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Synopsis

When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr Panks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching, to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens's maturity.

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Student review by Katherine Bailey, who is currently studying English and American Literature at the University of Kent

A Review of Charles Dickens’ 'Little Dorrit'

Little Dorrit, whilst perhaps not being one of Dickens’ most well-known novels, can be described as being the closest to his heart. It tells the tale of Amy Dorrit, or Little Dorrit because of her lack of stature, and her journey through London and life. She begins her life in the Marshalsea prison for debtors, living with her father on the south bank of the River Thames. Dickens’ own father was sent to the Marshalsea in 1824 when Charles was only twelve years old. These experiences have greatly enhanced this work and left Amy Dorrit as the ultimate figure for empathy and adoration.

The characters in Little Dorrit are the most varied of any Dickensian novel. Dickens’ works are famed for relating the lives of both rich and poor, good and evil. In no other work is this more present than in Little Dorrit. The self-sacrificing Amy Dorrit and virtuously moral Arthur Clennam are perfectly offset by the pantomimic Rigaud and twisted Miss Wade. In the middle of these extremes are enigmatic yet ordinary characters that are distorted and altered by circumstances ranging from money to murder: circumstances which either prove their worth or leave them to flounder.

What keeps this tale from merely being an account of life in London in the Victorian era is the mystery surrounding the Clennam family’s past. Arthur Clennam returns from business abroad, where he has learnt that his family have committed some unknown wrong, to find that his usually uncaring and estranged mother has decided to hire Amy Dorrit as her seamstress. This curious act of kindness from his mother intrigues him and he decides to investigate the history of the Dorrit family to discover any connections that may reveal why Mrs Clennam should care so much for Miss Dorrit and whether it could be anything to do with his family’s wrongdoings. However, in doing so he slowly begins to care for Miss Dorrit himself.

Little Dorrit was originally published in 1855 in nineteen monthly instalments. Because of this, it does have the feeling of a modern mystery drama with regular cliffhangers and story arcs. In fact, this is one of the many ways in which this story is easily relatable to modern-day. The main example of this is the major turning point in the novel of the collapse of Merdle’s bank. This leads to the ruin of many characters; the similarities between this economic situation and the recent recession are remarkable. This shows the cyclical nature of society and the perceptivity of Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit is a story without time or age because of its enduring characters, which can still be found and will continue to be found in society, and because of its description of their lives and how those lives are affected by issues both political and economical.

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