Little Dorrit

Book cover of Little Dorrit

Book description

For all of her twenty-two years, Amy Dorrit has lived in Marshalsea prison, trapped there with her family because of her father's debts. Her only escape is to work as a seamstress for the kind Mrs Clennam. When Mrs Clennam's son Arthur returns to England after many years abroad, he…

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London

Genres

Classics

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Little Dorrit as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Bill Nash

Author

I know Dickens is an obvious choice, but he’s so good, and there’s so much to choose from, from legal London in Bleak House to the Thames scavengers at the start of Our Mutual Friend. But if you’re going to choose one–and you really should–take Little Dorrit.

First, the story is great all the way through, from the opening in Marseilles to the cataclysmic downfall of the House of Clennam. It’s strongly moral, with Dickens’ ironbound support for the underdog and his ever-present ability to make the reader seethe at injustice (I struggled to finish Martin Chuzzlewit, for…

From Bill's list on a deeper look at London.

Michael Ruse

Author

Reading any book by Charles Dickens is time well spent. Little Dorrit, one of Dickens’ mid-career novels, gives incredibly penetrating insights into the prejudice that people show towards strangers. In this novel, it is about the prejudice shown by working-class Londoners towards foreigners, like the French and Italians. Trump, with his hatred of South American immigrants, shows only too well that such an attitude persists and is universal.

From Michael's list on why such nice people as we are so nasty.