Wow… What a novel… I’m not convinced that it’s dethroned Bleak House or David Copperfield as my current top Dickens reads, but it would be a hairsbreadth below them. Simply incredible!

I think, though, if I had to specify what I loved so much about these three top Dickens, I’d have to say that Bleak House contains my favourite narrative plot, David Copperfield contains my favourite characters, and Little Dorrit contains my favourite use of theme throughout the book.

Little Dorrit is about imprisonment, and how we either accept our prisons, cope with our prisons, ignore our prisons, or fight to escape our prisons. Once I latched onto this idea, I saw it absolutely everywhere in the novel—not to mention that Dickens himself uses prison language repeatedly, and not just in reference to the obvious example of the Marshalsea…

We get a front row seat to watch:

1) the incredible example of Little Dorrit living in freedom from the prison that society wants to impose on her, both in terms of the physical Marshalsea and the societal burden of poverty. The way she does it is through a spirit of forgiveness, serving others, loving them where they’re at, and finding joy in focussing on what IS within her power to do, rather than what ISN’T. She is one of the most inspirational Dickens heroines ever, right up there with Esther Summerson.
2) Arthur Clennam struggling to overcome the imprisonment of dysfunctional family relationships. His incredibly complex and toxic relationship with his mother, as well as the secrets he believes are hidden in their family past, threaten to defeat him over the course of the novel. But again, he finds freedom in usefulness and purpose.
3) Mr Dorrit live through the physical imprisonment of the Marshalsea, which robs him of societal freedom and dignity. Then, when his fortunes change, he is a living, breathing picture of “imposter syndrome,” and the prison of insecurity that so many of us live with each and every day of our lives. His fear and anxiety that his past would catch up with him was tragic, and he never did grasp the true potential of wealth and influence to be a blessing rather than a burden.
4) Mrs Clennam in the clutches of a self-imposed and misguided prison of self-justification and self-righteousness. Many, many warnings to us all through this character, who believes that she is a force for morality and justice, when in actuality she is simply cruel, judgemental and hateful.
5) Tattycoram in the bondage resulting from rebellion and a false belief in her own agency and right to choose her own path, with no regard for the realities of relational consequences and the sacrifice and selflessness inherent to living in harmony with others.
6) Miss Wade living out the imprisonment of selfishness and narcissism, and the tragic belief that she can’t change who she is for the better of others in any way, and accepts the imprisonment of her inescapable solitude, since no-one can tolerate her.
7) Mr Flintwinch bully and abuse his way through marriage and service to the Clennam household. He also exemplifies the destructiveness of nepotism, and what results from holding a position or office to which we have no right, except as imagined through our own greed for control, power.
8) Affery living through the nightmare of true victimhood and abuse. Affery serves as an incredible foil to Tattycoram’s character—Tattycoram chooses her eventual enslavement to Miss Wade, but Affery is forced into it.
9) Mr Meagles live through the disappointment of unfulfilled dreams for his child, and the resulting disillusionment that can entrap and burden us. I love that he did eventually overcome these true and understandable parental difficulties to become a blessing to those around him, especially Arthur and Amy.
10) Pet live through the imprisonment of facing adulthood without the necessary and critical preparation for it by her parents. Her naïveté does not result in an “ignorance is bliss” existence, but rather a non-actualized and unrealized potential of herself.

I could go on and on… This novel is such an incredible character and thematic exploration of freedom, and what it really means to be free. I can’t recommend it enough!

Anjie and Lisa—this was an incredible joy to read with you!! Thank you for joining me!! Already looking forward to the next Dickens buddy read…

It is the best of Dickens, it is the worst of Dickens...

Overall, I like what novels of Dickens I've read--once I get into the rhythm of his writing, I really enjoy it, and I think Oliver Twist is one the giants of the 19th century. But there's also no denying he has some annoying traits as well. In Little Dorrit, I think we get the best and the worst of what Dickens was capable of; his excellent, quirky characters, his (often) delightfully evocative and droll descriptions, and his way of bringing this world and his characters to life--all of which are opposed to his too sinister villains, too sugary heroines, laborious satire, and the noticeable effect of writing for serial publication.

