Customer Reviews

Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

I truly don't understand why this novel is not more widely read or discussed. Thanks to the BBC dramatization, it has been saved from obscurity. Even though the television adaptation is quite good, it is no substitute for reading the full text of the book. I would disagree with those who say this was not one of the author's best novels; on the contrary, I feel it is one of his very best. Dickens wrote so many great books of which I am a fan. Among my favorites are: Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield. Of all these masterpieces, Little Dorrit is my absolute favorite. I heard somewhere that Shaw felt Little Dorrit was Dickens's best work. Who am I to argue with Shaw? I believe many critics and those who study Dickens would agree. Ironically, the work was wildly popular during Dickens own life when it was published in serial form. In fact, that is the best way to read the novel...in small portions. You will choke to death if you try and consume it in one bite. This novel is too big and rich to devour quickly. I had a difficult time getting into the book after the initial few chapters but was richly rewarded as I continued on. This is not a book for lightweights. The length of the book is quite intimidating, the plot is complex, and the characters numerous; that being said, it is well worth the effort to read. I could not put it down as I came to the last few hundred pages. I absolutely loved it by the time I finished the book. It is one of Dickens's darker novels, which may put some off. Even so, many, if not most, of Dickens novels deal with unpleasant topics, and there is quite a bit of humor (Flora, her aunt, Afferty...) in Little Dorrit to balance the darkness. In fact the book is full of balance - wonderful Dickens prose, masterful characterization, as well as one the best plots ever devised. As others have said so well, this novel stands up to multiple readings. I certainly plan to reread and savor it many times.

Among the reasons to come to earth must surely be the chance to read this novel. Shaw called this novel a masterpiece among masterpieces. My opinion is that this novel is the greatest of the sixteen. It is less bland than Bleak House, more poignant than Copperfield. I started it desultorily, distracted greatly by events in my life. But gradually as I read it dawned on me that sentence by sentence Dickens was here at his most trenchant. I began to be charmed by the characters, some of the greatest in his oeuvre. For all the darkness in the conception--a girl born and raised in debtor's prison--Little Dorrit is a wonderful character. Arthur Clennam is a real man. I adore Flora's deranged speech and her tenderness. Fanny is a delight! And there are Doyce and Pancks--and the Meagles and Pet and Tattycoram--and there are so many secrets! And isn't Blandois the precursor of Fosco? Oh, I could go on. To the Circumlocution Office and Barnacles and Merdle - and Afferty and Flintwich and Mrs. Clennam--such a wonderful feast of characters--with the Marshallsea hovering over all.

How well Dickens uses dialogue to identify character; how amusing are their tics. The characters fall into strata. The main of them, characterized by Clennam, Doyce, and Pancks, are at the level of small businessmen, tradesmen. Below them are the destitutes. A little above them are Mrs. Clennam, Casby, the Meagles. And high above them the Merdles, Gowans, and the like. The novel finds its way at the lower levels--it's a novel of the lower middle class and the lower class and the poor--and down there is so much life and love and devotion. It was strong medicine for me, cognitively dissonant, for Little Dorrit to love with such devotion. And Clennam loves her so deeply though he had no love in his life to that point. Where did he find such love in himself?

Dickens does not just give the action. Unlike so many other writers (almost all), he lets the characters be themselves, revealing the plot from time to time as they get to it, but seldom hurrying. They are being themselves and leading their lives--of course caught up in the great machine of the novel; it's as though Dicken's characters' clothes get caught in the huge, creaking machinery of his plots which then tugs them along, or perhaps grinds them up...

The novel is too full of words. It's verbose. Many times I could not follow the sense. It's labored. There are plot shifts just for the sake of changing the experiment.

But as I finished the novel a benediction fell upon me--a moment that cannot be put into words.

This is a long book - it feels like a 1000 pages - but it is a masterpiece. Dickens takes us from Marseilles, home to an evil man whose smile makes his moustache disappear under his top lip and draws us into a dark, damp, murky Victorian London where one's whole future existence seems to be mapped out at birth, and where to escape from one's perceived 'destiny' is both sacriligeous and impossible. The Marshalsea Prison is a place all of us can visualise - a debtors prison from which many fail to escape, the dubious honour of the Father of the Marshalsea bestowed on the longest-serving inmate. Little Dorrit - Amy - is the daughter of the Father of the Marshalsea and this is her tale, one which stretches across the grime of smoggy nineteenth century London to the pollution of Continental Europe. The cast of characters is fascinating and Dickens rarely misses a trick - each is easily comparable to people any of us knows today. I studied this book at school and I have read it four or five times since.

This review is not about the literary work itself; after all, it is Dickens. This is about the Nonesuch Dickens edition of Little Dorrit. In these days of overpriced paperbacks and cheaply made hard-bound books, it was a pleasure to discover that there are some publishers and book makers that offer quality products at reasonable prices. There is nothing flimsy about this book. The boards are sturdy enough to resist warping from holding the book open. The spine and quarter sides are leather, as is the Nonesuch emblem on the front. The remainder of the cover is enveloped in a sturdy cloth that is reminiscent of books from many years ago. The paper has a nice texture that is neither too porous nor too slick. A ribbon marker has been included. All in all, the characteristics are illustrative of the book makers art as it used to be. The purchaser gets this classic title in a classic edition for only twice the price of the paperback version. I highly recommend The Nonesuch Dickens edition of Little Dorrit.

