Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit (in translations mostly: Little Dorrit ) is a novel by Charles Dickens , which was first published as a serial from 1855 to 1857. The focus of the narrative is Amy Dorrit, the youngest child of the Dorrit family, born and raised in Marshalsea prison in London. You meet Arthur Clennam, who has returned home after a 20-year absence and wants to start a new life.

The novel deals in the form of satire with the shortcomings of state and society, especially with the institution of debt prison , imprisoned in the debtor are paid up their debts, while they themselves are not allowed to work.

The novel is about the Marshalsea prison where Dickens' father was imprisoned. The lack of social security is criticized, as well as the working and living conditions of industrial workers, as well as the bureaucracy of the British Treasury , which appears in the guise of the fictitious "Circumlocution Office". In the form of satire, Dickens treats the class structure of British society of his time.

Summary of the plot

1st part: poverty

The novel begins in Marseille "thirty years ago" (around 1826). The notorious murderer Rigaud tells his cellmate John Baptiste Cavalletto how he killed his wife.

Arthur Clennam is meanwhile being held in quarantine with a group of travelers in Marseilles. On this occasion he gets to know new friends. Arthur lived in China with his father for 20 years. They ran the businesses there, which are owned by the Clennam family. The father died in China, Arthur is now going to London to visit his mother. On his deathbed, his father had given him a mysterious message by muttering "your mother" and handing him a pocket watch.

In the case of the watch is an old piece of tissue paper with the letters "DNF" embroidered on it with pearls (as an abbreviation for "Do Not Forget", German: "Don't forget!").

Mr. Flintwinch has a slight fit of irritation

The relentless Mrs. Clennam, now confined to a wheelchair, refuses to explain the meaning of this message. This leads to an alienation between mother and son.

In London, William Dorrit has been a prisoner in Marshalsea prison for more than twenty years. He has three children: Edward, Fanny and Amy. Amy, called Little Dorrit, was born in the debt prison. Her mother died when Amy was eight years old. Her uncle, William's older brother Frederick, lives freely with Amy's sister Fanny. William Dorrit's adult children are free to enter and exit the prison as they please.

Little Dorrit gets herself and her father away with sewing work outside of the prison. She does not mention this to her father, as the latter suppresses and denies his financial situation. Nor does she mention to him the fact that he is not allowed to leave prison. William Dorrit likes the role of "Father of Marshalsea", he is generally respected by the other inmates.

Arthur tells his mother that he doesn't want to take over the family business. Then Mrs. Clennam decides on Jeremiah Flintwinch as a partner. Arthur learns that his mother employs Little Dorrit as a seamstress. She shows an unusual friendliness for her. Arthur wonders if the young girl has anything to do with the secret of the pocket watch. Arthur follows the girl to the Marshalsea building. He tries to find out something about William Dorrit's debts through the Circumlocution Office, but to no avail. In the building of this authority he meets the successful inventor Daniel Doyce. He is looking for a partner and economist for his factory; Clennam finds himself ready to take on this role. Amy Dorrit falls in love with Arthur, but Arthur does not notice it.

Arthur meets his former fiancée Flora Finching, because of whom he was sent to China. She is now an unattractive widow, always accompanied by her deceased husband's aunt. Her father, Mr. Casby, owns many tenement houses. Mr. Pancks collects the rents for him. The indefatigable Pancks makes a discovery: William Dorrit is the hitherto unknown heir to an enormous fortune that would enable him to escape guilty prison and improve the standing of the entire family.

Part 2: Wealth

The Dorrit family, now wealthy, decided that they had to go on a European tour, travel the continent. They travel across the Alps and settle in Venice for a while and finally in Rome. The Dorrits proudly show off their new wealth and social position, they don't like to talk about the past with their new acquaintances. Little Dorrit struggles to get into the new role and to find new places and views beautiful. Her sister Fanny, on the other hand, quickly adopted the rules of good society. She is courted by Edmund Sparkler, who was around her in her time of poverty in London, but now dares to start over and can count on his mother's approval. During a company that the family gives in Rome, Mr. Dorrit falls ill and dies. His frightened brother Frederick dies that same evening. Amy Dorrit, now all alone, returns to London with the newlywed Fanny and her husband, the somewhat stupid Edmund Sparkler.

Engraving of "Little Dorrit", 1856

Merdle, Edmund Sparkler's stepfather, goes bankrupt with his financial institution and commits suicide. The financial collapse tears the savings of the Dorrits, Doyce and Clennam's, Arthur Clennam, and Pancks' savings with it. Arthur Clennam, now over-indebted, is locked up in Marshalsea and becomes ill there. After Amy returns to London, she nurses him back to health.

