Little Dorrit in Reading the Classics

Jan 30, 2014 Joanne G. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: b-library, classic, location-p

It has been a while since I picked up a novel by Dickens. I had remembered how verbose he was--I'd forgotten how snarky he could be! Thank goodness for the catty remarks and snide asides in the first half of the book, because they were the welcome oases in a never-ending desert.

I have to remind myself that Dickens wrote for a different time and place, but I swear I wanted to slap every character multiple times and places. I understand sacrifice and forbearance, but I don't consider it a virtue ...more

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Dec 31, 2023 Drkshadow03 rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-read-in-2023, western-canon

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. “It appeared on the whole, to Little Dorrit herself, that this same society in which they lived, greatly resembled a superior sort of Marshalsea. Numbers of people seemed to come abroad, pretty much as people had come into the prison; through debt, through idleness, relationship, curiosity, and general unfitness for getting on at home. They were brought into these foreign towns in the custody of couriers and local followers, just as the debtors had been brought into the prison. They prowled abou “It appeared on the whole, to Little Dorrit herself, that this same society in which they lived, greatly resembled a superior sort of Marshalsea. Numbers of people seemed to come abroad, pretty much as people had come into the prison; through debt, through idleness, relationship, curiosity, and general unfitness for getting on at home. They were brought into these foreign towns in the custody of couriers and local followers, just as the debtors had been brought into the prison. They prowled about the churches and picture-galleries, much in the old, dreary, prison-yard manner. They were usually going away again to-morrow or next week, and rarely knew their own minds, and seldom did what they said they would do, or went where they said they would go: in all this again, very like the prison debtors. They paid high for poor accommodation, and disparaged a place while they pretended to like it: which was exactly the Marshalsea custom. They were envied when they went away by people left behind, feigning not to want to go: and that again was the Marshalsea habit invariably. A certain set of words and phrases, as much belonging to tourists as the College and the Snuggery belonged to the jail, was always in their mouths. They had precisely the same incapacity for settling down to anything, as the prisoners used to have; they rather deteriorated one another, as the prisoners used to do; and they wore untidy dresses, and fell into a slouching way of life: still, always like the people in the Marshalsea (708-709).”

Arthur Clennam arrives home in London after years abroad, hoping to unravel a mystery concerning something his deceased father and ultra-religious mother are hiding. At his mother’s house, Arthur meets a young woman named Little Dorrit who was born in the Marshalsea debtor prison where her father has been locked away for years. Arthur decides to investigate the confused affairs of William Dorrit and manages with the help of Mr Panck’s and the lawyer Mr Rugg to free him and his family from the prisoner and help them discover that they are heirs to a vast fortune and estate. With their newfound wealth, the Dorrits travel through Europe. Meanwhile, Arthur decides to go into business with an inventor named Daniel Doyce. Mr Dorrit, Mr Pancks, and Arthur Clennam invest with the famous Mr Merdle known as a wealthy businessman in society with a Midas touch, but soon all the investments fail, Mr Merdle commits suicide, and Arthur ends up in the Marshalsea debtors prison. In prison, Clennam realizes Little Dorrit loves him and the other characters learn the family secret that Mrs Clennam has been hiding from Arthur. It turns out, he is the illegitimate child of an affair Arthur’s father had that Mrs Clennam then raised as her own child and that she purposefully failed to fulfill the terms of her husband’s will that would have provided Little Dorrit with a thousand pounds because Mrs Clennam felt it would be rewarding sin. Alongside all of this is a sub-plot concerning a French murderer living under a variety of aliases that attempts to blackmail Mrs Clennam with this family secret. With the help of his friends, Arthur is freed from prison, marries Little Dorrit, receives Doyce’s pardon and goes back into partnership with him, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Like many of Dickens novels, we have criticisms of backwards societal institutions like the debtors prison. The prison is a dreary place that destroys the spirits of men and restricts their sense of liberty. Even after attaining wealth and status, Mr Dorrit is haunted by his experiences there, expressing all sorts of anxiety that others in society will think less of him for his time there and always trying to forget and suppress his memories of that time, but ultimately failing to do so. We also see how the prison makes Arthur sick, depressed, and weak.

