Little Dorrit: Chapters 12 - 22

[Kathleen]

A few odds and ends.

We don’t know Mrs. Clenman’s history, except that she was chosen for her husband.

We don’t know what Arthur plans to do with himself now that he has returned to London and wants to leave the company. Thus, the Dorrit’s might almost be a way to pass his time while he decides his future.

Perhaps Arthur’s father was sent to China because his skills were minimal.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Katy - "I think there are many things going on in Mrs. Clennam's house that she does not know about".

Yes, I Iike this. Also Kathleen's observations. Petra, Sara, Debra, Connie - oh my gosh, and lots of people sum up so well, the questions which Charles Dickens deliberately places in our minds. At the moment there seem to be almost more questions than answers!

Anne - I keep meaning to say that I too prefer peonies to lilies! But we can see the point he is making. Flora now looks "blousy" rather than delicate. Charles Dickens's own favourite flower was actually a red geranium ... but I'm not sure that gets us anywhere!

So on with the story ...

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Chapter 16:

Arthur Clennam decides to go to visit the Meagles family in Twickenham. As it is fine weather, he sets out on foot. Arthur regards walking in the English countryside as a pleasure and novelty, having spent so long abroad.

As he walks, Arthur soon starts musing on what he is going to do with the remainder of his life. This is quite urgent, because his savings and inheritance will not last for ever, and he worries that somebody might have some sort of claim on them. He also thinks about his mother, whom he now sees several times a week. Although their relationship has become calmer, they are still not close.

Lastly, Arthur wonders how to help Little Dorrit, and what might enable him to be more of a friend to her, and to help her family. He feels:

“affectionate protection … ties of compassion, respect, unselfish interest, gratitude, and pity”,

deciding that she is “his adopted daughter, his poor child of the Marshalsea hushed to rest.”

Arthur’s walk takes him via by Fulham and Putney, and as he carries on walking, he recognises a figure in front of him; it is the engineer and inventor, Daniel Doyce. After a friendly greeting, they realise that they are going to the same place—to the Meagles’ cottage—and fall into congenial conversation. Arthur is impressed by Daniel Doyce’s modesty and good sense, and soon deduces that he lives solely for his work.

Daniel Doyce has worked very hard to get to the position he now holds, as he is the son of a blacksmith in the North of England, and had originally been apprenticed by his widowed mother to a lock-maker. Arthur learns about the many years Daniel Doyce had spent learning and training to be an engineer; how he had worked abroad, and had success with his inventions, but finally decided to return to his home country and be of use in that capacity here:

“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 Stiltstalkings.”

Arthur says that if he is getting nowhere with patenting his invention, had he not better give up the idea? Daniel is rueful but resigned and calm about it:

“It’s put into his head to be made useful. You hold your life on the condition that to the last you shall struggle hard for it. Every man holds a discovery on the same terms.”

Arthur admires such dedication. Furthermore, Daniel Doyce is thinking of taking on a business partner, so that he need not be bothered with the business side of things. He knows that Mr. Meagles is convinced he has no aptitude for business, although Daniel himself does not seem to think this is altogether correct. They are now nearing the house, and Daniel shows him the way.

Both Mr. Meagles’ house and garden are picturesque and charming, and the two men are given a hearty welcome:

“It was just large enough, and no more; was as pretty within as it was without, and was perfectly well-arranged and comfortable”, and there is plenty of evidence of all the Meagles family’s travels abroad.

Arthur sees a painting, and his thoughts are confirmed. This is a portrait of “Pet”, or Minnie, and her sister Lillie, as tiny children. As they are talking about it, Arthur sees reflected in the mirror:

“Tattycoram stop in passing outside the door, listen to what was going on, and pass away with an angry and contemptuous frown upon her face, that changed its beauty into ugliness.”

Arthur is still pondering on life, and now he wonders at Mr. Meagles. He does seem to think that he is innately superior to Daniel Doyce, perhaps because of his banking experience. Arthur also has another question which keeps coming back to him:

“Whether he should allow himself to fall in love with Pet?”


Arthur Clennam as portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen - BBC miniseries 2008

He gives himself all the argument against, such as that he is twice her age, and yet finds that the questions will keep popping into his mind even when he has decided, and he has to got through all the reasons again, to remind himself.