Cavalletto discovers that the villainous Rigaud is in London under the name Blandois. He takes him to Arthur Clennam. He sends the unwanted man to his mother, who had advertised to find him. Rigaud alias Blandois tries to blackmail Mrs. Clennam with his knowledge of her past. Mrs. Clennam had raised Arthur and forbade his mother to see him. Mrs. Clennam feels entitled in this way to punish others who have hurt her. Arthur's birth mother had died when Arthur traveled to China. She lived abroad with Flintwinch's twin brother.

Clennam's rich uncle, plagued by feelings of guilt, has established Arthur's birth mother and her youngest daughter as heirs or, if there is no daughter, his brother's youngest child. The benefactor was Frederick Dorrit, the kind musician who was friends with Arthur's biological mother, the beneficiary is his niece, Amy Dorrit. Blandois left a copy of the document for Little Dorrit at Marshalsea.

Mrs. Clennam knows about this inheritance, but initially hides it from Amy, nor does she tell Arthur anything about his birth mother. Not ready to give in to blackmail and plagued by feelings of guilt, the woman, stiff in a wheelchair, gets up and staggered out of the house to reveal the secret to Little Dorrit in Marshallsea. She asks Amy for forgiveness, which is freely granted. On the way home, Mrs. Clennam falls, unable to speak or move her limbs. Her house collapses and Rigaud is buried under herself. Affery is spared, she had left the house to look for her mistress; Jeremiah had fled London with as much money as he could get hold of in the hurry. Amy decides not to tell Arthur about this; after he recovers, she asks him to burn the copies. In search of the originals, Mr. Meagles also questions Miss Wade. The latter has the documents in safe custody, which she denies to him. However, Tattycoram escapes with the documents to London and hands them to Mr. Meagles, who passes them on to Amy. Mr. Meagles then tracks down Arthur's partner Daniel Doyce. He returns as a successful and wealthy man. He pays Arthur's debts, which frees him from guilty prison. Arthur has his fortune again, and his position alongside Doyce is secure. Arthur and Amy get married.

Subsidiaries of the plot

The novel Little Dorrit contains numerous subsidiary threads. In a subplot appear Arthur Clennam's friends, the friendly Meagles family, whose members are upset that their daughter Pet is marrying the artist Henry Gowan; they are also angry that their servant and foster daughter was poached by the opaque Miss Wade, who in turn is well acquainted with the criminal Rigaud. Miss Wade, Gowan's former lover, had been abandoned by him.

Another branch is about the Italian John Baptist Cavalletto. This had been Rigaud's cellmate in Marseilles. He was serving a sentence there for a lesser offense than this. He comes to London where he happens to meet Clennam. He vouches for him and allows him to build up a wood carving business and to be accepted in the Bleeding Heart Yard , a residential area. He reciprocates by looking for Blandois / Rigaud. On this occasion Mrs. Clennam's secrets are revealed.

Another important branch is the British bureaucracy in the form of a satire, here in the form of the Circumlocution Office , whose specialty is preventing meaningful activities.

