Here are the few book reviews i've written for Amazon.com.

Martin Chuzzlewit (Penguin Classics)
by Charles DickensEdition: Paperback
Price: $11.05
Availability: In Stock62 used & new from $1.89

The magical universe of Dickens: Review posted to Amazon on October 14, 2009

My late father, Frank O'Driscoll (1927-1994), had a wonderful, inherited collection of old, dusty volumes of classic English literature, a home library with which I grew up and from which I developed a love for reading and discovery. Almost all of Dickens' novels formed part of this personal library. Yet I came to Dickens later in life.

As a child, his formal, florid, Victorian prose seemed to me to be a little offputting. Yet I loved television and stage musical adaptations of such classics as 'Oliver Twist' and 'A Christmas Carol', both of which were produced as school musicals at my secondary school in the 1970s and in which I took part.

I think the images and characters created by Dickens are part of the collective cultural consciousness, on a par with the contemporary impact of Harry Potter, for example. Dickens' novels have proved, over the decades, to be a fecund territory for screen adaptations.

But it is only in the last few years that I have finally begun to read his novels in earnest, and have thus far enjoyed such treasures as 'The Pickwick Papers', 'The Old Curiosity Shop', 'David Copperfield', 'Nicholas Nickleby', 'Dombey and Son', 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'Great Expectations' and, of course, 'Martin Chuzzlewit'. With each long novel, Dickens creates a fantastic, varied universe of characters, plots and sub-plots. All of human life is paraded in each novel, and his works rival Shakespeare in their beautiful use of language, their engrossing plots and their studies of human nature, with characters ranging from the most virtuous to the basest and most despicable. However, one difficulty I have with Dickens is that so many of his characters seem caricatural.

In 'Martin Chuzzlewit', some characters have no redeeming features and are completely egotistical and malicious, e.g. Jonas Chuzzlewit and Mr Pecksniff. In contrast, other characters are almost completely virtuous and less believable in consequence of their perfection, e.g. Tom and Ruth Pinch and Martin Tapley. On the other hand, the eponymous hero, Martin Chuzzlewit (Junior) does trace a personal journey from selfishness to greater kindness and consideration for others.

Just as the characters are very diverse, so too are the themes and tones of this and other novels by Charles Dickens. There is much humour in the form of irony, satire and hyperbole, much sadness and much stinging social criticism. Dickens' novels speak on different levels to different readers, and fulfil multiple purposes, from entertainment to social commentary. The latter is often intended to bring about change, e.g. Dickens paints a witheringly denunciatory portrait of the Chancery legal system of the 19th century in Britain in 'Bleak House', and of the savagery and corruption of the so-called schools such as Dotheboys Hall, Yorkshire, in 'Nicholas Nickleby'. Much of his criticism in 'Chuzzlewit' is reserved for Americans; Dickens had travelled throughout the USA, and was displeased by some aspects of its society and people at that time. Chuzzlewit and Tapley thus serve as reflectors for Dickens' animosity towards the USA, as they journey to the States and encounter hypocrisy and underhand business dealings which leave them penniless and in broken health.

Like all of Dickens' novels, 'Chuzzlewit' is long and involved, with frequent changes of scene and complex sub-plots which gradually merge into each other and resolve themselves.

The language is engaging, but it does require concentration. Effort on the part of the reader reaps its own rewards. Airport or beach fiction this is not. My father once said of Dickens that each of his novels could be read and reread, at least twice; one could firstly enjoy the plot, and later savour the delicious prose. Book sales and continuing adaptations of his novels testify to the fact that Dickens' literature has stood the test of time. And deservedly so, on the evidence of 'Martin Chuzzlewit' alone.