At the dinner table, the topic of Miss Wade comes up in conversation. It turns out that Tattycoram has received a letter from her:

“to say that if I ever felt myself hurt … or found myself worried … I might go to her, and be considerately treated”

and she says that she did once meet Miss Wade near the church, and that Miss Wade had offered her help and support, whenever she has hurt feelings, or feels slighted. The others express surprise at this. Pet says she is frightened of Miss Wade, and does not like to think of her being close by.

Mr. Meagles repeats his regular warning to Tattycoram, against her temper, with:

“Take a little time—count five-and-twenty, Tattycoram.”



Mr. Meagles - Phiz

A little later, Arthur tells Mr. Meagles about Daniel Doyce needing a partner, and asks if he will put his name forward, if it will suit both sides. We learn that Mr. Meagles, when he was still working, was a successful and clear-sighted businessman, and worked for a bank. Mr. Meagles is happy to do this for Arthur.

Arthur believes that Mr. Meagles would truly welcome him as a son-in-law. But at the end of the evening, for all his wise arguments to himself, Arthur still feels unsettled about Pet.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

It is interesting that Daniel Doyce says he lives for his work, because that’s what Pancks also said to Arthur Clennam. Since Arthur himself seems so jaded and disenchanted with life, not knowing what to do next, perhaps he will follow their example and find something which makes him feel more alive! There’s definite potential here to make him a bit less passive and dithery. It seems fortuitous that Daniel Doyce is looking for a business partner.

So Mr. Meagles and Mrs. Clennam are both involved in business. Yet they are like chalk and cheese. Mr. Meagles is honest and open (if misguided about some things!) whereas Mrs. Clennam guards her secrets, is sanctimonious, and vituperative.

Tattycoram is really not happy, is she. She calls Minnie “Miss”, but I get the decided impression that she does not see why she should. And I can see why. After all, she has been adopted, so she must feel that this puts her on a slightly different level from that of a servant, even in the 19th century.

I’m not sure the narrator agrees though:

“‘Oh, Tatty!’ murmured her mistress, ‘take your hands away. I feel as if some one else was touching me!’

She said it in a quick involuntary way, but half playfully, and not more petulantly or disagreeably than a favourite child might have done, who laughed next moment.“

This seems like such an insult—at least, I’m sure I’d feel a little hurt if it were said to me. But the narrator excuses it as childs-play.

Mr. Meagles correctly identifies that “that there are times when that girl’s whole nature seems to roughen itself against seeing us so bound up in Pet” and yet it never occurs to him that he could slightly alter his behaviour, and show a little caring, rather than expect Tattycoram to conform to what he deems proper. I don’t think she even eats with the family.

[Debra Diggs]

.
.
Arthur thinks of falling in love with Pet!!!! I did not see that coming.

Pet says she is frightened of Miss Wade. Why? Is she afraid Miss Wade will help Tattycoram rise above her station.

I loved this sentance: "Besides his dumb-waiter, Mr Meagles had two other not dumb waiters in the persons of two parlour-maids with rosy faces and bright eyes, who were a highly ornamental part of the table decoration."

[Jenny]

I'm not quite sure why Arthur would prefer Pet to Amy... Though personaly I think both are too young for him, however Amy is slightly older and is more world smart while still having the youthful charm of Pet and she is not spoiled like Pet. Perhaps Amy's business acumen reminds him too much of his mother?

[Mona]

Jean, I agree that the Meagles aren’t as kind to Tattycoram as they think they are.

I liked this excerpt from the chapter. It’s a wonderful, eccentric, Dickensian/Victorian hodge podge:

“Of articles collected on his various expeditions, there was such a vast miscellany that it was like the dwelling of an amiable Corsair. There were antiquities from Central Italy, made by the best modern houses in that department of industry; bits of mummy from Egypt (and perhaps Birmingham); model gondolas from Venice; model villages from Switzerland; morsels of tesselated pavement from Herculaneum and Pompeii, like petrified minced veal; ashes out of tombs, and lava out of Vesuvius; Spanish fans, Spezzian straw hats, Moorish slippers, Tuscan hairpins, Carrara sculpture, Trastaverini scarves, Genoese velvets and filigree, Neapolitan coral, Roman cameos, Geneva jewellery, Arab lanterns, rosaries blest all round by the Pope himself, and an infinite variety of lumber. There were views, like and unlike, of a multitude of places; and there was one little picture-room devoted to a few of the regular sticky old Saints, with sinews like whipcord, hair like Neptune’s, wrinkles like tattooing, and such coats of varnish that every holy personage served for a fly-trap, and became what is now called in the vulgar tongue a Catch-em-alive”

