Favorite Author Review: Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens

A book that’s over 900 pages long can seem a bit daunting for most. But as usual with Dickens I don’t think the length is too much. The language is engaging and the story is interesting, so while the pages don’t fly by, they don’t drag on forever either. I think it really pays off in the end if you manage to forget about the page numbers. 

Dickens can be a bit wordy and longwinded sometimes, but it doesn’t happen too often, I think. The wordiness usually comes out, when he is explaining some part of the world the characters inhabit, like the doings (or not-doings) of the Circumlocution Office and the social rules of the various places in the story. When the plot is developing I find the language interesting and descriptive, without being too much. 

As for the plot of this book is it very intricate, as is usual for Dickens, I think. Seemingly unconnected characters come together in the end in unexpected, but not unbelievable ways. But it all begins with a man, Mr. Arthur Clennam, returning from China. He and his father were doing business there, but when his father dies, he decides to return to London. His father left him with an impression that the family somehow owed something or other to someone, but he died before he could specify it. When Arthur confronts his mother, she denies it. However, he can’t let it go and it leads him to take an interest in a young girl who works at his mother’s. This young girl turns out to be Amy Dorrit, whose father is imprisoned in the Marshalsea prison for debt. The two strike up an acquaintance, and the plot runs on from there. 

Wow, even trying to describe the plot takes up a lot of words. And this is barely the beginning of it! So just know that there are a lot more characters and events happening than what I have just described here. 

The characters are all very interesting and 900+ pages give you ample time to get to know them all quite well. I really appreciate that, as “flat” characters are often a problem for me. If I feel like I don’t really know them, I just can’t empathize with them, and don’t really care too much about their fate. But in this story you care about all of them. Well, all the good ones, as there are definitely some bad ones in there too. And what I like about Dickens is he also usually has a few characters that are neither good or bad, but just essentially human. They have flaws, and that makes them feel real. Even though some of them are super annoying! 

Set at the very start of the Victorian period in London, there is not too much need for world-building as such, since the people Dickens wrote for, would have known the period in question. Modern readers can be baffled by some of the words and practices of the characters, but I don’t think it has an impact on the reading experience, if you miss out a few details. As mentioned above Dickens can tend to be a bit wordy sometimes, and this is mostly when he is describing places or people’s motives. It doesn’t happen too often, so it is manageable. 

In conclusion I think this is a really good novel. I like the plot and the characters and I have reread it a few times, and probably will again. It has also been made into a TV series. The newest adaptation is the one I have seen. It stars Matthew Macfadyen and Claire Foyle as Clennam and Amy, and was adapted by Andrew Davies, which is always a mark of quality in my book! I actually watched this show, before I read the book, and I must confess, if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t love the book as much as I do. So if it seems a bit daunting, maybe watch the TV series first, and then read the book. That way you will know the storyline and it won’t matter if you miss out details due to language difficulties. 

I gave this book 5 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.