The characters of the novel

• Rigaud: A man awaiting trial in Marseilles prison for the murder of his wife. He demands that those around him be treated as a gentleman, even though he does not treat others that way. Under the name Lagnier, he stays in an inn in France. Although he had succeeded in convincing the jury of his innocence, most French consider him guilty. Known in England as the Blandois, he is planning to blackmail.
• John Baptist Cavalletto: An Italian awaiting trial for smuggling in Marseille. He was locked in the same cell as Rigaud. He manages to get to England where he settles at Bleeding Heart Yard , sponsored by Arthur Clennam.
• Arthur Clennam: On the way back from China he had to spend several weeks in quarantine in Marseilles because he came through a place where the plague was raging. He is 40 years old and a bachelor; in quarantine he makes new friends. He is honest, kind, and enterprising.
• Mrs. Clennam: The wife of Mr. Clennam. She ran the family's business in London. She was brought up as a member of a strict sect and retains the habits from her childhood. She lived with Arthur in London until he was caught with a friend. She disapproved of this love affair, as did the girl's parents. So she sent Arthur to China, where he was supposed to help the father in the business.
• Gilbert Clennam: He was the uncle of Arthur Clennam's father; he founded the family business. He forced the nephew he raised to dissolve the marriage he had entered into and to marry a woman whom the uncle had chosen. He is no longer alive at the time of the novel's plot, but 40 years earlier than Arthur was born.
• Arthur Clennam's biological mother: She has no name in the novel, she is only mentioned as Arthur's biological mother and as his father's first wife. She was driven out by Mrs. Clennam and Gilbert Clennam.
• Affery: The future Mrs. Flintwinch. She takes care of Mrs. Clennam and also of Arthur until he goes to China. She is afraid of her husband and of her mistress. She perceives the noises of the house, which are eerie to her.
• Jeremiah Flintwinch: Clennam employee until Arthur declares on his return to London that he will no longer work in the family business. Mr. Flintwinch now becomes a partner. Since Mrs. Clennam became disabled and in need of a lot of care, she decided that Flintwinch and Affery would have to get married, which they do. After attempting blackmail, Flintwinch flees London. It is said that he is known in Amsterdam and The Hague as Mynheer von Flyntevynge.
• Mr. Meagles: An Englishman who travels through Europe with his wife, daughter and their maid. He's a banker who has retired. He is being held in quarantine with his family in Marseilles. They are not sick, but have crossed a plague-infested area on their travels. Meagles befriends Arthur Clennam.
• Mrs. Meagles: The wife of Mr. Meagles and mother of their daughter.
• Minnie Meagles: The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Meagles. Your twin sister has died. She is a lovely young woman who is spoiled by her parents. They call this pet .
• Tattycoram: Minnie Meagles' maid. She was an orphan whom the Meagles took care of. She is younger than Minnie, has full dark hair and a temper that tends to turn into anger. Her name was actually Harriet Beadle. She first lived with the Meagles in Twickenham, then with Miss Wade in London and Calais, until she finally returned to the Meagles.
• Miss Wade: Another traveler who was held in quarantine in Marseilles. She lives withdrawn, but then teams up with Tattycoram. Henry Gowan had once courted her. She is friends with Rigaud, who even gave her the valuable box with the Clennam family documents.
• William Dorrit: When the novel begins, he has been in the Marshalsea debtors' prison for more than thirty years, which he moved into with his wife and two children. Gradually he becomes the "Father of Marshalsea". That has to do with his manners, which correspond to his social origin. Incidentally, he does nothing to improve his financial situation, which has put him in the debt prison.
• Mrs. Dorrit: She arrived the day after her husband in prison with her two children. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to the Amy's second daughter. When she was eight years old, her mother died.
• Edward Dorrit: The oldest of the Dorrit children. It's called a tip. He is three years old when he enters prison. He becomes a player.
• Fanny Dorrit: The older of the two Dorrit daughters. She was sent to prison at the age of two. She becomes an attractive and active young woman who is learning to dance for the revue theater. She will later marry Edmund Sparkler.
• Amy Dorrit: She was born in Marshallsea Debt Prison. They are called Little Dorrit ("The Little Dorrit"). She always takes care of her fellow men, has a soft heart, but is efficient and earns a living for herself and her father. At the beginning of the novel, she is 22 years old.
• Frederick Dorrit: William's older brother, Fanny and Amy's uncle. He is artistically gifted and plays an instrument that has helped him feed his family since the impoverishment of his family. He is different from his younger brother. He used to have a circle of friends made up of artists, including Arthur Clennam's birth mother, a singer.