[Mona]

Jenny wrote: "I'm not quite sure why Arthur would prefer Pet to Amy... Though personaly I think both are too young for him, however Amy is slightly older and is more world smart while still having the youthful c..."Jenny, I wonder if Arthur sees Little Dorrit as “off limits” for romance because of the complications of her living in a prison, her working for his mother, Arthur attempting to be her benefactor, etc. Certainly Pet seems more uncomplicated and innocent. Or maybe his interest in Pet is just a passing fancy, because she’s so pretty.

[Jenny]

Mona, thats a good point. Amy wouid bring many complications if he got romantically involved. Perhaps he is also nostalgic for Flora, as he did say in a past chapter Pet reminds him of her...

[Anne]

Jenny wrote: "Mona, thats a good point. Amy wouid bring many complications if he got romantically involved. Perhaps he is also nostalgic for Flora, as he did say in a past chapter Pet reminds him of her..."

My sense was that he was put off by the "new" Flora and "Pet" is a terrible match for him, way too spoiled and selfish. Not that people don't make poor matches for themselves.....

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

The best indication we have of Arthur's thoughts on Little Dorrit, is from Chapter 9. Other than one more occasion, they have hardly been together at all! So here are some quotations from that chapter:

"The little creature seemed so young in his eyes, that there were moments when he found himself thinking of her, if not speaking to her, as if she were a child. Perhaps he seemed as old in her eyes as she seemed young in his."

‘Let me put you in a coach,’ said Clennam, very nearly adding ‘my poor child.’

He ... was touched with more pity; thinking of the slight figure at his side,

putting himself between her and the sharp wind and rain, sheltered her as well as he could.

"Clennam, having this little, slender, careful creature on his arm. How young she seemed to him, or how old he to her; or what a secret either to the other, in that beginning of the destined interweaving of their stories, matters not here. He thought ... of her innocence; of her solicitude for others, and her few years, and her childish aspect."

I see no romantic inclinations here. But Pet Meagles is pretty and likes him, her father is his friend; in fact Arthur already knows all the family from abroad, as a happy, stable, middle-class, moderately wealthy family. It's not really surprising he is "wondering whether to fall in love with her". Her parents would be delighted :)

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Here are some more quotations from Chapter 14; the only other time Arthur and Little Dorrit have been together almost alone:

"‘My poor child! Here at midnight?’

‘Your foot is like marble, my child;’

‘Yes, my child.’ A slight shade of distress fell upon her, at his so often calling her a child.

my slight, delicate,’ child was on his lips again, ‘Little Dorrit!’

So diminutive she looked, so fragile and defenceless against the bleak damp weather, flitting along in the shuffling shadow of her charge, that he felt, in his compassion, and in his habit of considering her a child apart from the rest of the rough world, as if he would have been glad to take her up in his arms and carry her to her journey’s end."

[Petra]

I agree with the quotes that Jean has posted. Amy is so tiny that she's seen as a child by others, even though she's an adult. Even the suicidal lady thought she was a child in need of protection.

In a sense, being this small in stature, means that she is overlooked in terms of a relationship. Also, Arthur hasn't really spent a lot of time with her, unless he visits with her when he visits with his mother and we aren't in on those times.

It's unlikely that he would think of her as a potential romantic prospect with this limited amount of contact and his thoughts about her childlike stature.

[Debra Diggs]

But did he have to fall for Pet? Good gosh, it is going to be Dora from David Copperfield all over again. (view spoiler)[ Man falls for spoiled, pretty girl and it ends badly. (hide spoiler)]

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

LOL!

[Sara]

I agree that Amy is not appealing to Arthur as a mate. She is not from the right background and his position would be better served by marrying someone of Pet's social class. I think he is unmarried because, after being separated from Flora, he turned his attention to business and did not seek out a romance.

Tatty is portrayed as being sullen and resentful, but it is so striking to me that she never eats with the family. She was left hungry when they were disembarking after the voyage, and she is bringing Pet a "mantle which her young mistress had sent for, and was bending over her, putting it on..." So, while everyone else is engaged in eating and conversation, she is waiting on Pet. As an adopted child, I believe I would be sullen and resentful as well.

