Dickens' childhood experiences inform the vivid scenes in Marshalsea debtor's prison, while his adult perceptions of governmental failures shape his satirical picture of the Circumlocution Office. The novel's range of characters - the honest, the crooked, the selfish and the self-denying - offers a portrait of a society about whose values Dickens.

Little Dorrit is a classic tale of imprisonment, both literal and metaphorical, while Dickens' working title for the novel, Nobodv's Fault, highlights its concern with personal responsibility in private and public life. Dickens' childhood experiences inform the vivid scenes in Marshalsea debtor's prison, while his adult perceptions of governmental failures shape his satirical picture of the Circumlocution Office. The novel's range of characters - the honest, the crooked, the selfish and the self-denying - offers a portrait of a society about whose values Dickens had profound doubts.Little Dorrit is indisputably one of Dickens' finest works,written at the height of his powers. George Bernard Shaw called it 'a masterpiece among masterpieces', a verdict shared by the novel's many admirers.

PREFACE

BOOK THE FIRST Poverty

Sun and Shadow

Fellow-Travellers

Home

Mrs Flinwinch has a Dream

Family Affairs

The Father of the Marshalsea

The Child of the Marshalsea

The Lock

Little Mother

Containing the Whole Science of Government

Let Loose

Bleeding-Heart Yard

Patriarchal

Little Dorrit's Party

Mrs Flinty;inch has Another Dream

Nobody's Weakness

Nobody's Rival

Little Dorrit s Lover

The Father of the Marshalsea in

Two or Three Relations

Moving in Society

Mr Merdle's Complaint

A Puzzle

Machinery in Motion

Fortune-Telling

Conspirators and Others

Nobody's State of Mind

Five-and-Twenty

Nobody' s Disappearance

Mrs Flintwinch Goes on Dreaming

The Word of a Gentleman

Spirit

More Fortune-Telling

Mrs Merdle's Complaint

A Shoal of Barnacles

What was behind Mr Pancks on

Little Dorrit's Hand

The Marshalsea Becomes an Orphan

BOOK THE SECOND Riches

Fellow-Travellers

Mrs General

On the Road

A Letter from Little Dorrit

Something Wrong Somewhere

Something Right Somewhere

Mostly Prunes and Prism

The Dowager Mrs Gowan is Reminded that it Never Does

Appearance and Disappearance

The Dreams of Mrs Flintwinch Thicken

A Letter from Little Dorrit

In which a Great Patriotic

Conference is Holden

The Progress of an Epidemic

Taking Advice

No Just Cause or Impediment Why these

Two Persons should not be Joined Together

Getting On

Missing

A Castle in the Air

The Storming of the Castle in the Air

Introduces the Next

The History of a Self-Tormentor

Who Passes by this Road so Late?

Mistress Affery Makes a Conditional

Promise Respecting her Dreams

The Evening of a Long Day

The Chief Butler Resigns the Seals of Office

Reaping the Whirlwind

The Pupil of the Marshalsea

An Appearance in the Marshalsea

A Plea in the Marshalsea

Closing In

Closed

Going

Going.t

Goner

EXPLANATORY NOTES