I really wasn't enthused about reading LD in the first place when it came up in one of my groups--but I did have a copy as a part of an old incomplete Dickens set I'd bought a long time ago, and I figured it was now or never. The title had always made me think of H.C. Anderson's The Little Match Girl (and what a downer that was!), so I really figured that LD, would be the last book by Dickens that I ever read, if ever. But eventually I fell under the sway of its charms: Amy Dorrit (The eponymous 'Little'), born while her parents were inhabitants of the Marshalsea prison for indebtedness, grows up to be an angelic presence in the prison and the surrounding area. Through a twist of fate, she becomes associated with the Clennam family, and Arthur Clennam, a kind and good natured man recently returned from a 20 year sojourn in China with his father's business, takes an interest in her story.

Little Dorrit seems to contain a cast of thousands and a convoluted storyline full of plots and sub-plots which wind and weave their way through a lot of pages, some of them rather droll and entertaining, some of which left me saying, 'C'mon already! Get to the point!'. As with previous Dickens I've read, there is some rather pointed satire, some of which seems a little overdone to me. I think he tries too hard, sometimes, which might very well be caused by writing for serial publication. It is a bit ironic, I think, that Dickens of all writers wants to poke fun at the very British way of doing things (or not doing them, in this case) by creating the 'Circumlocution Office', where all manner of the country's business is stone-walled, wrapped in red tape, and otherwise ignored, when it could be said that who more than Dickens would find himself perfectly at home in any circumlocution setting?

After some adventure and heartache, there is a pleasing, Dickens-style ending to the book, though frankly I felt the final summing up to be a little confusing and stretched the boundaries of coincidence a bit too far. So at almost every turn, I found both positives and negatives attached to this later work of his, though on the whole, still an enjoyable, if somewhat overlong, read. Of course, if you've never felt that Dickens was your cup of tea, there isn't going to be anything here to change your mind. If you've never read Dickens, but would like somewhere to start, my advice would be to skip this one for now, and seek out one of his more celebrated titles. As is probably obvious by now, Oliver Twist is one his that is a favorite of mine, and I'd probably point someone in that direction, if anyone's asking.

Ay bitmeden bitirebildiğim için mutluyum. Charles Dickens'tan en son seneler önce Bir Noel Şarkısı kitabını okuyup beğenmiştim, hatta diğer çok ünlü kitapları da okuma listemde. Okuma grubuyla okunacağı için önce Küçük Dorrit ile başladım. Bence hikaye çok güzel, asıl karakterleri çok beğenerek okudum. Ama yazılış tipinden sanıyorum biraz karmaşa var, bölüm geçişleri bir hayli karışık geldi bana. Kim kimdi anlamak sorun olmasa da (bir hayli fazla karakter olmasına rağmen), bir şeyi okurken öteki şeye atlamak beni biraz yordu. Başlar daha yavaş ilerliyordu gibi geldi, ama okuduğum için memnunum. Dönemin İngiltere'si ve işleyişindeki abeslikler güzel yansıtılmış. Gizemli, gotik bölümler olduğu kadar sevimli ve eğlenceli kısımlar da güzel yedirilmişti. Hikaye Yoksulluk ve Varsıllık olmak üzere iki kitapta işleniyor. Biraz çeviri ya da redaksiyonda gözüme batan şeyler oldu ama bunun orijinal metinden kaynaklanıp kaynaklanmadığından emin olamadığım için pek bir şey demeyi de doğru bulmuyorum.

Wow, what a story!! Going to let it simmer in my mind for a bit.

Okay definitely going to be working on this review piecemeal. I just went back to read the introduction by Stephen Wall and found it very helpful in seeing the book as a whole. My reading experience with this was slower than with Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey and Son, and Our Mutual Friend but I let that be okay and was able to settle into the novel at a pace that worked for me during a busy holiday season.

