Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens Audiobook

Written by Charles Dickens
Read by Sean Barrett
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
Release date: 08-27-10
Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

The Chuzzlewits are a family divided by money and selfishness; even young Martin, the eponymous hero, is arrogant and self-centered. He offends his grandfather by falling in love with the latter’s ward, Mary, and sets out to make his own fortune in life, traveling as far as America - which produces from Dickens a savage satire on a new world tainted with the vices of the old. Martin’s nature slowly changes through his bitter experience of life and his enduring love for Mary. Martin Chuzzlewit is one of Dickens’s most humorous and satirical novels, and it contains two great comic creations: the hypocrite Pecksniff and the drunken nurse Sarah Gamp.

Add in Pecksiff’s daughters, Chevy Slyme,Tigg Montague (Montigue Tigg?) and his Ponzi scheme, Jonas Chuzzlewit, etc.

Charles Dickens is not known for subtlety, and MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT is typically unsubtle, satirical, often quite funny, and, in this case, vastly improved by the expertise of Sean Barrett. There are so many distinct and consistent characters here, and Barrett nails them all, especially the two Martin Chuzzlewits, the gruff grandfather and the feckless grandson.

The younger Martin goes to America with the most optimistic man in the world, Mark Tapley, who has a slightly Cockney accent and a “never-give-up” tone. There they find racism, a land scam, and a fever that almost kills them. Barrett’s gushing and wheedling portrayal of Seth Pecksniff vividly renders this hypocritical character whose fall brings about everyone’s happiness in truly Dickensian fashion.

Also noteworthy is Barrett’s portrait of the deluded and drunken Sairy Gamp, a nurse you would not want in your hour of need. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine