Young Martin`s comic odyssey to the New World, the naive Tom Pinch`s rite of passage from innocence to enlightenment, the smooth scheming of the arch hypocrite Pecksniff, the grotesque self-love of Mrs. Gamp, the increasingly-desperate machinations of murderous Jonas Chuzzlewit, all are portrayed with a typically Dickensian flair for unerringly accurate social satire and buoyantly extravagant characterization.