My first thought after finishing this was: “I adore Little Dorrit and Arthur as individual characters, and I love them together.” Their relationship reminded me so much of Lord Peter and Harriet Vane. Harriet is always in Peter’s debt after he saves her from a trial for murder by finding the real murderer. In a beautiful denouement of their relationship in Busman’s Honeymoon, Harriet comes to Peter’s aid when he is profoundly vulnerable and thus there is a beautiful mutuality in their relationship. This happens with Little Dorrit and Arthur too. It’s only because Arthur is humbled by his stay in the Marshalsea that he is able to both realize and accept Little Dorrit’s love. It is only Little Dorrit’s freedom through Arthur (and others’) efforts that allows her to come to terms with her own homesickness for life that Arthur brightened. She is also able to reconcile to herself Arthur’s attraction to Pet and lay it to rest. Arthur and Little Dorrit are truly well matched in their selfless care for others and I thought the end of their story and the final paragraph were lovely. It reminded me of the quiet yet profound end of Middlemarch. Without the quiet and steadfast goodness of the Dorotheas, Arthurs, and Little Dorrits of the world, the world would be less well with you and me.

My second thought when I finished is: “I’m not sure all the elements of the plot were wholly successful.” The plot is rather complex, so these are just my impressions on my first reading so I can refer to them on a future re-read:

1. The Mr Merdle plotline was not wholly successful. Mr Merdle was not enough of a substantial character to me and lacked the psychological realism of Trollope’s Melmotte. It was fairly obvious what would happen in this plotline and we were left hanging about its effects on Mr Dorrit’s family for too long before Dickens circles back around to it. Trollope does a better job overall of integrating his plot lines in his long novels.

2. I’m not sure how successful the Rigaud/Miss Wade/Gowan characters were. The introduction calls Rigaud a “hollow villain”, and I agree. I understand his importance to the plot regarding Mrs Clennam’s revelation of her secrets to the reader and to Little Dorrit. But he lacked the sinister touch when he appears in the second half of the story. Likewise the Gowans (Henry and Pet) seem to totally drop off in the last fourth of the story, and I found Henry’s connection to Miss Wade petered off uninterestingly. Plotwise, I can see that it is what connects Miss Wade to the Meagles, but I'm just not sure it was all substantial enough. Tattycoram was also nearly nonexistent, and her anger against the Meagles is possibly not as clear as it could have been. Is Dickens using Miss Wade to show how a person can be psychologically imprisoned just as much as physically imprisoned? If so, Tattycoram’s escape from that is interesting. And clearly the Meagles will take her into the family now as a cherished adopted daughter since they cannot be to Pet as they once were.

As usual with Dickens, there are some side characters to adore and to laugh at in this. I particularly loved John Chivery and his adorably hobbledehoy-ness that conceals in his breast a noble spirit and caring heart. He's so endearing. I just love him! I also love Mr. Pancks and how Dickens describes him as a steamship that puffs and wheezes and toodles around with a kindly but rather startling appearance. Daniel Doyce is also a lovely character, and I would have liked to have more of him. Of course, the Meagles are lovely too. Flora Finching is particularly good comic relief, as is her amusing and startling relation, Mr. F's Aunt. I love that roundabout way of referring to her. The whole Bleeding Heart Yard community is a lot of fun too and gave me Emma M Lion's St. Crispian's vibes.

Mrs. Clennam is quite a complex character. I really felt bad for her that she was tricked into a marriage so long ago. I find her bitterness believable and sympathetic, even though it is tragic. Mr. Flintwich is an odd character. He's awful on the one hand, but he's also not as purely villainous as I thought he was supposed to be (my expectations being in the wrong, of course). His redeeming feature is urging Mrs. Clennam to tell Arthur the truth. His end to the story was amusing. Of course, his treatment of Affery is despicable and he is generally unsavory. I thought it was interesting that Arthur never learns what Little Dorrit now knows from Mrs. Clennam about his real parentage. I'm not sure what to make of that.

