This is one of Dickens’ “dark novels,” the preface of my edition informs me. One of its themes is captivity: the first chapter introduces the reader to two prisoners in Marseilles; we later meet good-hearted Mr. and Mrs. Meagles waiting to be taken out of quarantine; and Our Heroine Little Dorrit was born and raised in a debtor’s prison. Each of these characters, and many more, come to play an important part in a plot so intricate that it is positively... Dickensian. Typical of Dickens, too, are the book’s castigation of social ills (although in this case, government bureaucracy is a principle target), the quick changes in mood from heart-wringing pathos to satirical comedy, the dramatic changes of fortunes of the protagonists, and the distinctiveness of the characters.
All of this I expected. What surprised me was that Dickens – long before Alan Greenspan spoke of “irrational exuberance” or John Maynard Keynes discussed “animal spirits” – created an insightful description of a speculative financial boom and bust. Given the blame that has been cast on today’s macroeconomic and financial models for our current economic woes, the plight of Mr. Pancks seemed startlingly relevant:
'It was my misfortune to lead him into a ruinous investment.' (Mr Pancks still clung to that word, and never said speculation.) 'Though I can prove by figures,' added Mr Pancks, with an anxious countenance, 'that it ought to have been a good investment. I have gone over it since it failed, every day of my life, and it comes out—regarded as a question of figures—triumphant.' ...These incontrovertible figures had been the occupation of every moment of his leisure since he had lost his money, and were destined to afford him consolation to the end of his days.
Is anyone else a huge fan of Charles Dickens? Reading Little Dorrit reminded me why I love his books.
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I am a fan of Dickens, I have read David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, and I am reading Hard Times right now. That book is in some ways the complement of Dorrit in that it goes after the lack of intervention by the government in the affairs of the capitalists of the fictional "coketown." He criticizes their opposition to worker combination (when they have an owner's combination), their opposition to worker safety regulation and child labor laws (when people are being crushed in factories), and their opposition to pollution controls (when they have a river of ink and so much smog it blocks out the sun (obligatory 300 reference, because I am male: "then we shall have to produce textiles in the shade")). I think Dickens goes after any social ill he can see, without partiality, which is probably one of the reasons he is still read, in addition to all of the characteristically Dickensian things he does, as per your commentary.
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