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 mysteries of 19th century fiction? Rags-to-riches stories may not command as much attention today as they did then - until we read how gullible people are lured into shady investment schemes, how greed spreads like an epidemic, creating stock market bubbles followed by collapse and ruin; then we realize that not much has changed after all. Sudden wealth brings out the worst in people: pretentiousness, social climbing, dissipation. The Dorrit family, set free from Debtor's Prison by an unexpected inheritance, behave just as the newly rich behave today - all except Amy ("Little Dorrit") who is not cowed by poverty nor blinded by riches.

The novel is about all sorts of imprisonment: physical, mental, spiritual. It's almost like a morality play, with stock characters who might as well be wearing signs proclaiming GREED, ENVY, PRIDE, WRATH, etc. People trapped in loveless marriages, indifferent jobs, money-grubbing schemes or self-righteous posturing are victims of the "mind-forged manacles" evoked by Blake. The social criticism may be dated, but the commentary on human nature surely is not.

For those who lack the stamina to plough through the entire novel, there is an excellent 4-part video version with Alec Guiness as Mr.Dorrit and Derek Jacobi as Arthur Clennam. It takes some liberties with the text, but the acting is superb.

As an afterthought, you might enjoy reading Evelyn Waugh's "A Handful of Dust", where the theme of entrapment is pursued in unexpected ways, culminating in a reading of "Little Dorrit".

Little Dorrit is not the best or best known novel by the inimitable Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Like other major Dickens novels it features a vast cast of characters; a mystery to be solved and a theme to be expored (imprisonment in mind, spirit
and body is dealt with in the lives of fascinating characters))
Little Dorrit is born in the Marshalsea Debtors Prison in
London (where Dickens own impecunious father was incarcerated
for a time) where she is beloved by prisoners and jailors.
Her father and family are all despicable. An older man who has lived abroad named Arthur Clennam falls in love for the angelic
Dorrit.
The novel is divided into two parts: Poverty and Riches and
details the lives of the Dorrit family. The novel also is notable for including Continental episodes featuring English
travellers.
This book also features "Flora Finching" a hilarious woman
reminiscent of Marie Beadnell an early love of Dickens. Among other memorable characters are the Plornish family; the Meagles
family; Tattycoram; the Barnacles of the Circumcultion Office
(Dicken's satire on governmental red tape); Blandois the evil
visitor from abroad; the Flintwiches and the enigmatic and sad
Miss Wade.
This reviewer doesn't want to reveal the interesting plot which keeps you turning pages and wanting more.
I like the new Penguin Revised Edition which is illustrated by
Phiz; contains over 100 pages of notes and commentary and is
an easy book to hold for long hours of reading pleasure.
Dickens is the greatess of English novelists so Little Dorrit is an essential!

"Bleak House" may have been masterfully managed, but I preferred this tense tale of poverty, riches and the parasitic class that breeds both. It is as cautionary a tale as the former: the role of the machinery of government and capitalist class on the lives of all under them has never been so powerfully depicted. Mr Merdle was based on a real person, a Sadlier who killed himself in Hyde Park when he caused the Tipperary Bank to fail. Amy Dorrit is to be preferred to Esther Summerson as a heroine in not being so off-puttingly and impossibly sweet. Dickens' mastery of plot is such to create an exciting mystery and a rich interweaving of character and plot that kept me up all night unravelling the puzzle.

I have been reading or rereading Dickens in the last few weeks, and I have been amazed at the humor, which I never discovered when I read them at school. I really enjoyed Oliver Twist and David Coperfield, but Little Dorrit is the most difficult so far. There are so many characters, and so much action that with a lesser author I would have given up long ago, because I would never have kept all the characters straight. Dickens characterization is excellent, and I never wonder, 'Now who's that?' But to find the humor, one has to read every word, and I have begun to speed read, and this is not the way to enjoy Dickens. Perhaps one has to read Dickens at least three times, once to get to the end, once to understand all the plots and sub-plots, and finally for the details. Getting a chapter a month was probably the best way to read it.

Reading little Dorrit takes determination and time, but the characters are real and the plots are complex. I am further along in the book than Masterpiece Theater, and while I was watching the last episode, I was sure I'd already seen it. I guess this says how good the TV series is. And it is particularly appropriate to read during the present economic crisis as it deals with money, making it, inheriting it, losing it, owing it. and a nineteenth century Madoff.

I have always loved Dickens, but hadn't read any in a while, and never might have read "Little Dorrit" if I hadn't recently read a biography of Dorothy Day that mentioned that this was her favorite and that she kept a copy of it by her bed. Let me just say that I understand why someone whose life was dedicated to the homeless and downtrodden would have found this book - out of all of Dickens - the most inspirational. It is particularly masterful at depicting how being flung to the bottom of the heap can create psychological damage that no amount of wealth can ever undo. We see the corruptions both of extreme wealth and degrading poverty. And we are also shown most convincingly one small figure who remains uncorrupted by both extremes, who finds her greatest joy in service and in following the steps of the Master. (Little Dorrit has a wonderful speech to this effect as she confronts Mrs. Clennam's championing of Old Testament-inspired vengeance.) The characters are endlessly interesting, whether engaging or loathesome, and altogether, long as it was, I was sorry to see it end!