Martin Chuzzlewit

Context:

Mentioned as a novel Dickens was writing: 'he's writing a novel called Martin Chuzzlewit' in which he sends his hero to America, with chapters that caused offense to Americans.

Context:

Described as Dickens' most recent book before A Christmas Carol and characterized as 'a bit of a failure.' The hosts explain that its poor reception, combined with his wife expecting another baby and publishers threatening to pay him less, motivated Dickens to write something commercially successful, leading directly to A Christmas Carol. Also connected to Dickens' 1842 trip to America, where he visited a Pittsburgh penitentiary and had the idea of a prisoner being visited by ghosts.