Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (suggested reading .TXT) π

Description
Little Dorrit, like many of Charles Dickensβ novels, was originally published in serial form over a period of about 18 months, before appearing in book form in 1857.
The novel focuses on the experiences of its protagonist Arthur Clenham, who has spent some twenty years in China helping his father run the family business there. After his father dies, Arthur returns home to London. His mother gives him little in the way of welcome. She is a cold, bitter woman who has brought Arthur up under a strict religious regime concentrating on the punitive aspects of the Old Testament. Despite this upbringing, or perhaps in reaction to it, Arthur is a kind, considerate man. He is intrigued by a slight young woman he encounters working as a part-time seamstress for his mother, whom his mother calls simply βLittle Dorrit.β Arthur senses some mystery about her motherβs employment of Little Dorrit, and proceeds to investigate.
There are several subplots and a whole host of characters. Compared to some of Dickensβ work, Little Dorrit features a good deal of intrigue and tension. There are also some strong strands of humor, in the form of the fictional βCircumlocution Office,β whose sole remit is βHow Not To Do It,β and which stands in the way of any improvement of British life. Also very amusing are the rambling speeches of Flora, a woman with whom Arthur was enamored before he left for China, but whose shallowness he now perceives only too well.
Little Dorrit has been adapted for the screen many times, and by the BBC in 2010 in a limited television series which featured Claire Foy as Little Dorrit, Matthew Macfayden as Arthur Clenham, and Andy Serkis as the villain Rigaud.
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- Author: Charles Dickens
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βNo, little Tortoise,β retorted Fanny, with exceeding sharpness. βI donβt think anything of the kind.β
Here, she threw her bonnet from her altogether, and flounced into a chair. But, becoming affectionate almost immediately, she flounced out of it again, and kneeled down on the floor to take her sister, chair and all, in her arms.
βDonβt suppose I am hasty or unkind, darling, because I really am not. But you are such a little oddity! You make one bite your head off, when one wants to be soothing beyond everything. Didnβt I tell you, you dearest baby, that Edmund canβt be trusted by himself? And donβt you know that he canβt?β
βYes, yes, Fanny. You said so, I know.β
βAnd you know it, I know,β retorted Fanny. βWell, my precious child! If he is not to be trusted by himself, it follows, I suppose, that I should go with him?β
βItβ βseems so, love,β said Little Dorrit.
βTherefore, having heard the arrangements that are feasible to carry out that object, am I to understand, dearest Amy, that on the whole you advise me to make them?β
βItβ βseems so, love,β said Little Dorrit again.
βVery well,β cried Fanny with an air of resignation, βthen I suppose it must be done! I came to you, my sweet, the moment I saw the doubt, and the necessity of deciding. I have now decided. So let it be.β
After yielding herself up, in this pattern manner, to sisterly advice and the force of circumstances, Fanny became quite benignant: as one who had laid her own inclinations at the feet of her dearest friend, and felt a glow of conscience in having made the sacrifice. βAfter all, my Amy,β she said to her sister, βyou are the best of small creatures, and full of good sense; and I donβt know what I shall ever do without you!β
With which words she folded her in a closer embrace, and a really fond one.
βNot that I contemplate doing without You, Amy, by any means, for I hope we shall ever be next to inseparable. And now, my pet, I am going to give you a word of advice. When you are left alone here with Mrs. Generalβ ββ
βI am to be left alone here with Mrs. General?β said Little Dorrit, quietly.
βWhy, of course, my precious, till papa comes back! Unless you call Edward company, which he certainly is not, even when he is here, and still more certainly is not when he is away at Naples or in Sicily. I was going to sayβ βbut you are such a beloved little Marplot for putting one outβ βwhen you are left alone here with Mrs. General, Amy, donβt you let her slide into any sort of artful understanding with you that she is looking after Pa, or that Pa is looking after her. She will if she can. I know her sly manner of feeling her way with those gloves of hers. But donβt you comprehend her on any account. And if Pa should tell you when he comes back, that he has it in contemplation to make Mrs. General your mama (which is not the less likely because I am going away), my advice to you is, that you say at once, βPapa, I beg to object most strongly. Fanny cautioned me about this, and she objected, and I object.β I donβt mean to say that any objection from you, Amy, is likely to be of the smallest effect, or that I think you likely to make it with any degree of firmness. But there is a principle involvedβ βa filial principleβ βand I implore you not to submit to be mother-in-lawed by Mrs. General, without asserting it in making everyone about you as uncomfortable as possible. I donβt expect you to stand by itβ βindeed, I know you wonβt, Pa being concernedβ βbut I wish to rouse you to a sense of duty. As to any help from me, or as to any opposition that I can offer to such a match, you shall not be left in the lurch, my love. Whatever weight I may derive from my position as a married girl not wholly devoid of attractionsβ βused, as that position always shall be, to oppose that womanβ βI will bring to bear, you may depend upon it, on the head and false hair (for I am confident itβs not all real, ugly as it is and unlikely as it appears that anyone in their senses would go to the expense of buying it) of Mrs. General!β
Little Dorrit received this counsel without venturing to oppose it but without giving Fanny any reason to believe that she intended to act upon it. Having now, as it were, formally wound up her single life and arranged her worldly affairs, Fanny proceeded with characteristic ardour to prepare for the serious change in her condition.
The preparation consisted in the despatch of her maid to Paris under the protection of the Courier, for the purchase of that outfit for a bride on which it would be extremely low, in the present narrative, to bestow an English name, but to which (on a vulgar principle it observes of adhering to the language in which it professes to be written) it declines to give a French one. The rich and beautiful wardrobe purchased by these agents, in the course of a few weeks made its way through the intervening country, bristling with customhouses, garrisoned by an immense army of shabby mendicants in uniform who incessantly repeated the Beggarβs Petition over it, as if every individual warrior among them were the ancient Belisarius: and of whom there were so many Legions, that unless the Courier had expended just one bushel and a half of silver money relieving their distresses, they would have worn the wardrobe out before it got to Rome, by turning it over and over. Through all such dangers, however, it was triumphantly brought, inch by inch, and arrived at its journeyβs end in fine condition.
There it was exhibited to select companies of female viewers,
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