A review by theladydoor
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
4.0
I read this book, in fits and spurts, over the course of three years, after watching the excellent BBC adaptation as scripted by Andrew Davies. I had never read a Dicken's novel, so I picked this one. The experience was long and difficult. At one point I had put the book aside for over a year, and had to go back and reread sections to remind me of what had happened. I blame my slow-going on the fact that I'm used to being a very fast reader. By nature, Dickens' novels are more difficult to read because of the language used, and the fact that he wrote so much! As it took me longer than usual to progress, I would grow frustrated and bored, and pick up a more modern and quicker-paced novel.
Now, that's not to say I disliked this book. On the contrary, I found it witty and entertaining, many passages prompting me to laugh out loud. It helped that the edition I was reading had extensive footnotes explaining certain phrases and vocabulary that would have been obvious to contemporary readers, but lost to modern ones. I loved the interconnectedness of Little Dorrit's world and found many of the characters to be well-written and easy to relate to. Of course, this being a Dickens novel, many characters are simply caricatures, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Their bare-bones characterizations allowed me to focus more on the main characters, who are described very well.
Though I must admit I skimmed over a few long-winded passages, I was mostly entranced by the action in the novel. The quiet moments in which one character admits to another his or her feelings are especially affecting. I plan on reading more Dickens in the future, but perhaps I will go with his more well-known works first.
Now, that's not to say I disliked this book. On the contrary, I found it witty and entertaining, many passages prompting me to laugh out loud. It helped that the edition I was reading had extensive footnotes explaining certain phrases and vocabulary that would have been obvious to contemporary readers, but lost to modern ones. I loved the interconnectedness of Little Dorrit's world and found many of the characters to be well-written and easy to relate to. Of course, this being a Dickens novel, many characters are simply caricatures, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Their bare-bones characterizations allowed me to focus more on the main characters, who are described very well.
Though I must admit I skimmed over a few long-winded passages, I was mostly entranced by the action in the novel. The quiet moments in which one character admits to another his or her feelings are especially affecting. I plan on reading more Dickens in the future, but perhaps I will go with his more well-known works first.