A couple of typical Dickensian humor passages I loved:

As for Sebastian del Piombo there, you would judge for yourself; if it were not his later manner, the question was, Who was it? Titian, that might or might not be--perhaps he had only touched it. Daniel Doyce said perhaps he hadn't touched it, but Mr. Meagles rather declined to overhear the remark.

--Clennam could not help speculating, as he seated himself in his room by the fire, whether there might be in the breast of this honest, affectionate, and cordial Mr. Meagles, any microscopic portion of the mustard-seed that had sprung up into the great tree of the Circumlocution Office.

[Petra]

Debra, I so very much agree. LOL! I thought by not mentioning it, the situation wouldn't crop up. Typical ostrich-head-in-the-sand manoeuvre on my part.

[Anne]

Petra wrote: "Debra, I so very much agree. LOL! I thought by not mentioning it, the situation wouldn't crop up. Typical ostrich-head-in-the-sand manoeuvre on my part."

I couldn't agree more with Debra and Petra. After watching how she treats her sister, adopted or not, I fear for how our oh so kind and indulging Arthur would manage with her as his wife. Please be sensible Arthur and do NOT decide to fall in love in with her.

[Katy]

I also agree. I groaned to myself when I first realized he was attracted to Pet. As for Amy, I think he just is not attracted to her romantically. It probably just did not occur to him, as he seems to be attracted to pretty, young shallow women. We shall see how things work out.

[Katy]

Debra wrote: ".
.
Arthur thinks of falling in love with Pet!!!! I did not see that coming.

Pet says she is frightened of Miss Wade. Why? Is she afraid Miss Wade will help Tattycoram rise above her station.

I..." I think Pet is frightened of Miss Wade because she is so unapproachable. If I remember correctly, in a previous chapter Pet tried to be friendly to Miss Wade but it didn't go over very well. Tattycoram is really the only person to whom Miss Wade was the least bit friendly. Pet probably expects everyone to like her.

I also like the passage about the two extra "dumb waiters".

[Katy]

My favorite humorous passage in this chapter is the one about Daniel Doyce being enrolled in the "Legion of the Rebuffed of the Circumlocution Office".

I like both Arthur and Daniel and I am glad that they are going to be partners. I hope everything works out for them.

[France-Andrée]

Got a little behind.

About Affery's dream, it is so sad that she is so terrified in her own home, she probably doesn't sleep that well when she's really asleep. I think the sound she's hearing is real enough and probably her husband already knows what it is because he isn't inquisitive about it at all, he just dismisses her fear about it.

About Arthur or anyone who thinks about falling in love with Pet, I think if you are doing a mental for / against column, it's not really falling in love, it's more organic than that. It's more evaluating who is a good match or not and expecting the emotions to come later. I do agree though that if he "settles" for her, he'll not be happy.

[ClaraBelle]

Robin P wrote: "I was thinking about "Little" as a pet name. In Spanish, people add "ita" to the end of a name, like "Rosita" for Rosa, meaning little Rita. In Welsh it is an endearment to say, for instance, "Gare..."
Oh wow didn’t really know that 💖💕

[ClaraBelle]

France-Andrée wrote: "I saw the second part of this chapter as an opposite to the chapter where Arthur is locked in the Marshalsea. Being locked in, Arthur doesn't have a good night, but he has a night where he can rest..."

Truth☝️

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Great comments all! And those quotations too Mona, Sara and Katy :)

France-Andree - "It's more evaluating who is a good match or not and expecting the emotions to come later." Exactly! This is spot on for Victorian behaviour, as Sara and I were saying. Plus, you can't ignore the fact that, (like David Copperfield), Arthur is tempted by a pretty face and figure.

The action moves straight on, so you'll all be pleased to know that we do learn a little more about Arthur's thoughts today! So on to the summary.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Chapter 17:

The next morning, Arthur decides to take a walk before breakfast. He uses the ferry to cross the river, and slowly meanders among the meadows. When he returns, he notices another gentleman is waiting to be taken over the river:



The Ferry - Phiz

As he waits, this man idly throws stones into the water using his foot. There is something in this action—something carelessly cruel—which makes Arthur take an instant dislike to the man. A fine Newfoundland dog watches his master, hoping for a game, and accompanies the man onto the ferry.

