'Little Dorrit' readalong

[Piggywaspushed]

Hello and welcome to our next proposed Dickensalong after the success of our previous readalongs!

On our previous thread I suggested our first month as commencing in April and convening on June 1st to discuss the first instalment : gives everyone time to get copies and get settled down.

Everyone is welcome! We always start with about 10 people and end up with about 5...

Instalments I have chosen follow Dickens' shorter 19 instalments (which were all exactly the same number of pages originally - that must have taken considerable planning and editing!) but come in pairs or trios:-
The novel comprises only two Books, which forces a break at a particular point, too.

May 2021 - Book One , Chapters 1-11
June - Chapters 12-18
July - Chapters 19-25
August - Chapters 26- 36
September - Book Two Chapters 1-11
October - Chapters 12-18
November - Chapters 19-26
December - Chapters 27 - 34

So finished by 2022. I think that suits reading speed of most.

Happy Reading!

I know! She sounded like a Bridezilla

Chapter 19!

Well that was a depressing few chapters! Far too many deaths. And of course Merdle’s investments have collapsed which we all saw coming from a mile away. I’m glad we found out a bit more about Miss Wade, but unless something else happens involving her in the last few chapters I’m still not sure why she’s in the book. You could easily take her out and it wouldn’t change the storyline at all.

We only have a few chapters left and there’s a few things to be resolved - who/where is Blandois? Will Arthur get out of prison? Will he and Amy get together? What will happen to Mrs Merdle? What’s happened to the Meagles/Gowans? What happens to all Dorrit’s money?

And equally importantly, what are we going to read next?,

Well, I guess no one could say that a lot didn’t happen this month, including three surprise deaths! It seems inevitable that Arthur ends up in Marshalsea but I didn’t see it coming : I wasn’t paying enough attention to the Merdle plot or to Doyce. I am none the wiser really what is going on with the Merdle finances, with Blandois, wth Arthur , with the Tattycoram subplot – so a lot of loose ends to tie up.
My, though, the description of the suicide was vivid and grim. Why did he kill himself? Was he about to be uncovered? By whom??

I agree- a lot to resolve some of which I don't care much about. It is actually ages since Arthur and Amy have even seen each other , isn't it!? I have lost track of the book's timescales.

My suggestion for next might be Hard Times, but I am open to any suggestions.

Hello! Checking in for later on

I would be happy with Hard Times, I haven’t read it before.

I don’t know much about Hard Times, but I’m willing to try it, as long as the title reflects the content not the reading experience.

This month I thought the scene with Fanny and Edmund was comic genius (with no nonsense about it) - I loved the description of Edmund as being absent minded in a more literal sense than is usually meant by the phrase - and then the abrupt drop into darkness as Mr Merdle appears and asks for a knife was very well done.

I just hope Amy doesn’t end up being Arthur’s carer in prison, just like she was for her dad

Yes, I wondered that too.

I hadn’t thought of that, that would be a depressing conclusion!

Gosh, that was an uncomfortable dialogue between Harriet and Miss Wade with Arthur looking on awkwardly.
It's a well-written chapter. The two of them are locked into a battle of wills and Dickens suggests that perhaps they are too alike to get along. It doesn't seem as though Harriet is any happier with this woman as she was with the Meagles. Poor Harriet!
Miss Wade seems to have gone through life with a chip on her shoulder. She really does have 'an unhappy temper'. She's one to be reckoned with!

She is very enigmatic isn't she? Very angry with the world.

Yes! I think she's one of the most interesting characters in the book, though I'm wondering if she is always going to be peripheral to the plot.

I think I've found the best line in the book;

'I don't know', said Affery. 'Don't ask me no more. Your old sweetheart an't far off, and she's a blabber'.

I do like that! Very shrewd.

Chapter 19 was certainly a bit of a downer wasn't it! Poor Dorrit, feeling usurped in Amy's affections by his brother then coming over all peculiar, humiliating himself in front of the people he was so desperate to impress, and never regaining his mental acuity. At least he didn't stick around long enough for the awful Mrs General to get her claws into him, and his dosh.
I thought Frederick might come into his own once his brother had shuffled off this mortal coil, and wasn't around to convince Fredrick that he was in a state of frailty and ill health. (Bit of Munchausen by Proxy going on there!) Particularly as he'd started to look younger and happier in Amy's company, but no Fredrick was for the knackers yard too.
Not sure what to make of Miss Wade, was she just obsessive about her childhood friend or is Dickens suggesting that she was in love with her and there was a sexual element. Subsequently she gets engaged to a man and then has a twisted relationship with the repulsive Gowan. So she is possibly bisexual? Are we meant to think she purposefully put herself in a position where she ran into the Meagles on their travels or was that just another of Dickens coincidences? Amazingly she's also involved with the omnipresent Blandous in some way I couldn't quite fathom 🤷‍♀️
Favourite scenes in this section were, as previously mentioned by Ladybird, the Sparklers at home, and when Arthur (sorry, confirmed habit, Mr Clenham) asks Flora to request a tour of his mothers house so he can get Affrey alone and she immediately assumes he's going to pledge undying love and affects a need for him to support her and twitter's away that if he would like to hold her a little tighter she 'shouldn't consider it intruding'. Poor daft Flora, I'd like to see her get a 'happy ever after' ending, though obviously it can't be with Arthur. (sorry, pray excuse - Clennam and Doyce)
And we finish with poor Arthur cleaned out by Merdle and back in the familiar surroundings of the Marshalsea, I'm sure Little Dorrit won't be too sad to be back in the clink to tend to his every need. Has he lost all of Doyce's money or did he bankrupt himself to save Doyce from total ruin?

Great summary. I am waiting til I have finished to check in with Books n Things on YouTube but I know she has lots to say about possible lesbianism in Little Dorritt and that it's one of her favourite Dickens so I am expecting lots of breathless enthusiasm from Katie!

Love a bit of breathless Katie enthusiasm! 💕

I really enjoyed your summary, Desdemona!

Poor Frederick, yes. Things were going so well for him. He seemed to be thriving under the Italian sun and the friendship between himself and Amy was lovely.

There is a picture in my book of Flora looking around the Clennam's house that I will put up in a minute as I rather like it :)

'Flora's tour of inspection'.

Thanks IsFuzzy. That's a great illustration, you can really see Flora hamming up the need for support and Clennam wondering how the hell to extricate himself from the situation

Managed to catch up in time for the last month! Lots to tie up in the last few sections as it seems to be speeding along.

Enjoyed miss wades letter explain her life but honestly, who does that.

I found it interesting that Merdle was only given a physical description in death.
'...was the body of a heavily-made man, with an obtuse head, and coarse, mean, common features'.
He had been such a vague, shadowy figure up until then and then was suddenly revealed as a crook. This line was good too; 'being at all times a mind that had as little as possible to say for itself, and great difficulty in saying it'.
In the introduction to my book, it suggests that the name 'Merdle' is a play on words, the French word for 'shit' (merde) and 'swindle', which now seems very obvious when you think how shady he was.

Oh, that is interesting! I don't read the introductions til I have finished but that does make sense!

Dickens is very good at names isn’t he!

I would be interested in reading 'Hard Times'. I read it in school many, many years ago, so I would like to reread it. I haven't any memory of it at the moment. I can only say that it isn't as long as 'Little Dorrit'!