Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics)

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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. Pancks, 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.

Features:

• ISBN13: 9780141439969
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Product details:

Item number (ASIN): 0141439963
Author: Charles Dickens
Creator: Helen Small, Stephen Wall
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
Edition: Revised
ISBN: 0141439963
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1024
Package Dimensions: 180 x 540 x 770 (hundredths-inches)
Publication Date: January 27, 2004
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Release Date: January 27, 2004
Binding: Paperback

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Rating: - Madoff anticipated!
Why read "Little Dorrit"? After all, there is a fine BBC series that tells the tale pretty well. And it's a lengthy novel, one that will quickly demand, in a pleasurable way, your time and attention. I know this well. I came to the novel via insomnia---that is, I began to read it on an iPhone (conveniently backlit) at that silent 2 a.m. hour when I sometimes read for a while. "Little Dorrit" turned out to be not so good for insomnia, however, as it quickly became too interesting. The next thing I knew, I was reading in the daylight, on a Kindle, and by the time I was done, I wished I had had a print copy with notes, the better to follow up on a few obscure references. Where had this novel been all my life? It wasn't on the reading list of the Dickens seminar I took way back in grad school. Maybe it was waiting for the financial crises of 2008-09 and, in particular, the Madoff scandal, since that's what it's all about, circa mid-19th century. The only difference is that in "Little Dorrit" the villain is named Merdle. Otherwise it is all the same. The victims, as they were for Madoff, are often sensible, sober types, like the protagonist, Arthur Clennam. There are investments too good to be resisted, the idolization of the wizard who produces them, and, inevtitably, the crash. What struck me in particular about this novel is the way the desire for social status is portrayed as a disease, infecting even the most likeable characters, like Mr. and Mrs. Meagles, who see the faults of their superior (socially) but worthless son-in-law and yet are still blinded by the glory of his relatives. It infects Mr. Dorrit and two of his three children, despite their residence in the Marshalsea prison for debtors, and condemns Fanny, the younger daughter, to a life of psychological warfare against her socially superior mother-in-law, Mrs. Merdle (aka The Bosom). In another lifetime, characters like these would be driving giant SUV's emblazoned with the colleges attended by the owners' offspring. Social striving and social envy are, in "Little Dorrit," so pervasive and irresistible that only an extraordinary person like Amy Dorrit is immune. Another recurrent image in "Little Dorrit" of the pursuit of social status is that of a prison (the novel is full of them) from which only a very few have the freedom to exit the gates. Dickens's satire of government bureaucracy (the Circumlocution Office) run by whole families of the Tite Barnacle clan is also wonderful, although one would have to say that the idea in "Little Dorrit" of agencies dedicated to "How Not To Do It" has been replaced, in our age, by corporations whose computerized phone menus are devoted to the same thing. The various Barnacle functionaries do sound amazingly like the do-nothing voice that intones, "Your call is important to us....". Read "Little Dorrit." It's astonishingly how little has changed. M. Feldman

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Rating: - a gem of 19th century literature
Oh, so that's why everyone loves Dickens! The best book I've read since Jane Austen; the best book of the year not in the least because it took me a quarter of the year to read it. A book of extraordinary, beautiful, hilarious prose that I want to roll in. A book with a genius eye for human psychology and character with its huge and brilliant cast of the most hateful and the most loveable of characters (and everyone in-between). A book of sociological commentary that rings truth to this day with its commentary on the haves and have-nots, on the meaning of society and wealth and bureaucracy, on sin and righteousness, on debt and prison and the meaning of freedom. A book of entertaining humor and mystery and drama and romance all rolled into one. A book that has completely reversed my opinion of Charlie Dickens and has turned me in a devotee. An absolute gem of 19th century literature. Grade: A+

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Rating: - Excellent but not as good as Bleak House
This is a great novel simply teeming with wonderful characthers and institutions fromm Clennam, a decent bloke, William Dorrit, a man who regards himself as immensely distinguished, Henry Gowan, an upper-class lay-about with little or no talent, Edmund Sparkler, a dozy upper class brainless twit who reminds one of PG Wodehouse's Gussy Finknottle. Little Dorrit herself, a lady of beautiful and loving temperament, Flora, the boozy former love of Clennam whose sentences are incomprehensible, Mr Merdle, the financier who reminds one of the key characthers in Trollope's "The Way we live now", itself a splendid novel. And, the institutions, the circumlocution office, perhaps a forerunner of the department of administrative affairs in BBC's "yes minister", the Prison, which has a place as important as the key characthers. And with all great novels, when one comes to finish, one's heart aches - the characthers have become almost friends, their lives have become our cares. Yes, a wonderful novel rich in humour and rich in understanding of the immutability of human nature. Now, one crticisim is that it could be said that the novel was one of 2 halves, the first being superior to the second, but that would be to quibble. Personally, I have a preference for "Bleak House", it was somewhat darker and the ending was somewhat contrived - the way the two halves of the novel were brought together with the denoument involving Rigaud.

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Rating: - Great Book, Poorly Bound
I thoroughly enjoyed the recent PBS "Masterpiece", and decided to read the book to get more details the teleplay was not able to present in the time frame. The book does not dissapoint. It is a wonderful story, with very colorful characters. There is an incisive introduction, scholarly notes and numerous appendices including a map of London and a chronology of Dickens' life and work. All of these allow a reader to get an even fuller picture of the background of the story. Unfortunately, the book was poorly bound and I am now losing pages at the back of the book. I am not rough with my books, but it is long (over 800 pages), so I am probably spending more time on it than books of normal length. It's pretty irritating to have to put the book back together every time I want to check the notes. The publisher should have used more (or better quality) glue to hold the pages in the binding. For this reason, I would recommend looking for another edition.

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Rating: - Great book, good price
It arrived without a dent, is brand new, and worth its reasonable price. Thank you

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Alternate Versions:

Little Dorrit (Kindle Edition)

Little Dorritt (Penguin Classics) (Audio Cassette)

Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)