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Title: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, Peter Ackroyd ISBN: 0-7493-0758-7 Publisher: Mandarin Pub. Date: 21 March, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.50

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Average Customer Rating: 4.19 (16 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent Book; Tough Read; Great Payback
Comment: Little Dorritt is not light reading. While it is in many ways a very entertaining work, it is not for those seeking pure entertainment. It is a very rich work, full of social commentary [church bells ringing, "They won't come."; the Circumlocution Office], humor [can anyone resist laughing out loud and Flora Finching?], several memorable characters, and a very powerful statement on personal salvation.

Yes, the novel does drag from halfway to the three quarters mark; but what 900 page Dickens novel doesn't? When you read Dickens, you should expect that. It is during that time that he typically starts to resolve many of the issues raised in the first half and also sets up his exciting finale. While the finale of Little Dorritt is not exciting in the Hollywood sense, it is very fulfilling.

The major theme that spans the entire work, something I haven't seen others discuss, is that of Old Testament vs. New Testament thinking. It is the Old Testament thinking of Arthur's mother that keeps her in her wheelchair. It is only when she gets a dose of New Testament thinking from Amy Dorritt that Arthur's mother walks. Dickens was a Unitarian who had a strong belief in the redemptive power of Christ. While he often ridiculed both the Church ("They won't come.") and religious hypocrites (Borriohoola-Gha in Bleak House), it is through Little Dorritt that he presents this redemptive power. Entertainment becomes a treatise on right living.

Rating: 4
Summary: "The Mind-Forged Manacles"
Comment: Do we still have the time and patience to read a 900 page Dickens novel? Are we willing to put up with the long-winded paragraphs, the "cardboard characters", the convoluted mysteries of 19th century fiction? Rags-to-riches stories may not command as much attention today as they did then - until we read how gullible people are lured into shady investment schemes, how greed spreads like an epidemic, creating stock market bubbles followed by collapse and ruin; then we realize that not much has changed after all. Sudden wealth brings out the worst in people: pretentiousness, social climbing, dissipation. The Dorrit family, set free from Debtor's Prison by an unexpected inheritance, behave just as the newly rich behave today - all except Amy ("Little Dorrit") who is not cowed by poverty nor blinded by riches.

The novel is about all sorts of imprisonment: physical, mental, spiritual. It's almost like a morality play, with stock characters who might as well be wearing signs proclaiming GREED, ENVY, PRIDE, WRATH, etc. People trapped in loveless marriages, indifferent jobs, money-grubbing schemes or self-righteous posturing are victims of the "mind-forged manacles" evoked by Blake. The social criticism may be dated, but the commentary on human nature surely is not.

For those who lack the stamina to plough through the entire novel, there is an excellent 4-part video version with Alec Guiness as Mr.Dorrit and Derek Jacobi as Arthur Clennam. It takes some liberties with the text, but the acting is superb.

As an afterthought, you might enjoy reading Evelyn Waugh's "A Handful of Dust", where the theme of entrapment is pursued in unexpected ways, culminating in a reading of "Little Dorrit".

Rating: 4
Summary: Expose' -Speculators and Kind Hearts in the Victorian Era
Comment: Little Dorritt was born at Marshalsea-the debtors prison. Her father is something of an informal mayor ('father') of the place, and everyone imprisoned there pays him homage-and alms- for his long suffering good nature and the 'tone' he sets for the experience of being thrown in jail Indeed, Mr. Dorritt has raised self pity to an art form. Little Dorritt is small and wan. People continually ask her if she 'has strength and can endure things.' She reminds them she was born in the poor house. Through the kind offices of 'a friend,' Arthur Clennam, midway through the book, the family is released from prison, debts paid and they live the genteel life that Mr. Dorritt always assumed was his birthright. In a classic case of projection, Mr. Dorritt prattles to Amy (Little) Dorritt how she should not be morose, and she should forget life in the poor house. 'Put on airs for the sake of the servants so they would remember 'their place.' Mr Dorritt goes on to assure Amy 'he has completely wiped the sad episode of living in debtors prison' from his mind. In order to secure his place in society, Mr. Dorritt seeks favor from an unseen Mr. Merdle who it seems has the economy of the entire world in the palm of his hand. Indeed, Fanny Dorritt, Amy's sister is also smitten with the Merdle clan and seeks the favor of Edmund Merdle, just so she can put on even more superior airs than Mrs. Merdle does. The circumlocutions of speech, especially those Mr. Dorritt and Mrs. Merdle use, when these characters talk to one other in itself is worth the price of admission. Amy is devoted to her father and shows little interest in social activities. She does however manage, through her needlework, to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Clemmens, Arthurs mother- that's how Arthur comes to learn of Mr. Dorritt's legal plight and thanks to Arthur they got away from Marshalsea, the debtor's prison. In time, Mr. Dorritt falls sick. He stands up at a dinner party to give his 'welcome to Marshallsea speech, much to the embarrassment of all the high society types there present. Hence the contrast between the two societies, the debtors and the wealthy. Mr. Dorritt's disease in terminal and inevitably, we meet Mr. Merdle when he comes to commiserate with Fanny, his son Edmund and the other mourners. The mighty economic dynamo who has been the talk of the town-is oddly contrite. In leaving the wake, he asks in all humility, if he might have a pen knife...one of the wedding tokens from Edmund and Fanny's wedding. Mr. Merdle then privately kills himself.
All his financial wheelings and dealings were false and the family is busted. Arthur Clemmens is busted too, and Amy goes to find him at Marshalsea in her families old lodgings. She insists on helping him and he is ashamed as he believes he was not only instrumental in their release from Marshalsea but also in connecting the family with the notorious Mr. Merdle. Amy will have nothing to do with this all this pathos. She goes to plead Arthur's case with his mother who has money locked up in a vault. She has been paralyzed for a very long time and is unable to walk. The steward is furious that the family fortune should be spent to pay Arthur's debts as the steward believes and has tried to convince Mother that Arthur is a spendthrift playboy. The steward wants the money for his loyal service.
Mother rises from her chair and with assistance from Amy and her maid, descends the stairs and sees the steward open the safe, at which point the house collapses. Amy takes the money, frees Arthur and the two are married.
I give you a sketch of the plot in an effort to help the reader navigate through this book. Little Dorrit gives good service in depicting Debtors prison and paints a very Dickensian scene, as another reviewer commented, there is a sense of accomplishment in completing this read.