Little Dorrit

by Charles Dickens


Novel #8 in my quest for mastery of Dickens! You've got to admire my endurance.

In a nutshell:

Amy "Little" Dorrit was born in Marshalsea Prison because her father is in debt. She and her siblings are allowed to come and go as they please, but their father is a prisoner.

Arthur Clennam has just returned to England from the Far East. His father has died, and he has returned to see his mother. His mother employs LD in her household, and that is how Arthur and LD meet.

The heart and soul of the story revolves around fortunes: fortunes lost, fortunes gained, and how people change with their fortunes.

I won't go into great detail because really, Dickens does plenty of that in his novel. This a long novel, dear reader. And it lacks that humor that Dickens uses in other novels. While there are some great caricatures (Arthur's old flame) and some amusing institutions (the Circumlocution Office), this super-sized novel doesn't pay off in the end. Unfortunately.

8/26/08