'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!

Thanks for your good wishes, however PCR results are now in and I'm also positive

Oh no cludgie. Hope you fare OK. Experience tells me , do NOT go on a long and exciting day trip 11 days after your result, thinking you are 'fine'.

Aw, Cludgie best wishes to you. It must seem so unreal to you. Keeping my fingers crossed that you will put it over you quickly, but as Piggy says, take it easy.

Thanks Piggy and IsFuzzy, feel not too bad atm but get a bit tired if I exert myself. It's DS's birthday 11 days after my positive result but thankfully its going to be fairly low key this year!

Anyway back to the book, the Dorrits (apart from Amy) are showing themselves up to be a horrible lot, aren't they?

Yes, what's that word ? Arrivistes?

Well, this was a long old section. Poor Amy, wandering around Europe being controlled. The ‘prunes, prism, poultry’ bit sticks with me the most. As a side note, Shmop tells me that this became such a byword for controlling governesses and their airs that this is why the character in The Importance of Being Earnest is so named. I always thought that was a whimsical name and now I know!
Blandois confused me by being everywhere all at the same time. The time frames and geographical locations have befuddled me a bit, owing to me not paying enough attention. I also feel I am missing something about why the Dorrits now have ostracised Clennam. Is there a thread to be resolved here, or should I know?? And, really, genuinely, no idea what gives with Tattycoram and now in England Blandois.

Everyone is so opportunistic and the people surrounding Amy and Arthur are all horrors. Matriarchs abound and dreadful grasping people fixed on money and a place in society. Poor Amy sees now that she is just in a new form of prison (not one of Mrs General’s favoured p words, I note...)

So, in short : Doyce, nice; Arthur, good; Amy , aww bless; Pet, poor Pet ; Flora doesn’t half bang on but means well ; Panks is a good egg I guess; Meagleses mean no harm; Miss Wade, enigmatic; Tattycoram, messed up and vulnerable Everyone else, awful ; Blandois, villain. Is Cavaletto, or whatever he’s called going to matter at some point??

ps hope you are OK @InTheCludgie

Hello! I hope everyone is well; Piggy and Cludgie especially.

I need to read over these chapters again, so here are just a few thoughts.

I agree with Piggy in her assessment above. The Dorrits are floundering; they are displaced, William and Amy especially. 'Her present existence was a dream...'. It's like she's sleep-walking her way around Europe. Funnily enough, I actually missed the Marshalsea in this section. I think I had become rather used to it!

It's amazing how Blandois, the Dorrits and the Gowans all find themselves in the same travel lodge!

I have no idea either what Clennam did that was so offensive to them. I have read back a bit, but can't see anything at all. Some perceived slight to the family's honour, I suppose.

Uncle Frederick is really coming into his own, standing up for Amy. He is her champion.

Mrs General is another odious character. She gives me the urge to throw a bowl of prunes at her.
At least Flora stayed behind and isn't on this trip :)

I don’t know how Blandois is everywhere at once; the timings of these chapters didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. I also don’t know why the Dorrits (except Amy) now don’t like Arthur. Hopefully all this will be explained in due course!

I feel very sorry for Amy; she just gets dragged around behind everyone else and nobody cares what she wants.

Sorry - I always read the chapters on time then forget to comment on the 1st! I don’t think Arthur has done anything in particular wrong - I think it’s just that he knows too much about the Dorrits’ time in prison and was involved in getting them out, and they don’t want any reminders of their former life or that they once needed that sort of assistance. They also might fear that he would ‘out’ them as former debtors to their new acquaintance.

I don’t know how Brandois managed to be everywhere at once either, but I have a feeling Tattycoram’s parentage (and/or Miss Wade’s) might be significant in resolving the plot. I didn’t like the bit with the dog, poor thing.

Hi im doing much better now Piggy and IsFuzzy. As usual, I'm behind with my chapters! Need to do better this month

The main thing is that I am glad you are feeling better!

Thanks Piggy!

Ha! I think we all had the same thoughts about Blandois, he's like a Zelig character. He must have some sort of teleporter! He's such a pantomime villain too, I can almost see him twirling his moustache!

Agree with Ladybird that the despicable Dorrits (except the saintly Amy) just want to distance themselves from their poverty stricken past and have conveniently forgotten that Arthur and Panks were the keys to their brighter future.
I also felt that the extravagant life style they're now leading could only be maintained if they had found themselves coming into a multi million pound fortune and if they don't reign it in a bit they'll be heading back to the Marshallsea in quick order!

I got behind with this but named to catch up this month.

The book has taken a rather sudden change of scenery going from the small world of the prison to Europe! But I feel as though the family dynamics with fanny and Amy have been given more space to breathe and play out

Which chapters are we reading in October please Piggy?

12-18 so a smaller dose!

I can honestly say I’ve had enough of Mrs Merdle’s bosom now. I’m starting to think Little Dorrit represents Dickens in his Ken Follett phase.

I am currently reading Scoff which is very interesting on food and social class and makes numerous mentions of various Dickens' novels and of Catherine Dickens' writing about food and hostessing. The whole bit on why Scrooge gives the Cratchits a turkey is very interesting.

Anyway, I have just finished Chapter 18 of Book 2 so we shall convene tomorrow ,as a reminder!

Apologies I've not read this months chapters yet, but I will be back to catch up on the collective words of wisdom when I have!

I have read the chapters but I’m in the office early tomorrow so may not update with my thoughts (such as they are) until the evening.

I am smugly organised, having typed mine already in Word, ready to paste in tomorrow.

So, October... not riveting...

This book now appears to me to be one extended metaphor about imprisonment. There are those who are nefarious and escape punishment (this subplot is lurking away), those imprisoned by a past that catches up with them ( Mr Dorrit and Mrs Clennam, it seems) , Amy in her Stockholm Syndrome state who lurches from physical prison to family prison to the potential prison of women trapped in the expectations of ‘poultry, prunes and prism’ and ‘eligible’ marriages and seems to want to be trapped forever with her frankly ungrateful father. Clennam is imprisoned by family obligation and self denial, Affery by horrible imaginings (if they are) and domestic abuse, it seems – and then , of course, not really in this section but there is the once institutionalised Tattycoram. Only Fanny appears to be free in any sense of the word? And then there are those trapped in the ever decreasing circles of the Circumlocution Office.

I liked Dickens’ description of the awful Mrs Governor (soon to be Mrs Dorrit?) : ‘like a ghoul in gloves’.

So many horrific people. Dickens really didn’t like social climbers, did he? To modern readers this can seem unpalatable snobbery – but then he also didn’t like snobs and hypocrites.