040417: well, i keep reading dickens, trying to ‘get’ his value. trying. many years ago (decades...) i if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

watched a miniseries of this book. maybe i was just young, maybe it was well made, but i very much enjoyed it. so actually reading this story is a disappointment. i kept waiting for my romantic sense to kick in. i did read the whole, 'poverty' and some of 'riches' in one long sitting. this is not 'bleak house', where the plot is primary. this book is all about characters- or rather 'caricatures'... and as this is a. long. book. there are a. lot. of caricatures...

though the book is named after her, amy dorrit is the least interesting, most consistently 'good', most consistently consistent caricature- in poverty, in riches, in something in-between, she remains more an ideal of selflessness, caring, loving, forgiving. she is too good to be true. in the beginning she is pathetic: dickens has overloaded her with trials. and she just suffers. and suffers. and suffers. as the family becomes rich, she remains the same, she is the ceaselessly 'good'... but everything about her bothers me, everything she must undergo, the way she is 'little', is first and finally seen as a child, the 'good' wife in waiting, the way she finally rescues the misfortunate...

so maybe this is just dickens' idea of what makes an admirable, lovable, young woman. so maybe this is just the times, maybe this is not unique, but i am frustrated she is caricatured so. fortunately, she disappears for long stretches, the story switching to honest arthur, to status-hungry fallen 'father of marshalsea', to some kind of plot. is the plot important? not much. are the caricatures interesting? more so. the passage from debt to fabulous wealth is just something that happens. what counts is how all react...

and this is what distinguishes dickens from say stephen king: satire. there are great comic set pieces, there is the way father dorrit accepts homage in his diminished debtor state, there is the wonderful bureaucratic swamp of the 'circumlocution office', staffed by various members of the barnacle family, there is the rise and fall of the 'great man' based entirely on his making money or not, there is the forgotten belle who never uses pauses during ridiculous declamations, there is the pantomime villain, these are all fun. these are all satirized. plot serves to highlight their various qualities. there is however no great plot, no irony intending 'little' dorrit herself...

i did read this swiftly. i did enjoy some aspects. i did not find myself in love with her, or understanding the romance that just seems 'there' in the end so we can end with a marriage. i think i will not immediately go on to 'great expectations' after all, i need a break. maybe i am just too skeptical, too enamoured of literary qualities rather than page-turning, too impatient for irony... whatever the case, i will stop dickens at eight books...

more
David Copperfield
Nicholas Nickleby
A Tale of Two Cities
Bleak House
Our Mutual Friend
Great Expectations

Little Dorrit is my favorite Dickens thus far. I loved Amy Dorrit (Little Dorrit) how true she was to herself during all stages of financial status. Her family changing their personality to accommodate the change and then losing a certain quality within themselves. The portrayal of government, fiances, society, prison life & seeing some things never change. Mysteries told in closing but some remain up in the air. I enjoyed this story so much I will hopefully read it again someday. Loved it!

Prima di leggerlo ero tra coloro che pensavano a "La piccola Dorrit" come un romanzo sentimentale, melenso, con protagonista una bambina ingenua e sfortunata, come quasi sempre nei romanzi di Dickens accade ai protagonisti, insomma pensavo fosse una lettura più adatta ai ragazzi che agli adulti.
Invece mi ha sorpreso. Sì, è vero che Amy Dorrit, la protagonista, è una eterna bambina dolcissima, generosa, colma di tutti i buoni sentimenti del mondo; sì è vero che nel finale la vicenda diventa mielosa e termina in modo prevedibilmente felice; però il tema centrale è altro. Nel romanzo si legge una feroce critica alla borghese società inglese in cui l'apparenza scintillante di abiti, feste e ricevimenti mondani nasconde malaffari, intrighi e crimini , una forte critica alla burocrazia macchinosa rappresentata dall'Ufficio delle Circonlocuzioni in cui regna la famiglia dei Barnacle, per i quali il "non fare" è stile di vita.
Come, e forse più degli altri romanzi dickensiani, "La piccola Dorrit" racconta il lato oscuro di una Londra dell'epoca vittoriana, in piena rivoluzione industriale, tra progresso e conformismo, tra miseria e nobiltà. Ma non solo.
Il romanzo, spacciato per un libro per ragazzi, è tetro e segnato da una visione pessimistica della condizione umana: nessuno dei personaggi è libero, non solo perchè il fulcro della storia si incentra nella prigione londinese della Marshalsea, dove la piccola Dorrit è nata e vissuta per la maggior parte della sua vita, ma anche quando i protagonisti sono fuori dalle tetre mura carcerarie essi sono prigionieri comunque: prigionieri delle convenzioni sociali, prigionieri di legami familiari snaturati o alterati, prigionieri del proprio animo malvagio e masochista. Anche le vicende di Amy Dorrit e Arthur Clennam, gli unici personaggi positivi, nonostante il lieto fine, lasciano intravvedere nelle ultime righe una specie di "destino" già segnato nel mondo secondo la visione dickensiana in cui vivono.
Mi rendo conto di essere stata confusionaria nel commento, ma una certezza ce l'ho: non sarà il miglior romanzo di Dickens, ma va letto, fosse solo per sfatare un pregiudizio -che non credo di aver avuto soltanto io- e comunque per godere della miriade di storie e di personaggi che si intrecciano, che soltanto Charles Dickens è mirabilmente bravo a creare.