Works of Charles Dickens

Front matter

WORKS OF CHARLES DICKENS. NEW ILLUSTR.4TED LIBRARY EDITION. VOLUME X. MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. — VOL. I. Ma. trtt. THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT ET CHARLES DICKENS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. WITH STEEL-PLATE ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON CambriUjfe: ©&e Efoeretoe $vems Copyright, 1877, By HURD AND HOUGHTON. The Riverside Press, Cambridge : Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company. TO Miss Burdett Coutts, Cbis Calc IS DEDICATED, WITH THE TRUE AND EARNEST REGARD OF THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. My main object in this story was, to exhibit in a variety of aspects the commonest of all the vices; to show how Selfishness propagates itself; and to what a grim giant it may grow, from small beginnings. All the Pecksniff family upon earth are quite agreed, I believe, that no such character as Mr. Pecksniff ever existed. I witi not offer any plea on his behalf to so powerful and genteel a body, but I wish to make a remark here on the character of Jonas Chuzzlewit. I conceive that the sordid coarseness and brutality of Jonas would be unnatural, if there had been nothing in his early education, and in the precept and example always before him, to engender and develop the vices that make him odious. But, so born and so bred ; admired sor that yvhich made him hateful, and justified from his cradle in cunning, treachery, and avarice ; I claim him as the legitimate issue of the father upon whom those vices are seen to recoil.

And I submit that their recoil upon that old man, in his unhonoured age, is not a mere piece of poetical justice, but is the extreme exposition of a plain truth. I make this comment on the character, and solicit the reader's attention to it in his or her consideration of this tale, because nothing is more common in real life than a want of

PREFACE.

. profitable reflection on the causes of many vices and crimes that awaken the general horror. What is substantially true of families in this respect, is true of a whole commonwealth. As we sow, we reap. Let the reader go into the children's side of any prison in England, or, I grieve to add, of many workhouses, and judge whether those are monsters who disgrace our streets, people our hulks and penitentiaries, and overcrowd our penal colonies, or are creatures whom we have deliberately suffered to be bred for misery and ruin. The American portion of this book is in no other respect a caricature than as it is an exhibition, for the most part, of the ludicrous side of the American character — of that side yvhich is, from its very nature, the most obtrusive, and the most likely to be seen by such travellers as Young Martin and Mark Tapley.

As I have never, in writing fiction, had any disposition to soften what is ridicidous or wrong at home, I hope sand believe) that the good-humoured people of the United States are not generally disposed to quarrel with me for carrying the same usage abroad. But I have been given to understand, by some authorities, that there are American scenes in these pages which axe violent exaggerations ; and that the "Watertoast Association and eloquence, for example, are beyond ati bounds of belief. Now, I wish to record the fact that all that portion of Martin Chuzzlewit' s American experiences is a literal paraphrase of some reports of public proceedings in the United States (especially of the proceedings of a certain Brandywine Association), which were printed in the Times Newspaper in June and July 1843 — at about the time when I yvas engaged in writing those parts of the book.

There were at that period, on the part of a frothy Youn» American party, demonstrations making of "sympathy" towards Ireland and hostility towards England, in whieh such

PREFACE.

. IX outrageous absurdities ran rampant, that, having the occasion ready to my hand, I ridiculed them. And this I did, not in any animosity towards America, but just as I should have done the same thing, if the same opportunity had arisen, in reference to London, or Dublin, or Paris, or Devonshire. In all the tales comprised in this cheap series, and in all my writings, I hope I have taken every possible opportunity of showing the want of sanitary improvements in the neglected dwellings of the poor. Mrs. Sarah Gamp is a representation of the hired attendant on the poor in sickness. The Hospitals of London are, in many respects, noble Institutions ; in others, very defective. I think it not the least among the instances of their mismanagement, that Mrs. Betsy Prig is a fair specimen of a Hospital Nurse ; and that the Hospitals, with their means and funds, should have left it to private humanity and enterprise, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Forty-nine, to enter on an attempt to improve that class of persons. page: CONTENTS.

