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55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
maturing beyond the prison of self, July 22, 2002
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!
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite Dickens novel, August 8, 2006
I truly don't understand why this novel is not more widely read or discussed (Oprah are you listening?). Thanks to the recent BBC dramatization, it has been saved from obscurity. Even though the BBC 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 no holds barred. 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, it 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 bites. You will choke to death if you try and consume it whole. 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 charachters 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.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I would give it six stars if I could, January 2, 2007
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.
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