And so at home he had established himself in business, and had invented and executed, and worked his way on, until, after a dozen years of constant suit and service, he had been enrolled in the Great British Legion of Honour, the Legion of the Rebuffed of the Circumlocution Office, and had been decorated with the Great British Order of Merit, the Order of the Disorder of the Barnacles and the Stiltstalkings.
I’m more than half way through the book and I like it. If you want to fall in love with Dickens’s prose pick up this monster. It is typically Dickens and more so. The details are strangely more sombre and vivid, the criticism on government institutes is more satirical and biting than ever and I can’t help recalling the BBC series every time I’m reading a chapter.
The flaws? Like most of Dickens’s novels certain characters seem too “stockish”. However I like the way Dickens uses mannerisms to portray a character; Pancks and his snorting is hilarious. I’m also ambiguous as yet about Arthur. He is a good character sure, but I don’t know if I respect him as a man up till now. I feel he is too brood-ish at times, is unable to stand up to his mother (out of love of course) but sometimes I want to shove him and tell him to take a stand against her.
Overall, I find Little Dorrit quite better than other works by Dickens’s, contrary to popular opinion. And at times it feels as if Dickens was enjoying writing the novel immensely, there is this flavour of the author being in love with his prose.
