Little Dorrit

A wonderful cast of characters, probably my second favourite Dickens.

Little Dorrit is my new favourite book ever, with The Lord of the Rings and Wuthering Heights.
I really don't have enough words to praise it. It has got all you could look for in a novel: mystery, murder, a love story, social critic...everything!
The plot is very compelling and though it's about 1000 pages you never get bored by it.
I'm not sorry to say goodbye to it only because I'm going to have two years of Dickens forward, but I want absolutely to buy it and re-read it!
It took me some chapters to get into it, but then I couldn't put it down!
It's the story of Amy Dorrit, a girl born in a prison where her father was kept for debts (like Dickens' father) and who meets the other main character of the book, Arthur Clennam, at his mother's home. Arthur, returned from a long absence from London, decides to help Little Dorrit's family.
The story is sometimes funny (some characters are remarkable!) and sometimes moving, in the style of Dickens.

First, I have to admit. It is my favorite novel of all time. Second, I would say that Amy and her story breaks my heart to pieces. Third, the prison presented as a home makes me sob and ache so much. There is never such a powerful illustration of the social injustice of the 19th century British society. William Dorrit the tragedy that shakespear talked about. It is the misery of the past haunting the luxury of the present which gives you the joyful-misery at the end. Mrs. clennam, if I had the opportunity of meeting you before, I would tell you that it is never too late. Flora Finching, if I ever wanted to ask you to shut up, i would never be able for you won't give me the opportunity to speak. John Chivery, if you just know how do I feel towards you. I really am a big fan of you John, and I would go to say my prayers on your tombstone. Arthur Clennam, if I know such a person like you, my life would change so much. The Marshalsea prison is a place of so much suffering. It is the author's past put here in examination. Dickens wanted to tell us in this story that love is the secret of being happy. Money is a corrupting-evil that gives you pain and loneliness sometimes. After all, it is not just the debtor's prison that is haunting the story, many and many kinds of prisons there are. For example, the mental prison of each character. In this novel, love, money, happiness, marriage, suffering, revenge, and prison are all studied in the deepest way.

Es un libro que si te gusta el autor debes leer, con una historia interesante y además al parecer inspirada en lugares reales , con personajes secundarios fabulosos como Flora y su tía la señorita F y una historia difícil de olvidar. Una gran narración del autor donde con su acostumbrada sutileza critica la sociedad del momento a todo nivel y para mi lo más interesante es mostrar que la familia puede tener defectos tan Grandes que se vuelve una carga muchas veces y que solo alguien con amor y paciencia lo logra soportar

Not my favorite Dickens. It didn't seem developed enough. The ending seemed rushed and convenient and kind of weird. The characters weren't memorable enough and I really didn't feel any attachment to Amy. Great audio reading, but that was about it.

I must say I'm quite proud of myself for finishing Little Dorrit - quite an undertaking for someone not fond of Dickens. I liked this, but there was a 200 page lull for me at the beginning of book two. Also, for such a big cast, I only had a handful of favourite characters. Hence only three stars, but this is a hearty three stars that truly mean "I liked it!"

UPDATE: 11/2020

I have upgraded my rating to 5-stars and feeling quite different toward both Amy Dorrit and the other characters of Little Dorrit this time around. I read the book very slowly (one chapter a day) with full discussions in the Dickensians group, and my appreciation of it rose daily. I'm afraid one read is just not enough for this complex and profound novel. My hat is always off to Mr. Dickens, one of the greatest writers of all time.

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Dickens built his novel, Little Dorrit, around the life of inmates of the Marshalsea Prison, and drew from some very personal experiences to do so. I did not find these characters as compelling nor his plot as tight as usual, but still a worthy read and much enjoyed. Amy Dorrit (whose moniker of “Little Dorrit” aggravated me), is a bit too perfect, sweet and unselfish for my tastes; Arthur Clennam a bit too clueless about his own feelings and what was going on with others; and our major villain Rigaud a little too much like Snidely Whiplash, right down to the twisting of the moustache.