Chapter II

Wherein certain Persons are presented to the Reader, with whom he may, if he please, hecome better acquainted ..... 8 CHAPTER m. In which certain other Persons are introduced ; on the same Terms as in the last Chapter 27

Chapter IV

From which it will appear that if Union he Strength, and Family Affection he pleasant to contemplate, the Chuzzlewits were the strongest and most agreeable Family in the World 46

Chapter V

Containing a full Account of the Installation of Mr. Pecksniff's new Pupil into the Bosom of Mr. Pecksniff's Family. With all the Festivities held on that Occasion, and the great Enjoyment of Mr. Pinch . . 67

CHAPTER VL

Comprises, among other important Matters, Pecksniffian and Architectural, an exact Relation of the Progress made by Mr. Pinch ill the Confidence and Friendship of the New Pupil .... CONTENTS. CHAPTER VH. PAGE Il which Mr. Chevy Slyme asserts the Independence of his Spirit ; and the Blue Dragon loses a Limb . . . • • • . J 06

CHAPTER VIIL

iccompames Mr. Pecksniff and his charming Daughters to the City of London ; and relates what fell out, upon their way thither . . 123

CHAPTER IX

Town and Todgers's 135

CHAPTER X.

Containing strange Matter ; on which many Events in this History, may, for their good or evil Influence, chiefly depend . . .163

CHAPTER XL

Wherein a certain Gentleman becomes particular in his attentions to a certain Lady ; and more Coming Events than one, cast their Shadows before 180

CHAPTER XII.

Will be seen in the Long Run, if not in the Short One, to concern Mr. Pinch and Others, nearly. Mr. Pecksniff asserts the Dignity of outraged Virtue ; and Young Martin Chuzzlewit forms a desperate Resolution .......... 202 chapter yin, Showing, what became of Martin and his desperate Resolve, aster he left Mr. Pecksniff's House ; what Persons he Encountered ; what Anxieties he Suffered ; and what News he Heard . . . . 224

CHAPTER XIV.

In which Martin bids Adieu to the Lady of his Love ; and Honours an obscure Individual whose Fortune he intends to make, by commending her to his Protection 247

CHAPTER XV.

The Burden whereof, is Hail Colombia ! .... CONTENTS. XIII

CHAPTER XVI. PAGE

Martin Disembarks from that noble and fast-sailing Line of Packet Ship, "The Screw," at the Port of New York, in the United States of America. He makes some Acquaintances, and Dines at a Boarding-house. The Particulars of those Transactions .... 269

CHAPTER XVII.

Martin enlarges his Circle of Acquaintance ; increases his Stock of Wisdom; and has an excellent Opportunity of comparing his own Experiences with those of Lummy Ned of the Light Salisbury, as related by his Friend, Mr. William Simmons 292

CHAPTER XVIII.

Does Business with the House of Anthony Chuzzlewit and Son, from which One of the Partners retires unexpectedly .... 313

CHAPTER XIX.

The Reader is brought into Communication with some Professional Persons, and sheds a Tear over the Filial Piety of good Mr. Jonas . . 325

CHAPTER XX.

Is a Chapter of Love 342

CHAPTER XXI.

More American Experiences. Martin takes a Partner, and makes a Purchase. Some Account of Eden, as it appeared on Paper. Also of the British Lion. Also of the kind of Sympathy professed and entertained, by the Watertoast Association of United Sympathisers 357

CHAPTER XXII.

From which it will be seen that Martin became a Lion on his own Account. Together with the Reason why 380 CHAPTER XXm. Martin and his Partner take Possession of their Estate. The Joyful Occasion involves some further Account of Eden .... CONTENTS. xiv CHAPTEE XXIV. PAGE Reports Progress in certain homely Matters of Love, Hatred, Jealousy, and Revenge 402

CHAPTER XXV.

