Martin Chuzzlewit

Young Martin Chuzzlewit, selfish and proud, quarrels with his rich grandfather and goes off to seek his fortune with his cheerful servant Mark Tapley, who is determined to stay jolly in the worst of circumstances. In America they are cheated into buying land in a swampy settlement called Eden, where Martin nearly dies and learns humility. Meanwhile in England the hypocritical architect Mr Pecksniff schemes for the grandfather's money, and Martin's cousin Jonas, a greedy brute, turns to murder.

Published in monthly parts in 1843 and 1844, the novel followed Dickens's disappointing first visit to America, and its satire of American boastfulness offended many readers there. It is famous for two of his greatest comic creations: Pecksniff, whose name became a word for a hypocrite, and the gin-loving nurse Mrs Gamp. Read A Christmas Carol, written the same year, and see his life.

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) worked in a boot-blacking factory as a boy while his father was in a debtors' prison, and poverty and wronged childhood run through his novels, from Oliver Twist to the largely autobiographical David Copperfield.

Published in instalments, books such as A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol mixed comedy and social protest.