Martin Chuzzlewit

'Among the most powerful things Dickens ever did in fiction' Guardian
Greed has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and name-sake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed champion, the scheming architect Pecksniff, to seek his fortune in America. In depicting Martin's journey Dickens created many vividly realized figures, from Martin's optimistic manservant Mark Tapley to the drunken and corrupt private nurse Mrs Gamp. With its portrayal of greed, blackmail and murder, and its searing satire on America, Dickens's novel is a powerful and blackly comic story of hypocrisy and redemption.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Patricia Ingham

Charles Dickens (1812-70) was a political reporter and journalist whose popularity was established by the phenomenally successful PICKWICK PAPERS (1836-7). His novels captured and held the public imagination over a period of more than thirty years. Dickens is considered one of the greatest novelists in the English language.Patricia Ingham is Fellow of St Anne's College, Reader in English, and The Times Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford.