Little Dorrit (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Dickens
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1820’s
- Genres: Long fiction, Sensation novel
- Subjects: Prisoners, Prisons, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, Social issues, Poverty or poor people, England or English people, Inheritance or succession, Greed, Moral conditions, Bankruptcy or financial crisis, London, Wealth, Debtors or creditors, Finance
- Locales: London, England
Places Discussed
*Marshalsea. Debtors’ prison in the London suburb of Southwark; a real place, but no longer a prison at the time Charles Dickens wrote Little Dorrit. Dickens’s father had been incarcerated there in 1824 when Dickens was twelve, and Dickens routinely visited his father there each morning. In the novel, Dickens heightens the effect of the imprisonment of William Dorrit by having the Dorrits’ daughter Amy—the “Little Dorrit” of the title—actually born there.
Aside from effectively preventing its inmates from satisfying their creditors,...
[The entire page is 872 words long]