When Arthur returns to the Meagles’s place, a bark warns him and he finds that this young man is already there. He introduces himself as Henry Gowan, and although he is quite friendly with Arthur, the latter still dislikes his overfamiliar manner. Henry Gowan seems to be making himself very much at home in the place, saying that he has been a visitor there for 3 years. Things are not helped by the fact that Pet seems to like this man very much. Arthur, annoyed, reflects that if he had not decided to not fall in love with Pet, this would have been very bothersome indeed.

Arthur notices that when the Meagles see Henry Gowan: “There was a passing cloud on Mr Meagles’s good-humoured face” and a “touch of uneasiness on Mrs Meagles’”. Henry seems relaxed however, and even tells Mr. and Mrs. Meagles that he has invited another man to dinner, namely, Tite Barnacle’s son, Clarence Barnacle, who is in his father’s Department. Mr. Meagles goes through a long-drawn analysis of the intermarrying Barnacles and Stiltstalkings, and Henry Gowan helps him out by telling him that Lord Decimus is his great uncle. Mr. Meagles says he will be welcome. Arthur had hoped for a different answer, but realises that Mr. Meagles “had a weakness which none of us need go into the next street to find,” and is a social snob. Furthermore, Daniel Doyce appears to be not in the least surprised by any of this.

Later, Arthur asks Daniel about Henry Gowan, and is told—in an uncharacteristically surly fashion—that Henry visits every Sunday when they are at home, and is a “sort of” artist. He sounds a bit of a dilettante. Henry is a distant relation of the Barnacles, and was brought up to be idle, his father and mother being connected with the Circumlocution office, and thus having sinecures.

After dinner “Young Barnacle appeared, attended by his eye-glass” and is most put out and indignant to see Arthur:

“He’s a most ferocious Radical, you know … he said he wanted to know, you know”.

The dull Young Barnacle casts an instant gloom on the company, with the exception of Mr. Meagles. Before the end of the evening, Arthur asks Daniel in confidence whether there is an engagement between Henry and Pet. Daniel pauses before he answers:

“The truth is, he has twice taken his daughter abroad in the hope of separating her from Mr. Gowan. He rather thinks she is disposed to like him, and he has painful doubts (I quite agree with him, as I dare say you do) of the hopefulness of such a marriage.”

Daniel has clearly suspected Arthur’s feelings, and this is confirmed by Arthur inadvertently choking and coughing.

“The rain fell heavily on the roof, and pattered on the ground, and dripped among the evergreens and the leafless branches of the trees. The rain fell heavily, drearily. It was a night of tears.”

[Jenny]

Caught up in my audio version now! The voice the reader uses for Young Barnacle is outrageously indignant and funny.
I wonder what poor Tatty is doing all this time...

[Martha]

I laughed out loud:

What relation will this young fellow be to Lord Decimus now? His Lordship married, in seventeen ninety-seven, Lady Jemima Bilberry, who was the second daughter by the third marriage – no! There I am wrong! That was Lady Seraphina — Lady Jemima was the first daughter by the second marriage of the fifteenth Earl of Stiltstalking with the Honorable Clementina Toozellem. . . . Hilarious!

Also, the sitting down to dinner and Young Barnacle with his “eye-glass fell in his soup, into his wine glass, into Mrs. Meagles plate” - love this humor!

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

"love this humor!" Me too, Martha :)

And I'd love to hear the voice put on for "Young Barnacle", Jenny :D

[Robin P]

Dickens books make wonderful audio as of course he knew when he started to read his selections to audiences. I think it's partly his love of and large acquaintance with the theater that makes his characters have such distinctive ways of speaking. You could put together multiple characters from different books and recognize them by their speech (Uriah Heep, Mr. Micawber, Ebenezer Scrooge, Sam Weller to name a few). The exception is probably the heroes/heroines who tend to play the role of "straight man" to all the colorful characters they meet in life.

[Elizabeth A.G.]

Gowan's "fine Newfoundland dog," who is attentive and obedient to his master and who lovingly greets Pet who caresses the dog and makes "far, far too much of the dog," barks at Arthur as he approaches the Meagles' cottage. The dog continues to bark until he hears his master's voice greeting Arthur. Arthur becomes the stranger here, the outsider, who, upon Pet's appearance," stood a little distance from them" as an observer. Arthur can't admit to his jealousy and still denies feelings for Pet. It is quite humorous when Mrs. Meagles asks about Mrs. Gowan, "Clennam became attentive;" then when Arthur learns Mrs. Gowan refers to Henry Gowan's mother (not a wife), "Clennam became inattentive."