My other favorite plotline is the relationship between Mr. Dorrit and Amy. Along with this, I loved the setting of the Marshalsea and the exploration of what it means to be imprisoned and what it means to be free. I would need to re-read the book to do this justice but I want to write down some initial thoughts here. Going into the book, I expected that Mr. Dorrit would be more cruel, perhaps because the other Dickens' novels I read this year were Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby with plenty of outright cruel adults. I love that Mr. Dorrit is far more complex than this. I would call him foolhardy and weak. Of course it is troubling that the daughter is so much more able than her father, but I found this realistic too. Amy has a great soul so it falls to her to protect the vulnerable. She does this so beautifully. It's such a complex psychological set up, and I love that about it.

The introduction mentioned how often prisons appear in Dickens and discussed briefly how Dickens' father's stay at the Marshalsea when Charles was an impressionable 12 years old was traumatic for the young Dickens. I wonder how delving into imprisonment in this novel allowed Dickens to process his own trauma. He certainly took out of trauma's crucible great art in this novel. I anticipated Mr. Dorrit's death because he himself imprisoned Amy more than the Marshalsea. But the dramatic denoument right before his death with his reversion to thinking he was back at the Marshalsea with the immense contrast of the glitzy society dinner in Rome was very affecting. I found Frederick Dorrit a consistently sympathetic and sweet character, and I love his relationship with Amy. (Mrs. General is just...a piece of work!)

Oh goodness, there is so much more than could be said about these themes!! You could go through each character in the book and ask: "What is imprisoning this person?" and "What does this person need to be free?" and the richness of the exploration would be immense. I hope I can buddy read this book in the future.

Even though I perceived the book to have some plot holes, I still think this is a master work and I loved reading it. I can't wait to return to it in the future.

Wow, having disliked a lot of Dickens' novels in the past I'm surprised how much "Little Dorrit" appealed to me. While I was a bit confused as to the ending and the several characters and all their relations (I had to look up an analysis online just to make sure I got it all right), I still think that this is a really telling, humorous and interesting story.
What I liked the most about this 1000-page-novel was the story of Little Dorrit and how she was raised. I have never read of a character like hers before, and I found it hugely entertaining to dive into her story and also see how she develops over the 1000 pages.
I was also amused with the satiric paragraphs that are very typical of Dickens and which worked, in my opinion. It was funny and it was sarcastic, and I appreciated it a lot for that.
All in all, it's hard to cover all of the 1000 pages and all of the underlying storylines in just a few words. Let's just say that this is, in my opinion, one of Dickens' better works because it is more simple, original and overall very much entertaining and typical for the Victorian literary era.

Il romanzo racconta la storia della piccola Amy Dorrit, nata nella Marshalsea, la prigione dove suo padre era rinchiuso per debiti. Racconta della sua abnegazione a compiacere tutti, a lavorare indefessamente, a non far mai valere le proprie ragioni.
Il romanzo è ricco di intrighi, segreti, misteri e personaggi. Troppo: si perde il filo e Dickens si dilunga oltremodo, con la sua satira pedante nei confronti degli arricchiti senza meriti.
Tuttavia crea un paio di personaggi interessanti: un megalomane e una con manie di persecuzione, che dimostrano una sua capacità non comune di leggere l'animo umano.
La sua abilità di inserire il lettore nel contesto, che sia la Londra sudicia dei bassifondi o le gelide montagne del valico del Monte Bianco o la Roma dei suoi tempi (anche allora con buche enormi sulle strade a causare gravi incidenti!), è come sempre impareggiabile.

"Little Dorrit" is a novel which was originally published in serial form in nineteen installments between 1855 and 1857. Charles Dickens was traumatized when he was sent out to work as a child during the time his father was in debtors' prison. Dickens incorporated the Marshalsea prison into this novel which has a strong theme of imprisonment. Mr Dorrit was a gentleman who had fallen on hard times. This resulted in a long stay in the prison where he was referred to as "The Father of the Marshalsea." Little Dorrit (Amy) had the distinction of being born in the Marshalsea, and was known for her warm, nurturing manner. There are many reversals of fortune during the events in the novel.

