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Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit
Cover of serial Volume 4, March 1856
AuthorCharles Dickens
IllustratorHablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Cover artistHablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublishedSerial 1 December 1855 – 1 June 1857;
Book 30 May 1857
PublisherBradbury and Evans
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint
Preceded byHard Times 
Followed byA Tale of Two Cities 

Little Dorrit is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857. The story features Amy Dorrit, youngest child of her family, born and raised in the Marshalsea prison for debtors in London. Arthur Clennam encounters her after returning home from a 20-year absence, ready to begin his life anew.

The novel satirises some shortcomings of British society and government at the time, including the institution of debtors' prisons, where debtors were imprisoned, unable to work and yet incarcerated until they had repaid their debts. The prison in this case is the Marshalsea, where Dickens's own father had been imprisoned. Dickens is also critical of the inert bureaucracy of the British government, in this novel in the form of the fictional "Circumlocution Office". In addition, Dickens satirises the stratification of society that results from the British class system.


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