Martin Chuzzlewit
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mwtzzz
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Martin Chuzzlewit
I'm a huge Dickens fan, he's in my top 3 favorite writers. I'm curious if anyone else has read Martin Chuzzlewit. I'm 35% of the way into it. I actually have watched the BBC miniseries (the best-made BBC miniseries of all time, in my opinion) two or three times before picking up the book, something I usually don't do.
A few of the passages I have highlighted so far from the book:
It was small tyranny for a respectable wind to go wreaking its vengeance on such poor creatures as the fallen leaves, but this wind happening to come up with a great heap of them just after venting its humour on the insulted Dragon ...
(Dickens descriptions of the English landscape and moors in this book are quite nice)
being one of those strange creatures who never decline into an ancient appearance, but look their oldest when they are very young, and get over it at once.
from his early habits of considering everything as a question of property, he had gradually come to look, with impatience, on his parent as a certain amount of personal estate, which had no right whatever to be going at large, but ought to be secured in that particular description of iron safe which is commonly called a coffin, and banked in the grave
(one of the antagonists of the book)
There were churches also by dozens, with many a ghostly old churchyard [...] paralysed old watchmen guarded the bodies of the dead at night, year after year, until at last they joined that solemn brotherhood; and, saving that they slept below the ground a sounder sleep than even they had ever known above it, and were shut up in another kind of box, their condition can hardly be said to have undergone any material change when they, in turn, were watched themselves.
queer old taverns ... [with] quaint old guests who frequented their dimly lighted parlours. These were, in general, ancient inhabitants of that region; born, and bred there from boyhood, who had long since become wheezy and asthmatical, and short of breath, except in the article of story-telling; in that respect they were still marvelously long-winded.
A few of the passages I have highlighted so far from the book:
It was small tyranny for a respectable wind to go wreaking its vengeance on such poor creatures as the fallen leaves, but this wind happening to come up with a great heap of them just after venting its humour on the insulted Dragon ...
(Dickens descriptions of the English landscape and moors in this book are quite nice)
being one of those strange creatures who never decline into an ancient appearance, but look their oldest when they are very young, and get over it at once.
from his early habits of considering everything as a question of property, he had gradually come to look, with impatience, on his parent as a certain amount of personal estate, which had no right whatever to be going at large, but ought to be secured in that particular description of iron safe which is commonly called a coffin, and banked in the grave
(one of the antagonists of the book)
There were churches also by dozens, with many a ghostly old churchyard [...] paralysed old watchmen guarded the bodies of the dead at night, year after year, until at last they joined that solemn brotherhood; and, saving that they slept below the ground a sounder sleep than even they had ever known above it, and were shut up in another kind of box, their condition can hardly be said to have undergone any material change when they, in turn, were watched themselves.
queer old taverns ... [with] quaint old guests who frequented their dimly lighted parlours. These were, in general, ancient inhabitants of that region; born, and bred there from boyhood, who had long since become wheezy and asthmatical, and short of breath, except in the article of story-telling; in that respect they were still marvelously long-winded.
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Naseeha Naseeha
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Martin Chuzzlewit! I really appreciate your review and the passages you highlighted—Dickens' descriptions are always such a joy to read. It’s great to hear you’re enjoying the book, especially after watching the BBC miniseries. Hope the rest of the novel is just as engaging for you! 
