Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics)
£4.71
Americanised spellings in an English classic! - Firstly, I love American literature, and find many American classics more accessible than many English classics.Amongst my favourite authors are Gore Vidal, William Burroughs, Norman Mailer, and many more.And I find Americanised spellings in their works to be perfectly appropriate.So I am *not* a xenophobe.I am, however, deeply insulted that an English classic is being sold with revised American spellings in Britain, with no indication on the cover (or anywhere on Amazon, or even the publisher s site that I could find) that this is the case.This is cultural insensitivity at its very worst.
Good on characterisation poor on plot - Warning: this review contains spoilers.The major strengths of the novel are its characters and atmosphere. Every character is sharply drawn, we can visualise them in our mind s eye, Dickens has the ability to invest each of them with their own distinctive speech patterns. He can also create atmosphere whether it be describing the Marshalsea or the interior of Mrs Clennam s house. He is wonderful at creating a scene, of placing his characters in that scene and exploring the interaction of each. The weakness of the novel is its plot. It never really gains momentum and there is always a sense of stasis, of things about to develop, but never doing so. We are presented with a series of tableaux and then, suddenly, something happens with no relation to anything that has gone before. Much is left unexplained, we are never told what Doyce s invention actually is, we are given no clue as to the nature of Merdle s financial dealings, his downfall just happens. The Dorrits suddenly become rich halfway through the novel. It dosen t convince.A warning about this Penguin edition. For some inexplicable reason, American spellings are used throughout (eg honor instead of honour ). I am not sure why this has been done and as certain Victorian spellings are also used, it makes even less sense. Some readers may find this annoying and would prefer to read a different edition.A bonus of the Penguin edition, though, is the inclusion of the original illustrations.
Superb - From its first publication in book form after the serialisation, Little Dorrit has always proved to be a good seller. So why has this book always been so popular? For whole segments Amy Little Dorrit does not even appear. The novel covers so much more than the title implies.Little Dorrit is born in the Marshalsea, where her father is imprisoned for debt. Eventually he is released at the end of book one, when he comes into an inheritance. For Mr Dorrit this leads to paranoia that people are talking behind his back or laughing at him due to his former poverty. Poor little Dorrit finds it difficult to change her ways and is still a ministering angel to all and sundry.What really stands out in this book are the locations, as the story travels from London through France, Switzerland and Italy. This is the most widespread geographically of any of Dickens novels. Also this book probably has the most sub-plots of any Dickens novel, with mention of murder and smuggling, to actual acts of corruption and suicide, to love, marriages and death. Mrs Clennam tries to keep a family secret buried but is being blackmailed, and is her house haunted or is there a more rational explanation?As to be expected with Dickens there are some great characters and some good comedy. Anyone who has ever had any dealings with govermental departments can really appreciate the Circumloction Office, and its practices. A few of the illustrations in this book are some of the very best to appear in any of his novels.This is a must read book, that with so many things going on throughout will keep you absorbed for hours, and that you will want to read again.