Martin Chuzzlewit.

An old man with a fortune and no shortage of hungry heirs decides to see just how far human selfishness will go, and the family that gathers around him proves an almost bottomless subject for study.

What it's about

Old Martin Chuzzlewit, rich and suspicious, sets the greed of his relatives against one another, with the oily hypocrite Seth Pecksniff foremost among the circling flatterers. His grandson, the younger Martin, quarrels with him and sets out to make his own way, a journey that carries him across the Atlantic to a fever-ridden American land scheme. Around them Dickens assembles one of his richest casts, including the unforgettable drunken nurse Sarah Gamp and the murderous Jonas, weaving comedy, satire and a genuine crime plot into a single sprawling design.

Themes

Selfishness is the book's declared great subject, examined in every register from the ridiculous to the sinister. Dickens skewers hypocrisy and self-interest while holding out the redeeming power of loyalty and honest feeling. His satire of a raw, boastful young America, drawn from his own disillusioning visit, gives the novel an extra sting.

Why it still matters

Pecksniff and Mrs Gamp long ago escaped the page to become bywords, proof of Dickens's genius for characters who feel more alive than many real people. As a portrait of greed dressed up as virtue, the novel has lost none of its bite, and its transatlantic satire still lands.

Who it's for

Readers who relish Dickens at his most comic and most caustic, and anyone who enjoys a big, character-crowded Victorian novel with a moral spine. A rewarding choice for those ready to go beyond the most famous titles.