Mention of the Newfoundland dog also brought to mind how pet names are used in the story. Gowan's dog's is named "Lion" which is ironic as this breed, while large, is fury, friendly, and protective, unlike a ferocious lion. We remember how Minnie becomes Pet, a pampered pet and Harriet becomes Tattycoram (which Jean mentioned earlier sounds like a name for a pet) and the Meagles 'thought even a playful name might be a new thing to her, and might have a softening and affectionate kind of effect.' And of course Amy becomes "Little Dorrit."

[Sara]

Poor Arthur is not going to banish his thoughts of Pet by deciding not to love her. Gowan strikes me as exactly the kind of shallow and pompous oaf Pet would be likely to gravitate toward. She will be unhappy with him, and he will probably be unkind to her, but you can see why they think they would be ideal for one another. I love the way Gowan is introduced to us...we take an immediate dislike to him, even before we know who he is or where he is going.

[Elizabeth A.G.]

I agree about Gowan, Sara. We first view him from Arthur's perspective and his impressions of Gowan's actions based upon the man's "manner of doing." He doesn't speak with Gowan at this point but has taken a disliking to this man whose behavior has "an air of cruelty" about him. I think perhaps the reader agrees with Arthur about Gowan initally because the reader likes Arthur and trusts him. In later descriptions, Gowan actually demonstrates his pomposity, superiority, and arrogance and we learn that he is rather a gad-about who has settled as an artist. I love that "but for that resolution so often recalled, Clennam might have wished him (Gowan) in the crater of Mount Etna!!!" Ouch!!

[Mona]

Martha & Jean, I too found Young Barnacle’s struggles with his falling eyeglass to be extremely funny.

[Mona]

Also, Elizabeth, the stuff about Arthur’s attention & inattention on the subject of Mrs. Gowan is quite funny (and you clarified its meaning for me). The Mount Etna thought struck me funny too, although it was also painful.

[France-Andrée]

Ah, now I understand Arthur a little better; he was trying and still is to but rational thoughts over emotions.

I’m not sure Pet would make a good wife to anyone, but Gowan is as spoiled as her so that is not a good idea.

Young Barnacle is just so funny. Arthur a radical?

[Mark]

France-Andrée wrote: "Ah, now I understand Arthur a little better; he was trying and still is to but rational thoughts over emotions.

I’m not sure Pet would make a good wife to anyone, but Gowan is as spoiled as her s..."

I don't understand Arthur well. Even though he and Amy are the only characters that we have seen their thoughts to date. (Affery did a few small glimpses of her thoughts too I think.)

I find Arthur Clennam to be an unusual leading character. Amy's background may be simple and her personality saint-like, but Arthur's make-up is a cipher to me. We know his early life and how unhappy he was, put in the closet, etc. But he spent a decade or two in China. Except for facetious remarks made by Flora, Arthur apparently having lived in China for decades gives no inkling by anecdote, by behavior, that he was in such an alien environment for so long. If you were really there at that time for so long, you would have absorbed a kind of Confucian worldview as second nature - even as a point of perspective - and that might present itself to people in various remarks or reacions. But he could have spent his 20 years on the moon for all we can tell. I guess Dickens decided he wanted him removed from England for a good part of his early adulthood and isolated emotionally -- so he decided, all right, China.

He's kind of a Sad-Sack, droopy guy. "Arthur Clennam was a retiring man, with a sense of many defiticiencies." And he keeps telling himself he has decided not to love "Pet" but obviously is attracted to her. And is oddly confused about his feelings for Amy too. Since romantic relationships never happened in China for him, he is stuck like a teenager in a confused emotional zone, I guess.

Maybe that is one reason why Dickens pldecide to place him in China -- there it might make sense that an Englishman might be there for a long time and not become romantically involved because it was so alien. So he returns an alien to his country and ways (a perfect Outsider), and also emotionally stunted.

[France-Andrée]

I wonder if Arthur didn't mix with Chinese society that much. I think the Europeans might have stuck together a lot plus I don't think Arthur had much freedom before his father died, I think he might have been as stifled by his father as he was by his mother before.