Is in part Professional ; and furnishes the Reader with some Valuable Hints in relation to the Management of a Sick Chamber . . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. I. »— Mr. Pecksniff and the Stranger Frontispiece Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his charming Daughters . . . .19 Martin Chuzzlewit suspects the Landlady without any reason . . 33 Pleasant little Family Party at Mr. Pecksniff's 59 Pinch starts homeward with the New Pupil 81 Mr. Pinch and the New Pupil on a Social Occasion 97 Mark begins to be Jolly under Creditable Circumstances . . . 122 Mrs. Todgers and tbe Pecksniffs call upon Miss Pinch .... 143 Truth prevails and Virtue is triumphant 168 Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit entertains his Cousins 193 Mr. Pecksniff returns from London 219 Mr. Pecksniff renounces the Deceiver 222 Martin meets an Acquaintance at the House of a Mutual Relation . 231 Jolly Sort of Lodgings 246 Mr. Tapley acts Third Party with Great Discretion .... 251 Mr. Jefferson Brick proposes an Appropriate Sentiment . . . 277 Mr. Tapley succeeds in finding a Jolly Subject for Contemplation . 295 The Dissolution of Partnership 322 Mr. Pecksniff on his Mission 327 The Thriving City of Eden as it appeared on Paper . . . .371 The Thriving City of Eden as it appeared in Fact .... 399 Balm for the Wounded Orphan INTEODUOTIOK".

BT EDWIN P. WHIPPLE. Dickens's " American Notes for General Circulation " was published in October, 184:2. In January, 1843, appeared the first number of the " Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzle wit." The work was continued in monthly installments until its completion in July, 1844. It was not successful in the sense iu which " Pickwick," " Nickleby," and " The Old Curiosity Shop," had been successful. Instead of a monthly circulation of fifty thousand copies, which the author might naturally have an ticipated, it at first obtained a circulation of only twenty thousand. The introduction of the American Scenes, which sadly interfered with the unity of the story, added but two or three thousand more. " The Christmas Carol," published while the larger work was in progress, showed a profit to the author of tittle more than seven hundred pounds.

Dickens accordingly found himself in vexatious pecuniary embarassments. The irritation of these was increased by a disagreement with his publishers, Chapman & Hall. In September, 1841, John Forster had drawn up an agreement duly signed, between Dickens and this firm, to this effect : That " Master Humphrey's Clock " was to cease with the close of the romance of " Barnaby Rudge," " the respective ownerships continuing as provided ; and the new work, in twenty numbers, similar to those of ' Pickwick ' and ' Nick leby,' was not to begin until after an interval of twelve months, in November, 1842. During its publication he was to receive £200 monthly, to be accounted as part of the expenses ; for all

Introduction

. of which, and all risks incident, the publishers made themselves responsible, under conditions the same as in the Clock agreement ; except that, out of the profits of each number, they were to have only a fourth, three fourths going to him ; and this arrangement was to hold good until the termination of six months from the completed book, when, upon payment to him of a fourth of the value of all existing stock, they were to have half the future interest. During the twelve months' interval before the book began, he was to be paid £150 each month ; but this was to be drawn from his three fourths of the profits, and in no way to interfere with the monthly payments of £200, while the publication was going on." There was a provision added that, — in case of what was then considered an improbable event, — the profits of the book should prove inadequate to the repay ment of the £1,800 advanced to Dickens in monthly installments of £150 before the publication of the serial work was to begin, " the publishers were to have power to appropriate fifty pounds a month out of the £200 payable for authorship in the expenses of each number ; but though this had been introduced with my consent," adds Forster, " I also knew too much of the antecedent relations of the parties to regard it as otlier than a mere form to satisfy the attorneys in the case."

After the publication of the sixth number of " Chuzzlewit," however, he tells us that he heard " with infinite pain that from Mr. Hall, the younger partner of the firm which had enriched itself by ' Pickwick ' and ' Nickleby,' and a very kind well-disposed man, there had dropped an inconsiderate hint to the writer of those books that it might be desirable to put the clause in force. It had escaped him without thinking of all that it involved ; certainly the senior partner, whatever amount of as thoughtless sanction he had at the moment given to it, always much regretted it, and made endeavors to exhibit his regret ; but the mischief was done, and for the time was irreparable." Every reader of Lockhart's life of Scott must remember the explosion of rage with whicll Scott received the proposal of Blackwood, the bookseller, to recast the " upwindino-" of the plot of " The Black Dwarf." The bookseller not only objected

INTRODUCTION.

