Little Dorrit [Paperback]

 

 

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This is my personal favorite among Dickens novels, fully equal to Bleak House, though not nearly as widely read or admired. Most reviewers miss the fact that debtors prisons had long been closed before Dickens wrote the novel, so 'reform' was in no way its objective. What he really wanted to explore was self-imprisonment. His main character, Arthur Clennam, has been imprisoned by family strictures all his life. Denied love as a child, exiled from his sweetheart as a young man to an outpost of the family business in China, left by his father only with a watch inscribed 'DNF' meaning 'do not forget' (what he doesn't know) Arthur returns to England. We first see him 'imprisoned' in quarantine with others who suffer spiritual incarcerations of their own. The spiritual heart of this novel is the story of how Arthur loses hope that he can 'go home again' and pick up with his old life, how he reconstructs a personal life and satisfying work, and how he endures the collapse of the past and all its guilty debts, ultimately being set free to live life on a new foundation. This novel will hearten those who have arrived in the middle of our lives feeling that like Arthur, we stand among ruins, 'descending a green and growing tree' whose limbs die and wither under us as we come down. But when he is finally stripped of everything, Arthur gains all. While this great bildungsroman of maturity is being carried forward, Dickens offers a wealth of characters, plots, and subplots that will keep Dickens lovers turning pages in well-founded faith that Boz will once again knit all together in a satisfying tapestry of incident and meaning. It could be summed up as "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." All the characters are jailed by something--Little Dorrit herself by her prison home, her father by his dependency and pathetic grasping for reputation. Blandois, the wicked murderer, shows up first in a Marseilles prison and bestrides the plot with his vile presence. Arthur's mother stays voluntarily imprisoned in a decaying house and her wheelchair, and worse, in wrath and jealousy. We also meet a housemaid trapped in uncontrollable rage, the woman who abducts her, walled in pride and hatred, a young woman trapped in adoration of a worthless husband, parents frozen in grief over a lost child, a financier transfixed with the knowledge of his own falsity . . . and more. Secrets, nightmares, murders, lost deeds and treasure, stolen fortunes, all abound in this vivid and satisfying plum pudding of a novel. Modern readers may weary of the satirical chapters on 'the Circumlocution Office'--but they're no worse than the treatment of the Court of Chancery in Bleak House. The best of this novel is that it is not all written just for the satisfactory settlement of some young person, but rather for the arrival at full maturity of a man who is already adult at the novel's opening. Arthur (one remembers that Britain's legendary king bore that name) rescues others from despair, and finally learns to let others so rescue him. This is a redemptive novel, that shows us it is possible to see that we are inside the prison of who we've been taught we are, and believe we can't stop being, and it is possible to break beyond those prison walls and 'go down to a life' of quiet decency and common happiness. A great, grownup read!

Having been both a student and admirer of Charles Dickens for a number of decades, I can honestly state that this is not a tier #1 Dickens' novel. That being said, however, any 2nd tier Dickens's novel far outstrips the quality of other novels of this period. While the author's characterizations and universalities of subject matter remain high, this tale does seem to become bogged down during the lengthy descriptions of the middle chapters. This should not discourage an educated reader, however, from venturing into this 900 page civil discourse. The shallowness, selfishness and overall contriteness of the moneyed elite is well defined. The self-imposed uselessness of governmental agencies is quite evident. Whereas, the meaningful values of love, respect and inner joy is broadcast loudly through society's poorer working classes. Dickens portrayal of debtor's prison as a constant backdrop to life in London adds to and highlights the extreme social differences that exist while the author's whimsical, yet cutting, characters reveal personhood for what it is......

Dickens' last novels (with the exception of the unfinished EDWIN DROOD) really form a group all to themselves: exceptionally concerned with the excesses of social institutions and the cruelties of high society, they in some ways read more like Trollope and Thackeray than they do Dickens' own earlier works, although they retain Dickens's fine gift for character and bite. LITTLE DORRIT is proabbly my favorite of the later works: its multiple stories are extremely gripping, and his satire at its sharpest and most necessary. Many people say these later novels are not as funny as his earlier works, but DORRIT is to me an exception: there are few funnier (or more dear) characters in Dickens' repertoire than the breathless, kindhearted Flora Finching, and I find myself almost helpless with laughter whenever Flora's senile and hostile charge, Mr F's Aunt, makes her perfectly doled-out appearances in these pages. (Arguably the funniest scene Dickens ever wrote is the scene with this "most excellent woman" and Arthur Clennam and the crust of bread). This is a great Dickens novel even for people who tend not to like Dickens (and yes, there are some of them, as hard as that may be for the rest of us to believe).

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4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, but on balance, a triumph
Little Dorrit is frustrating and uplifting to read (usually not at the same time) but Dickens ultimately comes through and makes a story out of it. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Rodge

4.0 out of 5 stars Expose' -Speculators and Kind Hearts in the Victorian Era
Little Dorritt was born at Marshalsea-the debtors prison. Her father is something of an informal mayor ('father') of the place, and everyone imprisoned there pays him homage-and... Read more

Published on Jun 15 2004 by Ted Magnuson

4.0 out of 5 stars Teaching a lesson about Society
This was a mandatory reading for a Literary Theory class and I must say, at first, I was less than pleased. Read more

Published on Feb 25 2004 by Fitzgerald Fan

4.0 out of 5 stars 'To Be Always A Sacrifice'
With Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens touched upon a subject near and dear to his own heart; that of having a father who was incarcerated in Debtor's Prison. Read more

Published on Dec 9 2003 by B. Morse

5.0 out of 5 stars Sustained imaginative power
Little Dorrit is probably not the first Dickens novel one should read; work up to it. But it's a great novel, reaching across the levels of society, and with Dickens's facility... Read more

Published on Oct 21 2003 by Extollager

4.0 out of 5 stars Well structured, just a little flat
Almost as good as Bleak House. Two shortcomings, though. One, the poetry of the language never reaches the same heights. Read more

Published on Nov 10 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars disappointment
this is a novel about disappointment. almost every character is unhappy about his lot in life: clennan about his lost youth, lost loves; mrs clennan about her marriage;... Read more

Published on Nov 3 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Mind-Forged Manacles"
Do we still have the time and patience to read a 900 page Dickens novel? Are we willing to put up with the long-winded paragraphs, the "cardboard characters", the convoluted... Read more

Published on Aug 18 2002 by Wiltrud Goldschmidt

2.0 out of 5 stars A teen's review
As much as on my age who loves to read I found this book very droll. I noticed how the writing style seams to read in circles confusing even the 4. Read more

Published on April 28 2002 by Ginny Manor

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tale of Imprisonment
Little Dorrit, as in many other Dickens books is full with character portrayal. There are a number of characters that are worth remembering such as Flora Finching, Mr. Read more

Published on Dec 13 2001 by Murat Abus

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