 is in no other respect a caricature, than
as it is an exhibition, for the most part, (Mr. Bevan excepted) of a ludicrous
side, only, of the American character - of that side which was, four-and-twenty
years ago, from its nature, the most obtrusive, and the most likely to be seen
by such travellers as Young Martin and Mark Tapley. As I had never, in writing
fiction, had any disposition to soften what is ridiculous or wrong at home, so I
then hoped that the good-humoured people of the United States would not be
generally disposed to quarrel with me for carrying the same usage abroad. I am
happy to believe that my confidence in that great nation was not misplaced.
    When this book was first published, I was given to understand, by some
authorities, that the Watertoast Association and eloquence were beyond all
bounds of belief. Therefore, I record the fact that all that portion of Martin
Chuzzlewit's experiences is a literal paraphrase of some reports of public
proceedings in the United States (especially of the proceedings of a certain
Brandywine Association), which were printed in the Times Newspaper in June and
July 1843, at about the time when I was engaged in writing those parts of the
book; and which remain on the file of the Times Newspaper, of course.
    In all my writings, I hope I have taken every available opportunity of
showing the want of sanitary improvements in the neglected dwellings of the
poor. Mrs. Sarah Gamp was, four-and-twenty years ago, a fair representation of
the hired attendant on the poor in sickness. The Hospitals of London were, in
many respects, noble Institutions; in others, very defective. I think it not the
least among the instances of their mismanagement, that Mrs. Betsey Prig was a
fair specimen of a Hospital Nurse; and that the Hospitals, with their means and
funds, should have left it to private humanity and enterprise to enter on an
attempt to improve that class of persons - since, greatly improved through the
agency of good women.
 

                                   Chapter I

        Introductory, Concerning the Pedigree of the Chuzzlewit Family.

As no lady or gentleman, with any claims to polite breeding, can possibly
sympathise 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. If it should ever be
urged by grudging and malicious persons, that a Chuzzlewit,