. XIX to the text as it stood, but, on the advice of some nameless literary person, " on whose taste he placed great reliance," suggested an outline of a better conclusion to the story, and offered to bear the expense of canceling the printed sheets if his pro posal was adopted. The blood of Scott literally boiled in his veins. " Dear James," he wrote to Ballantyne, " I have re ceived Blackwood's impudent letter. G. d. his s. ! Tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the Black Hussars of Litera ture, who neither give nor receive criticism. I '11 be cursed but this is the most impudent proposal that ever was made." The unaccustomed profanity of Scott in this missive only shows how fierce was his momentary resentment of the suggestion, that the bookseller and the bookseller's " literary man," should presume to sit in judgment on any product of his genius.

The rage of Dickens, though the circumstances were not the same, was iden tical in spirit with that of Scott. The hint of Mr. Hall that the firm might think it prudent to enforce a clause the necessity of which was never anticipated in the original agreement, wounded him to the quick. His consciousness of inward power, far ex ceeding that by which he had achieved his previous triumphs, was touched in its most sensitive nerve. He knew that he was doing something better than he had formerly done ; he was correspondingly irritated at the suggestion that his popularity was decreasing in the same ratio in which he felt his genius was increasing ; and naturally suspected that his publishers were busied with the apprehension that, — to vary Macaulay's words regarding Godolphin, when that horse-racing statesman feared a counter-revolution, — they had bet too high on Dickens, and that it was high time for them " to hedge."

Dickens's wrath at this insult to his personal pride, and to his pride as an author, mildly insinuated as it was, became ungovernable ; for though personally the most genial and jovial of men among his companions, though never presuming to condescend to anybody, and receiv ing everybody he met, whether lord or litterateur, on one level of equality, he had a morbidly quick sense of personal dignity, — a sense as swift to resent any slight to his position as a Man, as the haughtiest Somerset or Howard could be to resent any slight XX IiNTRODUCTION. to his " Order." He was accordingly intensely offended by the " hint " of Mr. Hall, though he had driven with the firm a bargain as hard as any recorded in the annals of " the trade." " I am so irritated," wrote Dickens to Forster, " so rubbed in the tenderest part of my eyelids with bay-salt, by what I told you yesterday, that a wrong kind of fire is burning in my head, and I don't think 1 can write."

After proposing to make an arrangement with Bradbury & Evans as his future publishers, he declares that he is " bent upon paying Chapman & Hall down. " And when," he adds, " I have done that Mr. Hall shall have a piece of my mind." Guided by the cooler judgment of Forster, Dickens did not come to an immediate rupture with Chapman & Hall; and the ne gotiations with Bradbury & Evans resulted, for the time, in a disagreement, which Dickens was not in a mood to compromise, for he would not yield to their suggestion as to the expediency of republishing, in a cheap form, the works which had already made him famous. Indeed both the publishers he desired to abandon and the publishers he desired to adopt, were probably more or less im pressed with the notion that Dickens's popularity, in the coarse judgment of one of his reviewers, had "gone up like a rocket" and was now " coming down like the stick."

Their experience of numerous contemporary novelists had justified them in dread ing the reaction which commonly follows excessive popularity. They knew that the public was quick to discover that many a romancer it had at first hailed as a great and fertile genius, either possessed no genius at all, or had worked a vein so thin that its wealth was exhausted in his first publication, and that all whicll remained was the mere slag and refuse of a mine never verv rich in itself. Chapman & Hall may have had a va<me fear that the author, to whom they had advanced money, and to publish whose works they had submitted to exactions such as hardly any other author had wrung from a publisher's reluctant greed, might turn out to be a Cibber instead of a Fieldini;', au Ainsworth instead of a Scott. Dickens looked conlidentlv into his growing genius ; his publishers looked gloomily into theii

INTRODUCTION.