Dickens criticizes certain institutions of government represented by his hilarious and satirical take on the Circumlocution Office whose motto and goal is figuring out new ways “How not to do it.” It is run by members of the Barnacle family, a highly symbolic name, whose members cling to different government posts like barnacles on a ship. The goal of this government office is to prevent social change and innovation. Although Dickens is lampooning the inefficiency of government during his time, this satirical take on the inefficiency of government bureaucracy is timeless. A modern political liberal could read it as castigating conservative social forces using government to hinder social change, while a conservative could read it as an indictment of the inefficiency of big government and government bureaucracy in general.

Dickens criticizes the stagnation, immorality, corruption, and backstabbing of upper-class society and wealth. Although Arthur Clennam shows nothing but friendship to William Dorrit, tries to help Willliam Dorrit, and institutes the events that liberated him from debtors prison and brings him into his new life of wealth, William Dorrit acts ungrateful to Clennam and has nothing kind to say about him after his rags-to-riches transition. It is this very change that alters William Dorrit’s attitudes towards Arthur. His rise to riches and social status warp Dorrit’s perceptions; he becomes so focused on the family dignity that it transforms him into an immoral and ungrateful person who loses sight of real virtuous behaviors and the importance of human kindness. He even critiques his daughter Little Dorrit for helping the poor and less fortunate as beneath her station and embarrassing to the family dignity when such virtuous and charitable behavior should be a source of pride. At the same time, there seems to be a psychological element to William Dorrit’s decisions in which Clennam and Little Dorrit’s actions remind him of his time in the Marshalsea, which he is trying to forget and suppress. Dorrit tells his daughter Amy that the point of a high position in society is to continually improve their position—to go up the rings of society. The spoils of wealth is to attempt to grow richer and more illustrious. Ultimately William grows sick, senile, and as he dies it is Little Dorrit who proves his comfort in the end, not his wealth.

When he first grows ill at the dinner party full of upper-class guests he becomes confused and has delusions that he is back at the Marshalsea; most of these members of society that he wants to be a part of are disturbed, uncomfortable, and embarrassed by his behavior and deluded outbursts, and quickly want to get away from him. He wanted so bad to be part of society, castigating his daughter’s behaviors for not fitting in, but it is his daughter who loves and takes care of him when he is dying and losing his sense of reality, it his experiences with her in the Marshalsea that remain in his last moments of life, while society could care less about him and abandons him in his time of need. Even the family’s entire fortune is lost when Mr Merdle’s investments fail. The novel shows he had the wrong priorities; it is not fortune and social position that matter.

The events surrounding Mr Merdle function as a further critique of high society. He is accepted by society when he is perceived to be making tons of money. He even marries his wife because she will look good with his the expensive jewels he can provide and will further improve his standing in society. Yet for all his high-standing, rumored wealth, and praised business acumen, the social gossip about him leads to many people putting their trust in Merdle’s investment as a sure thing only economically ruin them. Appearances can be deceiving, while society is all about appearances in the novel.

Another critique of society and the upper-class comes in the form of Riguad. The criminal Riguad who is murderer, blackmailer, and all around terrible person justifies himself on the grounds that he is a gentleman. The actions of this evil man certainly raises the question why anyone would want to attain the status of a gentleman in society. Likewise, there is Mrs. General whose goal is to teach her charges to suppress their own opinions and thoughts to only express what is proper and blindly follow social expectations. In the end we see society is all about appearance and varnish rather than true character and virtue, and often leads to blatantly immoral behaviors.

In contrast to all this, we have Arthur Clennam who takes all the blame for his financial mistakes to protect his friend Daniel Doyce from creditors and tries to help William Dorrit in prison, and we have Little Dorrit whose happiest memories are of taking care of her father and would give up all her wealth to save Arthur Clennam. Dickens never loses sight of the importance of inner virtue as opposed to outer wealth and status. ...more

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Feb 02, 2009 Megan rated it it was amazing

I love, love, love Little Dorrit ! I read it for the first time when I was younger and I remember in a vague way that I enjoyed it. Boy was I surprised at how intensely it held my interest this time around! It was difficult to put down most of the time. And I know Dickens perhaps ties things up a little too nicely at the ned of his books, but the bad guy getting his comeuppance always makes me happy!! I'm a little sad that I'm done reading this book. I would read it over again in a heartbeat!! ...more

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Jul 12, 2014 Tango rated it it was amazing

Another wonderful Dickens' book with the usual cast of colourful characters. This one had me laughing and crying. ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Julie marked it as to-read

Coudnt finish the book was too long and extrainous for me to finish...I will put it on my "to read" list for a later time when I am ready to read it. ...more

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