• Young John Chivery: The son of John Chivery the Elder. He hopes to be able to hand over his position as the marshallsea prison keeper to his son in due course. John the younger is in love with Little Dorrit, but his feelings are not reciprocated by her. Meanwhile he tries to help Amy wherever he can; this also includes that he supports Pancks in his efforts to get the Dorrits their inheritance.
• Mrs. Finching: A widow during the narration. In her youth, Flora had a love affair with Arthur Clennam. When he returns to England, she initially hopes that he will fall in love with her again, even though she has changed a lot. She makes you smile because she does not address Arthur, as the changed circumstances would require, when Mr. Clennam, but with his first name. Your father is Mr. Casby.
• Mr. F's Aunt: When her husband dies, Mrs. Finching "inherits" his aunt's care. She makes scornful remarks that nobody understands.
• Mr. Christopher Casby: Also called "the Patriarch" because of his seemingly friendly demeanor. He has long gray hair. Secretly he is greedy for money, outwardly he shows a different face. He is the owner of the Bleeding Heart Yard condominium . Flora is his daughter.
• Mr. Pancks: He's collecting rents for Mr. Casby. He becomes friends with Arthur Clennam. He enjoys mediating the heirs for bequeathed assets. In this role he describes himself as a "fortune teller".
• Mr. Rugg: A lawyer who represents both Pancks and Doyce & Clennam. Pancks is his tenant. He helps identify the Dorrits as heirs to a fortune.
• Daniel Doyce: An inventor of mechanical devices. He has successfully marketed some of his inventions in Paris and St. Petersburg. Now he has returned to England; he hopes in vain to register a patent for a device he has invented. Bleeding Heart Yard is where his company is based and where he runs his workshop. He meets Arthur Clennam in the Circumlocution Department. He is friends with Mr. Meagles. He makes Arthur Clennam a partner in his company, who is supposed to take care of the finances.
• Edmund Sparkler: A young man from the upper class, a little dubious. He is enthusiastic about Fanny Dorrit's dance skills. After the Dorrits have become rich, the two meet again; he woos Fanny until she agrees to marry him. Mr. Merdle holds a position for Sparkler in the Circumlocution Office.
• Mrs. Merdle: Edmund Sparkler's mother. She marries Mr. Merdle for the second time. She believes that Fanny corresponds to her social position.
• Mr. Merdle: In the Dorrits' times of wealth, Merdle is the "Man of the Ages", a banker and investor. The news of the financial success of his investments spread like wildfire. Everyone wants to invest money with him. Unfortunately, his investment strategy fails. However, this is only known after his suicide.
• Henry Gowan: A handsome young man who is related to the Barnacles, but only extensively, which is why he earns only a small income from his mother. He's trying to make money as an artist. He holds on to Minnie Meagles' hand and marries her around the time the Dorrits are getting rich, with financial support from his in-laws. On the European tour, the newlyweds meet the Dorrits.
• Tite Barnacle: He's employed in the Circumlocution Department in London. He belongs to the ennobled branch of the Barnacles. Arthur meets him on his first attempt to learn about the creditor who had William Dorrit thrown into the guilty prison, and later when he tries to apply for a patent for Doyce's invention, both attempts fail.
• Ferninand Barnacle: A younger member of the Barnacle family. He is friends with Henry Gowan. He visits Arthur Clennam Marshalsea Debt Prison and is happy to learn that the Circumlocution Office has nothing to do with Arthur's detention.
• Mr. Plornish: A plasterer who lives with his family at Bleeding Heart Yard. He was briefly imprisoned in Marshalsea, where he met William Dorrit and Little Dorrit. He is friends with the latter.
• Mrs. Plornish: His wife. She is friends with John Baptist Cavalletto, Bleeding Heart Yard's new roommate, and Arthur Clennam.
• Mr. Nandy: Mrs. Plornish's father. He lives with his daughter and her family as long as their financial circumstances allow. But then he has to go to the poor house. He is the only poor man William Dorrit allows to visit him. Once, when Little Dorrit walks with him from the Plornish apartment to the guilty prison, her father is upset that she is seen with an inmate of the poor house.
• Maggy: A mentally retarded young woman who is friends with Little Dorrit. Because she is taller and fatter than Amy, she calls this "little mother".
• Mrs. General: William Dorrit hired this widow to be the governess of his daughters so that she could teach them the manners of good company after the family got rich. She takes pride in the fact that she never shows any feelings. She always speaks calmly and in a controlled manner. She always looks very well-groomed, "as if peeled from an egg".
• Ephraim Flintwinch: Jeremiah's twin brother who lives in Antwerp. He took in Arthur's birth mother, chased away by Mrs. Clennam, and cared for her until her death. That was at the time Arthur and his father were leaving for China. Before Arthur returned to England, Jeremiah gave his uncle's will and letters from his mother to his twin brother Ephraim, who passed the box with the papers on to Rigaud.

