As usual with a novel by Charles Dickens, there is a cornucopia of characters and events to get your head around in Little Dorrit, some of which I could have quite easily done without. However, the main action centres on two families - the Dorrits and the Clemens. William Dorrit has been languishing in Marshalsea debtors' prison for many, many years, in fact his daughter, Amy was born there. Why so many years ... well, once you are in debtors' prison, you cannot get out until you earn enough money to pay back the debt, which, if you are in prison, is hard to do! Amy looks after her father and her two siblings as best she can, and earns some money through her needlework. It's a hard life, but she quietly gets on with it and is content when her father is content. Arthur Clemens has worked in China for 20 years, and returns to England upon the death of his father. However, his mother does not welcome him home and he becomes estranged from her, but not before he meets Amy, who has been working for his mother. He is intrigued and follows her back to the prison and makes himself known to the family, offering some support. They form a friendship, but their lives diverge when Arthur sets up in business with a friend, and William Dorrit inherits a lot of money. The whole family leaves the prison and start moving in very different circles - Amy does not find this change of fortune easy and struggles to find her feet, especially when her own father dies. Through no fault of his own, Arthur loses all his money and ends up, you guessed it, in the Marshalsea prison. This is where Amy, or Little Dorrit as she prefers Arthur to call her, finds him once again. There are sub-plots and shenanigans aplenty, which can become a tad confusing - well, I find them confusing anyhow. However, the main story and characters are a delight and this is a very enjoyable and accessible work. It has real heart and helps to shine a light on how easy it can be to fall foul of "the system" and how hard it can be to get back on track. Dickens was certainly taking a swipe at this at the time of writing (1855-1857), but much about the dip into poverty, and subsequent struggle to get out of it is still relevant today. This is a long book, and it has, unbelievably, taken me 4 months to read it in audio - probably due to me not finding as much time to read audio as I have in the past. However, if you have enough time to spare, then you could do worse than delve into the pages of this novel.
POPSUGAR Challenge 2018 prompt 31: A book mentioned in another book. (Mentioned in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books)
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 848 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.99
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.
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