest" in him)? I'm intrigued by this emphasis on disinterest and relations between strangers as the only remedy for the corrupting power of money.
Lastly, I wonder how these serial parts might complement the narrator's claim that, for some, Pecksniff serves a signalizing role--as a moralizing "direction post". Already Peckniff has spoken of money as the "root of all evil" in the chapter before Martin Chuzzlewit makes his own pronouncements. Will Pecksniff continue to point the way without providing direction?
PS--I'm fine with either one or two installments a week!
Ooops- I realize I mixed up my terms in my earlier comment! So actually Chuzzlewit favors Mary because she only has an immediate *monetary* "interest" in him and nothing more. And his emphasis is on transparent *interest*--not disinterest--and relations between strangers.
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