The Pickwick Club discussion

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Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit
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Chuzzlewit, Chapters 48 - 50
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In terms of character we have, as Tristram commented, the delightful Mrs. Gamp who gives yet another example of twisted and delightfully tortured prose with her conversation with Prig. Dinner was highly pickled and those two ladies were delightfully pickled as well. The Dickens comment that "the fragrance of the teapot was strong in the room" sums up the evening very well. I only hope the ever elusive Mrs. Harris finds a phantom lover some day.
Sweedlepipe offers up another reference to the trained birds when he comments that "it'll be the death of the little bullfinch in the shop, that draws its own water" concerning the dissolution of the Gamp-Prig partnership. Thanks again to Kim for her earlier research on the use/abuse of caged birds.
Much like a sunset you see and feel Dickens beginning to draw the final curtain on this novel.

Poor Pinch is rejected by Martin on a misunderstanding, but at least Ruth's picking up on the beating of Tom's heart for little Mary is a relief all round.
Interesting cliffhanger as his hitherto anonymous employer is revealed.



Peter,
your statement that Dickens was struggling somewhat with Mark's character is very interesting. I had the same feeling - probably because his going on about jollity is a rather monotonous thing after a while. It seems as though Dickens's imagination had run semi-dry when it came to bolstering up Mark's dialogues. Saying that, they are sometimes quite funny, though - e.g. some witty remarks about the U.S., but these instances are few and far between.
Your remark about both dinner and the ladies being pickled hits the nail on the head. And yet, you will probably not be too surprised to find me entirely on Mrs. Gamp's side. She's such a duck ;-) I'm actually thinking about centring my whole review on the book - whenever I'm going to write it - on her because I think she is one of the most complex characters Dickens ever created.

Poor Pinch is rejected by Martin on a misunderstand..."
Hilary,
I think that Mrs. Harris is truly a figment of Mrs. Gamp's imagination and that she has two major functions:
1) As we all know, or at least have been told as children, self-praise is an awkward thing, and yet Mrs. Gamp needs some testimony to her qualities as a midwife and a nurse, Mrs. Harris is an innocent device of providing the necessary credentials.
2) Mrs. Harris is not only on Mrs. Gamp's lips in situations where she advertises herself, but she is also linked with lots of personal anecdotes concerning Mrs. Gamp's life. So I conclude that Mrs. Gamp, a widow whose children have died and who does not have too many friendships (maybe in consequence of her dispogition), simply finds consolation in Mrs. Harris's friendship and devotion.
All in all, one might even say that Mrs. Harris is a very strong presence in the novel. To me - I cannot denige myself the satigefaction of expressing this - Mrs. Harris is infinitely more of a reality than characters like Little Nell or Oliver Twist.

Poor Pinch is rejected by Martin on ..."
Tristram
You have been kidnapped, or is that wordnapped, by the whurty Mrs. Gamp. Shurdly we shoulda do sumthin'!
Oh, I do agree and like your analysis of the Gamp-Mrs. Harris connection.

How could anyone who likes Mrs. Gamp be a grump?"
It's hard, but he manages to do it. A fine job of it in fact.
I am sorry about the delay but here at least there is the thread on Chapters 48 - 50.
Frankly speaking, I just skimmed over most of Chapters 48 and 49 since they seemed to be fraught with Pinchery again, this time they even Pinched on about Tom's feelings for Mary.
However, Chapter 48 also has important bits in which we learn about Jonas's terrible secret - only the idea that a cheapskate like Jonas should be given to gambling seemed a bit unlikely to me. And in Chapter 50 we finally learn the identity of Tom's recent employer, and we witness one of Dickens's finest cliffhangers ......................
You will have guessed that Chapter 49 was one of my favourite chapters in the whole book because it gave so much room to Mrs. Gamp, who actually has so little room because of the cumbersome bedstead. The only thing I took ill was her stoical to indifferent reaction to the news of Bailey's departure from this "wale", which marks her down as an inveterate egoist.
The whole conversation, however, and the bomb Mrs. Prig let explode in connection with Mrs. Harris were marvellous. Likewise was Mrs. Prig's tendency to feign interest in what Mrs. Gamp was saying in order to absent-mindedly help herself to something more to eat and to some more tea with spirits. I must confess that I have repeatedly used the same strategy.