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A review by isobelline
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The most class-conscious Dickens
This is the ninth Dickens novel that I've finished this year and let me tell you, it reads like a medley of everything Dickens wrote about earlier. Debtor's prison! Angelic women! Financial machinations! Inheritance plots! Loveless marriage! Hapless young men! Dastardly criminals! Oh my!
I have to admit, it gets pretty tiring reading all of this for months and months and months. But what can I do? My master's thesis won't write itself. So I soldier on...
I'll be brief with this one: meh... With Dickens' novels I usually find a character that I particularly like and spend the entire book in anticipation of their next appearance. I couldn't do that with Little Dorrit. No one really stood out to me (except maybe for Miss Wade, the almost-canonical lesbian). Little Dorrit herself feels like a Little Nell 2.0, but without the fantastical, fairytale-like plot of The Old Curiosity Shop she feels a bit out of place.
One thing I can note about this novel is this: it is probably the most thorough exploration of class yet in Dickens' oeuvre. He covers a lot of ground here, and yet none of his observations really surprised me. Oh well, perhaps I'm just tired of his prose in general, I haven't really enjoyed it since Barnaby Rudge (though I haven't gotten to my David Copperfield re-read yet)
This is the ninth Dickens novel that I've finished this year and let me tell you, it reads like a medley of everything Dickens wrote about earlier. Debtor's prison! Angelic women! Financial machinations! Inheritance plots! Loveless marriage! Hapless young men! Dastardly criminals! Oh my!
I have to admit, it gets pretty tiring reading all of this for months and months and months. But what can I do? My master's thesis won't write itself. So I soldier on...
I'll be brief with this one: meh... With Dickens' novels I usually find a character that I particularly like and spend the entire book in anticipation of their next appearance. I couldn't do that with Little Dorrit. No one really stood out to me (except maybe for Miss Wade, the almost-canonical lesbian). Little Dorrit herself feels like a Little Nell 2.0, but without the fantastical, fairytale-like plot of The Old Curiosity Shop she feels a bit out of place.
One thing I can note about this novel is this: it is probably the most thorough exploration of class yet in Dickens' oeuvre. He covers a lot of ground here, and yet none of his observations really surprised me. Oh well, perhaps I'm just tired of his prose in general, I haven't really enjoyed it since Barnaby Rudge (though I haven't gotten to my David Copperfield re-read yet)