The loves and hates in this novel were also somewhat contrived. Of course, those emotions can be pretty arbitrary in real life. We’ve probably all known people who hate beyond the bounds of the offense they have endured and one person or another who has professed to love someone who was obviously a cad and below their worthiness. Mainly, however, I did not feel that the explanation for the mysteries at the heart of the novel really made good sense. So, not on a level with n  Great Expectationsn or n  Bleak Housen, but still...a bad Dickens is better than almost anyone else, it is the high expectations that cause the problem.

If you ever suffer from the idea that the problems of Charles Dickens’ world won’t have correlatives in our world, you ought to read n  Little Dorritn. Sprinkled amid the convoluted story of Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam is a diatribe on bureaucracy that felt far too familiar. Perhaps it is uniquely American (of course NOT) that people in government seem more interested in “not doing” than in “doing”, but I could so totally relate to the red tape approach to running off the petitioner, and I’m betting everyone else who has ever tried to deal with government can as well.

Hold up your hand if Mr. Rugg’s comments here ring true:

”If the money I have sacrificed had been all my own, Mr. Rugg,” sighed Mr. Clennam, “I should have cared far less.
“Indeed sir? said Mr. Rugg, rubbing his hands with a cheerful air. “You surprise me. That’s singular, sir. I have generally found, in my experience, that it’s their own money people are most particular about. I have seen people get rid of a good deal of other people’s money, and bear it very well; very well indeed.”

Oops, too many to count.

And, when I came across this passage, I could not help thinking of Bernie Madoff:

Numbers of men in every profession and trade would be blighted by his insolvency; old people who had been in easy circumstances all their lives would have no place of repentance for their trust in him but the workhouse; legions of women and children would have their whole future desolated by the hand of this mighty scoundrel. Every partaker of his magnificent feasts would be seen to have been a sharer in the plunder of innumerable homes, every servile worshipper of riches who had helped to set him on his pedestal, would have done better to worship the Devil point blank.

But what really struck me was that he was admired by one of the characters for pulling the deception off so universally, and I gasped because I had an acquaintance who actually made that statement about Madoff…"You have to admire him for his cleverness”, he said. NO, NO and NO. Would you not think people would have learned between 1855 and 2008? Apparently human nature thrives on the same errors repeated over centuries.

There is much that could be said about this novel and, like every Dickens I have read, it would make for a marvelous group read. If you want to know more and delve deeper, I strongly suggest that you take the time to read the review written by Bionic Jean, our resident Dickens guru, who never gets it wrong and always enlightens my reading.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I was afraid I was going to fail in my quest to read all of Dickens by culling two a year off my list. Thankfully, I have finished Little Dorrit just in time to satisfy this year. I read Hard Times as well. I have Martin Chuzzlewit, about which I know nothing, and The Old Curiosity Shop, a story I am very familiar with but have not ever read, slated for 2019. It would be lovely if I could up the ante and squeeze in a third! I must say I have enjoyed every single novel so far.

I think I need a break from Dickens. Reading _Little Dorrit_ after _Dombey and Son_, and within months of finishing _Bleak House_ has made me frustrated with his ideal female character. He uses the phrase "active submission" to describe Amy Dorrit, but it could be equally applied to Esther or Florence, characters whose main virtue is waiting without complaint for their objects of devotion to treat them properly, and for their lives to be less miserable. _Little Dorrit_ and _Dombey and Son_ both have wonderfully menacing villains, but without a dynamic hero or heroine to counter them, the plot relies on dramatic external events to wipe them out. All this may simply be a reflection of a Christian ethos, one of suffering patiently, even lovingly, no matter the abuse, and relying on God (in this case, the author) to resolve every problem. It is not my own ethos, however, and I am beginning to find it tiresome.

Of note in this story are the events involving banking, investing, and speculating. One character even turns out to be a Victorian Bernie Madoff of sorts (and "Madoff" could be a name straight out of Dickens, come to think of it). Dickens' cautionary tale is as relevant today as ever.