Little Dorrit (1855–1857) is a novel by Charles Dickens. Amy Dorrit, born in the Marshalsea debtors' prison where her father has been held for decades, devotes herself to him, while Arthur Clennam, returning from China, uncovers a family secret.
The story
Arthur Clennam returns to London after twenty years and becomes interested in Amy Dorrit, a seamstress who works for his mother. Her father, William Dorrit, has been in the Marshalsea so long that he is called its Father.
When the Dorrits suddenly inherit a fortune, they travel in Europe and grow proud, while Clennam is ruined and imprisoned in turn, until Amy comes back to him.
Prisons
Prisons fill the novel, from the Marseilles jail of the opening to the Marshalsea and the prisons of society and of the mind.
Dickens also satirises bureaucracy through the Circumlocution Office, a government department whose purpose is to do nothing.
Dickens's father
When Dickens was twelve, his father was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea, and the boy was sent to work in a blacking factory, an experience he never forgot.
The novel appeared in twenty monthly parts, illustrated by Phiz, from December 1855 to June 1857.
Anecdotes
A wall that survives
Part of the Marshalsea's wall still stands in Southwark, London, near the church of St George the Martyr, where Little Dorrit marries in the novel.
How Not to Do It
The Circumlocution Office's guiding principle is summed up in the phrase How Not to Do It, which became shorthand for bureaucratic inertia.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Marshalsea?
A debtors' prison in Southwark, London, where the Dorrit family lives.
What is the Circumlocution Office?
A satirical government department in the novel that exists to prevent anything being done.
Was Dickens's father in the Marshalsea?
Yes, for debt, in 1824.