'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 got the Rigaud bit but not the Flintwinch's twin bit...

Oops sorry didn't catch that you were discussing it yesterday! The ending was a bit convoluted and contrived (how very convenient for the house to fall down on Rigaud's head) and there were some dissatisfying loose ends - as others have said, it would have been much more satisfying if Arthur's real mother turned out to be a character we had already met in the course of the novel. Also, I had somehow convinced myself that Miss Wade's parentage was going to be significant (that she was either Arthur or Flora's illegitimate half-sister) but I was barking up the wrong tree there!

I liked the way that you can be fairly confident in Dickens that everyone's going to get their just deserts: Rigaud got squashed, Mrs Clennam had a stroke, Arthur and Amy got married, Doyce made his fortune abroad and Mr Pancks got better employment at Doyce and Clennam. (That said, he doesn't leave you with the illusion that it's a perfect world - the Circumlocution Office is still in full swing, and as Ferdinand Barnacle says, the next great swindler is just around the corner.)

Highlights of this section:

• When the local children were convinced Mr F's Aunt had sold herself as pie-filling.
• The psychological acuity of the portrait of Mrs Clennam as someone who uses their religiosity as an excuse to inflict vengeance and cruelty; someone who makes God in their own image. I wasn't expecting a Victorian writer to have this insight into the moral hypocrisy of (some of) his contemporaries.

Bring on Hard Times now. I'm swiftly becoming a Dickens fan!

Morningladybird! Happy New Year!

I didn't even notice the pie bit...

Grate review, Moral hypocrisy is certainly Mrs Clennam's defining feature. I actually liked the symbolism of the house collapse. Not as good as spontaneous combustion a la Bleak House though!

I also missed the pie-filling bit! This is why I love these threads, you can all fill in everything that’s gone completely over my head!

you can all fill in everything

In this case, quite literally!

Ha ha...that's funny. I'm another one who missed the pie-filling bit! I only knew the children were mocking Flora. I thought maybe because she was eating all the pies.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Aaargh lost my long post, so in brief:
That's interesting ChessieFL re Flora, wicked of Dickens to base this overweight, twittery, buffoon of a character on Maria Beadnell the one he was glad 'got away'. How mortifying for her. I hope she didn't recognise herself in the depiction. And he didn't even have the good grace to give Flora her own happy ending!
I'm grateful to all of you for the analysis which has helped get the plot dump of this final section straight in my head, although I'm still not absolutely sure how Rigaud/Blandois fit into the many plot strands he seemed to have a hand in
Some very unhappy marriages on display - Pet stuck with despicable Gowan till death do them part, and Fanny in a 'no-nonsense' loveless (on her part at least) and now penniless marriage with the idiot Sparkler.
At least Affrey got shot of the abusive Flintwinch and Arthur and Little Dorrit got their long overdue happy ever after, presumably Amy eventually gets her inheritance that was due to Frederick to make their lives easier.

I've enjoyed this read along immensely, many thanks as always to our leader Piggy for keeping us on the straight and narrow and leading the discussion.

Happy New Year to all and I look forward to this years challenge in the shape of Hard Times, of which I know precisely nothing!

You are very welcome! I rather like being called 'our leader'. I shall now, Napoleon like, insist on being referred to as 'our leader, comrade Piggy'.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

Aaargh lost my long post, so in brief: That's interesting ChessieFL re Flora, wicked of Dickens to base this overweight, twittery, buffoon of a character on Maria Beadnell the one he was glad 'got away'. How mortifying for her. I hope she didn't recognise herself in the depiction. And he didn't even have the good grace to give Flora her own happy ending! I'm grateful to all of you for the analysis which has helped get the plot dump of this final section straight in my head, although I'm still not absolutely sure how Rigaud/Blandois fit into the many plot strands he seemed to have a hand in Some very unhappy marriages on display - Pet stuck with despicable Gowan till death do them part, and Fanny in a 'no-nonsense' loveless (on her part at least) and now penniless marriage with the idiot Sparkler. At least Affrey got shot of the abusive Flintwinch and Arthur and Little Dorrit got their long overdue happy ever after, presumably Amy eventually gets her inheritance that was due to Frederick to make their lives easier.

I've enjoyed this read along immensely, many thanks as always to our leader Piggy for keeping us on the straight and narrow and leading the discussion.

Happy New Year to all and I look forward to this years challenge in the shape of Hard Times, of which I know precisely nothing!

Hi DesdemonasHandkerchief, as far as I know, Amy Dorrit burned the codicil in the fireplace before she left prison with Arthur. I think the happy couple lived modestly happily ever after. I'm open to correction if I'm wrong!

This is the pie bit: ‘…Flora got through the remainder of the day in perfect good humour; though occasionally embarrassed by the consequences of an idle rumour which circulated among the credulous infants of the neighbourhood, to the effect that an old lady had sold herself to the pie shop, to be made-up, and was then sitting in the pie-shop parlour, declining to complete her contract.’

Ah!! Thank you, LadybirdDaphne. I think I glossed over those lines.
That seems cruel of Dickens. Poor Flora. As Desdemona said upthread, he could have given her a happy ending.

Oh I remember reading that but didn't know what it meant!

@Piggywaspushed

Oh I remember reading that but didn't know what it meant!

That's probably why I glossed over them

Thanks Fuzzy that makes sense now, although I'd have preferred Amy to get her due, inheritance wise. Somehow people always have higher principals in literature than stooping to filthy lucre

I know, Desdemona! Only the Saintly Amy would joyfully send her inheritance up the chimney. And no, you certainly wouldn't see it happening in real life, only in literature