About the background of the novel

The model for the fictional character Little Dorrit (Amy) was Mary Ann Cooper (née Mitton), whom Dickens sometimes visited with her family. The family lived in The Cedars , a house on what was then Hatton Road in west London. The property is now under the eastern edge of Heathrow Airport .

Motifs of the novel, reception

Like many other things in Dickens' late work, this novel has seen many twists and turns in its appreciation by the critics.

It has been shown that the novel contains a critical account of the British Treasury at the time, as well as a criticism of the serious mistakes that led to 360 British soldiers losing their lives in the Battle of Balaklava . Imprisonment - both literally and figuratively - is one of the main themes of the novel. Clennam and the Meagles are locked up in quarantine in Marseille, Rigaud is in prison for murder, Mrs. Clennam is chained to her house, the Dorrits are locked in the marshalsea and most of the characters in the novel are trapped in the rigid class barriers of England at the time .

Tchaikovsky was entranced by the novel.

The American literary critic Anne Stevenson calls the novel a wonderful read, a "tragic-comic-satirical-poetic" novel that depicts an allegory of love. She praises the portrayal of the main characters (Arthur Clenham, Mr. Dorrit, Little Dorrit), but criticizes the secondary characters, who are only puppets of a puppeteer who gives them formulaic twists. The names of these characters already indicated their nature and behavior: the energetic Mr. Pancks combs his hair up and puffs like a steamboat; Mr. Sparkler keeps ranting about "damn fine ladies who have no nonsense about them"; Mr. Flintwinch, with his crooked neck and crooked tie, screwed himself into corners.

Edition history

Little Dorrit was first published in nineteen sequels, each 32 page episode with two illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne (under his pseudonym Phiz ). The sequels cost one shilling each with the exception of the last episode, which cost two shillings.

The following is a list of the sequels:

First book - poverty

• I - December 1855 (Chapters 1-4)
• II - January 1856 (5–8)
• III - February 1856 (9-11)
• IV - March 1856 (12-14)
• V - April 1856 (15-18)
• VI - May 1856 (19-22)
• VII - June 1856 (23-25)
• VIII - July 1856 (26-29)
• IX - August 1856 (30-32)
• X - September 1856 (33-36)

Second book - wealth

• XI - October 1856 (Chapters 1-4)
• XII - November 1856 (5-7)
• XIII - December 1856 (8-11)
• XIV - January 1857 (12-14)
• XV - February 1857 (15-18)
• XVI - March 1857 (19-22)
• XVII - April 1857 (23-26)
• XVIII - May 1857 (27-29)
• XIX-XX - June 1857 (30-34)

In 1857 the novel was published as a book by Bradbury and Evans.

Adaptations

The novel Little Dorrit has been filmed five times; the first three films were shot in 1913, 1920 and 1934. In the German film version from 1934 Kleine Dorrit played the main roles Anny Ondra as Little Dorrit and Mathias Wieman as Arthur Clennam. Karel Lamač directed the film . In 1988 the novel was made into a film in the United Kingdom under the title Little Dorrit (in German-speaking countries under the title Klein Dorrit ). Directed by Christine Edzard ; Alec Guinness as William Dorrit and Derek Jacobi as Arthur Clennam appeared in the leading roles, as well as more than 300 other British actors and actresses.

The fifth adaptation was a television series produced by the BBC and WGBH-TV (Boston). Andrew Davies wrote the script, starring Claire Foy (as Little Dorrit), Andy Serkis (as Rigaud / Blandois), Matthew Macfadyen (as Arthur Clennam), Tom Courtenay (as William Dorrit), Judy Parfitt (as Mrs Clennam ) and Alun Armstrong (as Jeremiah / Ephraim Flintwinch). The series aired in the UK from October to December 2008, in the US on PBS's Masterpiece series in April 2009, and on ABC1 TV in Australia in June and July 2010.

In 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio adaptation in the form of five one-hour episodes. The narrator was Ian McKellen .

Little Dorrit is the foil for Peter Ackroyd's first novel The Great Fire of London (1982).

Dickens' novel inspired artist Monica McKelvey Johnson to create her webcomic The Adventures of Dorrit Little by artist.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This form of the name is problematic, because "Little Dorrit" suggests something childlike, which is not laid out in this way in the novel; she is simply the youngest and smallest in the family, hence "Little Dorrit", the smallest of the Dorrits; she is not addressed in the novel with a diminutive first name!
2. ↑ Dickens's "Little Dorrit" Still Alive . In: New York Times , December 16, 1906. Retrieved December 14, 2018. 
3. ^ Philip Sherwood: Heathrow: 2000 Years of History . Stroud: The History Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7509-5086-2 , p. 52.
4. ↑ Trey Philpotts: Trevelyan, Treasury, and Circumlocution . In: Dickens Studies Annual . 22, 1993, pp. 283-302.
5. ^ David Brown: Tchaikovsky: The Man and his Music . Faber & Faber, London, December 22, 2010, ISBN 9780571260935 .
6. ↑ Anne Stevenson: ironies Glorious . In: The Guardian , December 31, 2004. Retrieved April 17, 2018. 
7. ↑ Klein Dorrit: Movie Review At the 79th Street Theater . In: New York Times , October 19, 1935. Retrieved February 12, 2016. 
8. ↑ Little Dorrit . BBC Media Center. October 28, 2013. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
9. ^ Johnson, Monica (2014). "The Adventures of Dorrit Little". Women's Studies Quarterly, 42 (1/2), pp. 95-108

Web links

Wikisource: Little Dorrit  - Sources and full texts

Texts of the novel available on the Internet:

• Little Dorrit on the Internet Archive .
• The Adventures of Dorrit Little

Map to the novel

• Little Dorrit Map .