. XXI recording ledger ; and the result was that the junior member of the firm " hinted " a possibility that the public was falling away from Dickens, when Dickens felt that his genius was never more capable of dominating and enthralling it. Richard Bentley, discerning the possibilities of Dickens's genius from the moment that Sam Weller appeared in the " Pickwick Pa ers," induced him to enter into seemingly liberal contracts for new works, which the author shortly afterwards was inclined to repudiate as giving a disproportionate share of the gains to the publisher ; Chapman & Dad, after granting to the author such extremely liberal terms as to excite the admiring despair of the whole brotherhood of writers, made the fatal mistake of doubt ing the possibilities of his exceptional genius to pass on to ever widening recognition, and ever new triumphs.

" Martin Chuzzlewit," which never, in its serial form of publi cation, obtained a circulation of more thau twenty-three thousand copies, afterwards ranked in respect to popularity, next to " Pick wick " and " David Copperfield." Dickens knew what his pub lishers did not know, that since he had gone to the United States his experience of the world had been enlarged, that a season of comparative rest had quickened and deepened his genius, and that both his satirical and his dramatic power of depicting human character and human life had become brighter and stronger than ever. Indeed he was himself sometimes amazed at the growth of his intellect, indicated to him by unexpected fertility of imagi nation, reason, and resource in developing characters which he had at first superficially conceived.

" As to the way," he wrote to Forster, " in which these characters have opened out, that is, to me, one of the most surprising processes of the mind in this sort of invention. Given what one knows, what one does not know springs up ; and I am as absolutely certain of its being true as of the law of gravitation — if such a thing be possible, more so." Forster very truly adds, that this confession " displays exactly what in all his important characters was the very process of creation with him." But the publishers, having a heavy weight on their shoulders, disturbed by the fact of a limited circulation of a work on which

INTRODUCTION.

. they had staked much money, were half blind to the great possibilities for the future, which an intellectual advance so unmis takable as that from " Barnaby Rudge " to " Martin Chuzzle wit " ought to have impressed on their minds. This progress indicated that as long as the faculties of the humorist and novelist were vigorous, he would be under no necessity to re peat old characters or old incidents, but was capable, like Scott, of creating new characters and new incidents with every new work that engaged the sympathies or antipathies of his ever active brain and ever broadening heart. However high they may have bet on Dickens, there was no real reason in the fear which induced them " to hedge ; " for his genius was so evi dently growing that nothing but inaccurate judgment, based on timid policy, could have led them to suppose that it had finally grown.

Indeed this genius went on growing for years ; and the great body of the reading public welcomed every additonal evi dence of growth with ever increasing delight and ever increas ing recognition. Those who doubted the permanence of Dick ens's popularity were amazed by its sure and steady advance. The booksellers looked on the phenomenon with something of the feeling with which a skeptical broker surveyed the rise of the New York Central Railroad in the stock market. As it rose to a premium of ten, to a premium of twenty, to a premium of fifty, to a premium of eighty, the cry constantly was that there must be a fall at each stage of the upward movement. Millions of dollars were lost in speculating on the probabilities that a stock which so rapidly rose in value must have some equally rapid period of depression ; all the experiences and all the precedents of Wall Street sustained the theory; and yet every broker who ventured to act upon it was ruined.

So the reputation of Dickens, considered as a marketable commodity, confounded all the calculations of the publishers. As a fancy stock it might be safe at fifty premium ; at eighty premium it was a risk that still had in it a promise of profit ; but when it continued to rise, and never ceased to rise until the death of the writer, the booksellers fairly recognized the distinction between an exceptional genius, such as rarely appears on the planet and

INTRODUCTION.

. XXIII a genius which, limited within narrow bounds, soon exhausts its resources, and its power to attract. The publishers who purchased Dickens at his own high valuation, made more money than the publishers of many good authors, who were content with a comparatively modest remuneration, just as those capital ists who invested in New York Central at its highest price, found themselves better off, in respect to dividends, than those who invested in Erie, or Wabash, or Milwaukee, or North western, at fifty or eighty per cent, below par.- The parallel might be extended to many other departments of business. It is sufficient to indicate that a popular author, continually grow ing in genius, is like a radroad, or any other company, continually growing in resources and business. It is not so much what is paid, as the per centage of return on what is paid, which con cerns either the publisher or the broker ; and the sagacity dis played in either case is the test by which we decide on the busi ness capacity of the publisher who appreciates the intrinsic value of a man of genius whose powers are continually expanding, and the wisdom of the broker who intimately knows the value of a radroad whose trade is steadily remunerative and whose lucrative " connections " are constantly extending.

