Martin Chuzzlewit

Firstly, there was money to be made by it. Secondly, the money had the peculiar charm of being sagaciously obtained at other people’s cost. Thirdly, it involved much outward show of homage and distinction: a board being an awful institution in its own sphere, and a director a mighty man.

Old Martin's test, Pecksniff exposure, Eden fraud, and Jonas–Anglo-Bengalee crime fuse inheritance satire with a murder subplot — episodic but directed, so plot scores 87.

Mr Pecksniff was a moral man--a grave man, a man of noble sentiments and speech--and he had had her christened Mercy. Mercy! oh, what a charming name for such a pure-souled Being as the youngest Miss Pecksniff! Her sister’s name was Charity.

Pecksniff, Mrs Gamp, Mark Tapley, young Martin, and Jonas form Dickens's richest early comic-villain gallery — moral humbug against gin nurse — without flattening into labels only, so cast scores 91.

The letter being duly signed, sealed, and delivered, was handed to Mark Tapley, for immediate conveyance if possible. And he succeeded so well in his embassy as to be enabled to return that same night, just as the house was closing, with the welcome intelligence that he had sent it upstairs to the young lady.

Fifty-four chapters with America/Eden and Todgers dilations; Mark's embassy keeps the love-thread moving, but the middle pads heavily before Jonas intrigue, so pace scores 82.

As no lady or gentleman, with any claims to polite breeding, can possibly sympathize with the Chuzzlewit Family without being first assured of the extreme antiquity of the race, it is a great satisfaction to know that it undoubtedly descended in a direct line from Adam and Eve; and was, in the very earliest times, closely connected with the agricultural interest.

Exuberant comic voltage — Adam-and-Eve pedigree, Mercy/Charity irony, Mrs Gamp's speech — early-middle Dickens satire at full stretch, so prose scores 90.

…Martin’s head was two inches nearer the roof of the little wooden office, with the consciousness of being a landed proprietor in the thriving city of Eden. ‘If it shouldn’t happen to fit,’ said Scadder, as he gave Martin the necessary credentials on recepit of his money, ‘don’t blame me.’

Pecksniff Wiltshire, Todgers, Eden swamp, Anglo-Bengalee office — Anglo-American greed mapped as boarding-house and fraudulent boardroom, so world scores 88.

…it is a great satisfaction to know that it undoubtedly descended in a direct line from Adam and Eve; and was, in the very earliest times, closely connected with the agricultural interest. If it should ever be urged by grudging and malicious persons, that a Chuzzlewit, in any period of the family history, displayed an overweening amount of family pride…

Comic genealogical overture names family pride as disease before Pecksniff — warm but slower to grip than later Dickens openings, so hook scores 84.

‘The Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company is rather a capital concern, I hope, David,’ said Montague. ‘Capital indeed!’ cried the secretary, with another laugh--’ in one sense.’

Mrs Gamp's vernacular grotesque plus America/Eden as national satire insert — serial novel as transatlantic pamphlet and character menagerie, so innov scores 89.

And coming from a garden, Tom, bestrewn with flowers by children’s hands, thy sister, little Ruth, as light of foot and heart as in old days, sits down beside thee. From the Present, and the Past, with which she is so tenderly entwined in all thy thoughts, thy strain soars onward to the Future. … the noble music, rolling round ye both, shuts out the grosser prospect of an earthly parting, and uplifts ye both to Heaven!

Todgers wedding farce and Tom Pinch's organ coda reward benevolence and expose hypocrites — schematic but musically sealed, so ending scores 86.