Summary
Summary of Little Dorrit
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Prisons reach beyond their walls
Little Dorrit begins with a broad idea of imprisonment. Iron gates can hold people captive, but so can debt, shame, family secrets and the love of money. Dickens draws on his father's imprisonment in the Marshalsea and his own childhood work pasting labels on bottles of blacking.
Arthur Clennam returns from China troubled by his family's past. Amy Dorrit has grown up inside a debtors' prison, caring for her father. Their lives bring the book's public injustices and private burdens together.
Key idea 2
Confinement brings strangers into view
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Key idea 3
Arthur finds silence instead of answers
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Key idea 4
Amy carries her father's household
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Key idea 5
Official business keeps useful work waiting
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Key idea 6
Pancks looks beneath respectable appearances
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Key idea 7
Wealth leaves old fears intact
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Key idea 8
Small clues connect the larger story
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Key idea 9
Quiet care answers a confining world
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love large casts, sharp social comedy and family mysteries, and anyone curious about debt, class and bureaucracy in Victorian England.
What this book is
Little Dorrit is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in monthly parts between 1855 and 1857. It is set in London and abroad in the years of Dickens's own youth, and it is about prisons of every kind. Some have iron gates and a turnkey. Others are made of debt, shame, family secrets, government paperwork and the love of money.
The book began close to home. When Dickens was twelve, his father was sent to the Marshalsea, a London prison for debtors, and the boy was put to work pasting labels on bottles of blacking. He never forgot it. Decades later he turned that memory into a story about a man who has lived so long behind the Marshalsea walls that he is called the Father of the Marshalsea, and about the daughter who is born there and grows up caring for him.
You will meet Arthur Clennam, a man of forty who returns from China with no plans and a troubled conscience. You will meet Amy Dorrit, called Little Dorrit, who seems the smallest person in the book and carries the most weight. You will also meet a government office that exists to prevent things from being done, and a financier whom all of society worships. Arthur's first step is a visit to his mother's dark house, and that is where the first key point begins.
In this summary
- 1Two prisoners and a traveller in MarseillesFree
- 2A gloomy house hides what Arthur fears
- 3A small seamstress was born inside the Marshalsea
- 4The Circumlocution Office stops all useful work
- 5Arthur's heart wanders among old and new friends
- 6A rent collector hunts for a missing heir
- 7Sudden fortune carries the Dorrits abroad
- 8Every character lives in some kind of prison
- 9How Dickens tells a story of many threads
Key point 1 of 9
Two prisoners and a traveller in Marseilles
The novel opens not in London but in Marseilles, in a hot, bright, hateful city under a blazing sun. In a stone cell, two prisoners share a space. One is Rigaud, a handsome, smiling man accused of murder, who says he is a gentleman. The other is Cavalletto, a small Italian smuggler who is cheerful and quiet and who fears his cellmate.
The cell is the first of the book's many prisons, and Dickens uses it to set the mood. Everything here is closed in, sweating and watchful. Rigaud is charming on the surface and cruel underneath, and he will not leave the story when the prison door opens. Cavalletto, in his turn, will find that a small act of kindness can follow a person for years.
We then move to the quarantine station outside the city, where travellers from the East are held for days in a dull, walled place. Among them are Mr Meagles, a warm and practical Englishman, his wife, and their daughter Pet. With them comes a young woman called Tattycoram, a foundling the Meagles family took in from an orphanage and gave a nickname. There is also Miss Wade, a cold, watchful woman who keeps apart from everyone.
And there is Arthur Clennam, a man of about forty who has spent twenty years in China working for his father's firm. He is sad and tired, and he is not sure that any of those years belonged to him. His father is now dead, and Arthur carries a feeling that something about the family's past is wrong. He does not know what it is.
The quarantine scenes show Dickens's method early. He lets us hear people talk and lets their talk show their character. Mr Meagles is generous but a little blind. Miss Wade nurses her grievances. Arthur is kind, honest and unsure of himself. By the time the party is released and sails for England, we know who may be friends, who may be enemies, and how many of them will cross paths again in London.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What keeps the Dorrit family together inside the Marshalsea?
Right. “Only Amy keeps this family together, and she does it so quietly that most of them do not notice.”Not quite. “Only Amy keeps this family together, and she does it so quietly that most of them do not notice.”
What does the Circumlocution Office chiefly do?
Right. “It is a government department whose chief art is to prevent things from being done.”Not quite. “It is a government department whose chief art is to prevent things from being done.”
What does William Dorrit's change in fortune suggest about money?
Right. “Debt has crushed William Dorrit, but wealth does not set him free.”Not quite. “Debt has crushed William Dorrit, but wealth does not set him free.”
Who’s who
- Amy Dorrit
- Called Little Dorrit, she is a seamstress born in prison who supports her father and family.
- Arthur Clennam
- A troubled man returning from China, he meets Amy through his mother and wants to help her family.
- William Dorrit
- Amy's proud father is a longstanding debtor whose position within the Marshalsea matters deeply to him.
- Mrs Clennam
- Arthur's stern mother employs Amy as a seamstress and governs her household through an unforgiving religious faith.
- Daniel Doyce
- A practical inventor associated with Arthur, he struggles to make government officials take his useful invention seriously.
- Mr Pancks
- Casby's energetic rent collector takes an interest in the Dorrit family and investigates hidden facts.
- Fanny Dorrit
- Amy's ambitious sister works as a dancer and longs for social standing beyond their family's circumstances.
- Rigaud
- A dangerous prisoner introduced alongside Cavalletto in Marseilles, he insists that he is a gentleman.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 346,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 23 h
- Listening time38 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about Little Dorrit
What is Little Dorrit about?
It follows Arthur Clennam, who returns from China to a troubled family, and Amy Dorrit, born in a London debtors' prison. The novel looks at debt, bureaucracy, money and the many kinds of prison that people live in.
Why is it called Little Dorrit?
Little Dorrit is the nickname of Amy Dorrit, who is small and quiet and was born in the Marshalsea prison. She cares for her family, and her steady goodness stands at the heart of the book.
Is Little Dorrit based on a true story?
The story is invented, but the Marshalsea was a real London debtors' prison, and Dickens's father was held there when Dickens was a boy. It was published in monthly parts from 1855 to 1857.
What is the Circumlocution Office?
It is Dickens's comic name for a government department that prevents things from being done. Officials pass every request from desk to desk until the person asking gives up, a satire of Victorian bureaucracy.
Is Little Dorrit hard to read?
The prose is clear and funny, and the threads join as the story goes on, which makes it rewarding.