Other characters are emotionally imprisoned because they are bitter, or trying to meet the expectations of society. Some characters live for wealth and social position, but it does not make them happier. Deception is practiced to gain wealth or social status.

Another main character is Arthur Clennam who described himself as "the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything." His mother was a cold-hearted woman who lived in a Calvinistic manner. Arthur was still emotionally living under the shadow of his upbringing.

There is lots of humor in this novel, including the character names of the upper class Barnacles and Stiltstockings. They run the Circumlocution Office where there are mountains of red tape, citizens fill out multiple forms which only get filed away, and nothing gets done. Dickens does some wonderful satirical writing in the chapters about government bureaucracy.

"Little Dorrit" has many characters and multiple subplots. Although Dickens was writing the book in serial form, he managed to tie up most of the loose ends by the conclusion. He exposed some serious social problems while writing an entertaining story. 4.5 stars.

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Me gustó bastante, no tanto como mi Dickens favorito hasta ahora que es Our Mutual Friend, pero se le acerca bastante, tiene personajes queribles y variopintos y una historia que te va enganchando.

Leerlo requiere de un esfuerzo de voluntad, ya que fue publicado por entregas y es bastante largo; pero como queda esa intriga por conocer el secreto final, se va avanzando.

Cuando lo estaba terminando me puse a ver la miniserie de la BBC de 2007, es un gran complemento al libro y está excelentemente adaptada, la recomiendo.

There are not enough words or time to express how wonderful this book is.
Although it is a long one, every single part of it is interesting, even the so called boring parts.
Dickens is such an amazing writer; one who describes things so well that it makes you understand the story better. Some people think his descriptions are too much and too long but I think they are just the right amount for you to know what he is talking about and to relate to it.
Each of the characters in here were so iconic, I loved each one of them.

Some of the great quotes:

“None of us clearly know to whom or to what we are indebted in this wise, until some marked stop in the whirling wheel of life brings the right perception with it. It comes with sickness, it comes with the loss of the dearly loved, it is one of the most frequent uses of adversity. “

“O, Mrs. Clennam, Mrs. Clennam,” said Little Dorrit. “Angry feelings and unforgiving deeds are no comfort and no guide to you and me. My life has been passed in this poor prison, and my teaching has been very defective; but let me implore you to remember later and better days. Be guided only by the healer of the sick, the raider of the dead, the friend of all who were afflicted and forlorn, the patient Master who shed tears of compassion for our infirmities. We cannot but be right if we put all the rest away, and do everything in remembrance of Him. There is no vengeance and no infliction of suffering in His life, I am sure. There can be no confusion in following Him, and seeking no other footsteps, I am certain!”

I’ve been trying to read this for almost a year. It has too many characters and it’s hard to keep track of them. It’s a slow book not much happens

Little Dorrit is Charles Dicken’s 15th novel and one of his chunkier novels at that. It is certainly one of the bulkier books among books I’ve read this year, with the edition I read running just shy of a thousand pages. It is largely a critic of the institute of debtor’s prison in the Victorian times that was more or less run as an extorsion racket. Divided into two parts, namely ‘’Poverty’’ and ‘’Riches’’, the book is full of an assortment of characters that are anywhere between witty, innocent, benevolent, cunning, pompous, industrious or menacing. The core of the story revolves around Marshalsea, a notoriously infamous debtor’s prison that actually housed Dicken’s father at some point. But different parts of the book take us to Marseille, Calais, Venice, Rome and parts of London. Besides the main plotline, there are many subplots that make the story very interesting. I would say it’s one of Dicken’s funniest books. Especially any scene that has Flora, with her long continuous speeches and mannerisms, is hilarious. Mrs. Plorish’s ‘’natural calling’’ to the art of the ‘’The Italian Tongue’’, as she addresses Mr. Baptist, are also hysterical. There are also many subtle humorous lines dotted throughout the book, of which I’ve taken some sizable notes. At the same time, it has its sad and reflective moments. Overall, a wonderful but a very long read