I’d love someone to discuss the book with while I read, and it also helps a lot with motivation.
I’m currently on chapter 10, the person I was reading it with dnf’d 😭
Feel free to dm me as well :)
Finally finished Little Doritt (it should be called Long Dorrit) after many weeks. And similar to posts on The Pickwick Papers and Martin Chuzzlewit, thought I'd share some random musings. Potential spoilers ahead.
It is a long book and I admit I, as others have said, found it a slog at times. There are some very long chapters that don't advance the plot hugely (looking at your Mr Merdle) and the main plot is quite hard to see at some points in terms of what is the main thread to follow, around which other things are developing too.
Of course they could all be equal but somehow it feels like Dickens couldn't decide what to put forward more - the fate of the Dorrits or the criminal Rigaud (also Blandois or Lagnier) and so between the two you constantly asking, what has this got to do with that other story I've just spend 45 minutes reading 3 chapters on etc.
Arthur Clennam is not quite enough of a leading man to really root for - he is not passive but also not a man of action. His infatuation with Pet, for example, feels strange that he never advances a suggestion towards her - but perhaps that was the social mores of the day. His intention to advance Daniel Doyce's invention is also presented as futile, as per the Circumlocation Office's purpose, but it still feels like he just goes and sits in rooms for a long time without doing a lot, same with how he manages the business for DD.
Little Dorrit could easily have felt too saccharine to work but Dickens does a good job of painting her in such a way that you can believe her fortitude and selflessness quite easily and the way she is almost left behind at the end fo the first of the book is utterly believable by her awful family.
The chapter Little Dorrit's Party is sublime. The chapter that introduces the Circumlocation Office is hilarious.
I found Flora Finching more annoying than funny, but her Aunt is good comic relief, especially her irrational hatred of Arthur. The turnkeys in the Marshalsea are good and the descriptions of life in there are utterly bleak, vivid and eye-opening as to how people really lived in the past and what Dickens must have seen as the huge wealth gap that existed and the meanness of life for so many people in London.
>!The section where they go to Italy and we hear about Henry Gowan's painting - and that Riguard becomes a sitter for him - feels incredibly long, laboured and tiresome, I just couldn't not find much interest in it beyond showing us the Dorrits now had money but Amy (LD) was not really able to relax. !<
DEFINITE SPOILER:
>!The denouement of the house collapsing feels both very sudden and unexpected but then you realise quite quickly it is the culmination of Mrs Flitctwick's fear of ghosts and creaking throughout the novel, which I found quite satisfying and clearly Dickens always had that in mind for the plot. The fact it neatly kills of Rigaud is quite handy too eh!<
Overall, I would rank it below Martin Chuzzlewit personally and my least favourite, except Hard Times (although Hard Times itself feels like a novella of Dickens that doesn't bear comparison with his fuller novels)
Lastly - why is there not a Little Dorrit tag? Surely all the novels deserve one?!
Using the phrase “side character” loosely.
I just finished reading Nicholas Nickleby, and I just adored Mrs Nickleby, how silly and flighty she is, the comic relief she provided, her simple good nature.
A few other examples that came to my mind were The Artful, Captain Cuttle, Mr F”s aunt, Mr. Turvydrop, Mrs Snagsby, and Flora Finchling. And all the Pickwickians, of course (though not “side” characters per se).
I know there are so many more! And want to know what you all think.
Hi - Huge Dickensian here! Would love to start with a little Trollope this summer. Never read any before - have no idea with which work to begin. Recommendations? Thanks much in advance:)
No spoilers - put the name of the book first and then the rest of the text in the spoiler tag which I think works like this > !Bruce Willis was dead the whole time.! < with no spaces between the special characters.
I'd really like to know what Dickens work is your favourite to reread or which one is the most rewarding upon rereading
I’m only 1/3 into Dombey & Son but Mr Carker, manager is creeping me out! What a villain Dickens created. The descriptions of him as cat-like and wolf-like are seriously scary. And the way Dickens describes his teeth - like the teeth are a character on their own.
I just recently watched a great adaptation of Our Mutual Friend, a 4 or 5 part BBC series (the guy who played Peter Pettigrew played Mr. Venus, I didn’t really know any of the other actors immediately). Also currently watching the DC adaptation with Daniel Radcliffe as young David.
But a few I’ve started and just couldn’t, like the most recent Bleak House, and have never found a GE one that grabbed me.
Please be as specific as possible in your answers! So many are streaming on Prime or Disney Plus.
If your favourite happens to be none of the options, please mention it
Hello. I’m trying to annotate my copy of Bleak House by Dickens for a university module I’m taking. It’s a module that I’m really passionate about since it’s on one of my favourite literary periods, the Victorians, and I just want to do well!
I’m using an annotation system with five different coloured tabs to mark where these themes pop up in the novel. My plan is to use one for miscellaneous stuff and the remaining four for major themes. So, what would these four core themes be? I’ve tried looking them up but the lists I find always have too many topics.
Thank you for any help.