It is therefore plain that Chapman & Hall should not, as men of business, have dropped that " hint " which alienated from them the most popular novelist of the age. If they had con siderately overlooked a transient pause in his immense popular ity, and wisely humored a transient irritation of his offended pride, they would be thousands of pounds richer than they are now. The moral of the whole matter is this, that when a publisher has discovered a " Big Bonanza," a real " Virginia Consolidated" mine, he should not be frightened by occasional irregularities in the amount of the annual receipts. He should have sense enough to fasten his attention on the exceptional richness of the vein. It is only two or three times in a centjiry that a genius like that of Dickens is discovered, or that it is at first appre ciated by those who wish to profit by its fertility. The result of all Dickens's vexations and disappointments was

INTRODUCTION.

. XXIV a determination on his part to reside abroad. He believed that he could economize in France or Italy, and enjoy there most of the advantages of England at half the expense. He not only had to support an increasing family on a diminished income, but in England he was a son, a brother, a cousin, as well as a husband and father. "Beyond his own domestic expenses," says Forster, "there were many never-satisfied claims from family quarters, not the more easily avoidable because they were un reasonable and unjust." It is easy to understand, that when a man of genius, springing up from an impecunious stock, be comes a world-wide celebrity, and is supposed to enjoy an in come of fabulous amount, every person connected with him by the tie of relationship should present claims to a purse which, like that of Fortunatus, is supposed to be bubbling over with inexhaustible guineas.

After many partings, celebrated by jovial dinners, with friends who fairly represented the literature and art of Great Britain, he contrived, in July 1844, to escape from them, from his relations, from his publishers, and from the English public, by transferring his domestic establishment to Italy. Indeed he felt that he was too poor a man to live in England in what he styled " a genteel way." He thought that, by expatriating himself for a short period, he would widen his sphere of observation, enrich his genius, and at the same time avoid unreasonable claims on his diminished resources. The event proved that his determination, though warmly opposed by his best friends, and seemingly prompted by caprice and irritated self-esteem, was eminently judicious. In all his relations with the public, Dickens never made a mistake, either when he ap pealed to it in his ordinary way as a romancer, or in his ex traordinary way as a reader of his romances.

He had a wonderful tact in discerning the feeling of large masses of men, of accommodating himself to all the changes of that feeling, and of being ever ready to direct it to his own purposes. All the books he published after " Chuzzlewit " he regarded, not only as literary, but as social and political events. The immense circu lation of his books, the immense recognition of him as a Force directing the opinions of the public as well as contributing to its

INTRODUCTION.

. XXV amusement, and the introduction into each succeeding romance of a deliberate attack on the abuses of some department or in stitution of the government of his country, made him consider the publication of one of his serial stories an important incident in the progress of social, legal, or political reform, which the praise or blame of critics could not seriously affect. Self-ab sorbed in his sense of the primary claim of his own writings to public attention, he became autocratic in his relations to the non-Dickens portion of the literature of his time. He insensibly gathered round himself a clique of sympathetic admirers, eman cipated himself from the control of independent minds, and, strong in the feeling of his own genius, contemptuously dis regarded all those who censured his faults, and hardly vouchsafed more than a protecting nod to those who rapturously extolled his shining merits.

The public, instinctively recognizing him as an original genius, pampered every caprice into which he wandered, submitted to every pretension in which he indulged, tolerated even every assault he made on its cherished prejudices, because he had the power to make it laugh or cry at his sover eign will. Strong in the impregnable position he had thus established in the public mind and heart, he could afford to be indifferent either to censure or panegyric. The purpose that Dickens had in view in writing "Martin Chuzzlewit " was to exhibit the master passion of selfishness in the wide variety of character in which it finds expression. The more subtle as well as the more obvious aspects of this passion he intended to represent in persons who agreed in being selfish, however widely they might differ as respects birth, manners, fortune, country, taste, cultivation, intellect, and conscience.