[Sara]

I was thinking the same thing, France-Andrée. When the British colonized areas, they seldom mingled with the natives in anything except a business manner. I think of India during the colonization era, and indigenous people were not allowed to mingle as equals. I would therefore assume that the Chinese, though not a colony, would not have been that much different in terms of interactions. I'm guessing business only.

[Elizabeth A.G.]

I am curious about the early 19th century British trade with China and the merchant ships at that time. The opium trade was active with the British trading opium grown in India, selling it in China, and using the profits to buy Chinese goods (porcelain, silk, and tea) and silver and this was the time period when Clennam and his father conducted business in China. In 1805 Arthur Clennam was 20 years old when sent to China for the family business; by 1820 the opium trade had grown tremendously with widespread addiction to the drug by the Chinese population and to the objections, ultimately, by the Chinese government. Arthur Clennam returns to England in 1825 after his father dies and before the First Opium War years later in 1839.

Dickens so far has not revealed what trade the Clennam Company was engaged in or even mentions the opium addiction crisis in China caused in great part by British merchants. Writing the story serially in 1855-57 and publishing the book in 1857, certainly Dickens would have been aware of the trade history with China
and the First Opium War in 1839.

Dickens was socially conscious and probably had opinions about British trade with China, but we don't learn any of this as yet in Little Dorrit. I'm wondering if this will come up later in the book?

Perhaps due to the increasingly poor British/Chinese trade relations connected to opium while he was in China, Arthur Clennam and other trade merchants avoided social connections with the Chinese?

[Connie]

Elizabeth, you have excellent ideas about the trading between China and foreigners. The Chinese would only let traders go to Canton at first, then to a few other places nearby. The Chinese considered their civilization to be advanced, and did not want their people to assimilate Western ideas from "inferior foreigners." Their idea of Western people came from the unrefined sailors on the ships. So Arthur would not have been mingling with the Chinese outside of work.

I read the book When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail a few years ago. Parts of it was about British trading and the Opium Wars (which the Chinese still remember), although the focus of the book was American trade with the Chinese.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

What fascinating comments, overnight (for me!)

Robin - Oh yes, I agree some parts of Charles Dickens are just asking to be read aloud! And this is because, as you correctly identify, he loved the theatre. In fact that's really how he saw them, acting out parts of the novels in front of the mirror (including the female characters).

France-Andrée - LOL It's certainly a big stretch to imagine Arthur as a "radical". It just shows how stuffy and hidebound Young Barnacle is!

Elizabeth - I really like these observations about the different dogs in Charles Dickens's novels :) There are always seem to be one or two, and I hadn't really considered how important their names are, but you're right!

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Mark - Your thoughts about Arthur are really interesting. I agree he is a sort of cipher. Before now, I had really slotted him into the sort of character who has events moving round him - a focus of them, but not an instigator. Several of Charles Dickens's young men about to embark on the journey of life seem to fit into this mould: David, Nicholas, Martin, Pip, et al. They all diverge at some point, of course, but often they seem rather passive - at least for the early parts of each novel - considering the momentous events about to happen in the specific novel.

"If you were really there at that time for so long, you would have absorbed a kind of Confucian worldview as second nature - even as a point of perspective - and that might present itself to people in various remarks or reacions. But he could have spent his 20 years on the moon for all we can tell."

Yes, this is a puzzle. It could be as simple as the fact that China was a relatively unknown country to Charles Dickens, ie., he had never visited there, so he wanted to pick somewhere which was believable in terms of British trade (he could have picked India for a similar reason) but was slightly more alien than the foreign countries he did know, such as the United States or Australia, where he had connections. I believe you are thinking along this track too.

"Since romantic relationships never happened in China for him, he is stuck like a teenager in a confused emotional zone, I guess." Yes, I like this. It is substantiated a bit by later comments which I'll now move on to ...

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

France-Andrée, Sara, Elizabeth and Connie - all the points you develop from Mark's suggestion are spot-on, I think. Thank you for highlighting this.

I too believe that Arthur would have had little contact with Chinese society. His skills lay in the business side: administration and organising. We know he is reticent, and rather shy, partly because of his personality and partly because of his terrible upbringing. If he were more outgoing he could perhaps have socialised with a European enclave, but I get the impression that he worked hard, for 20 years, and had a rather solitary existence there otherwise. Actually, he could have done the same in London - but his mother would probably have insisted that he socialise with business partners etc.

Charles Dickens certainly did know about the opium trade, yes. In fact a later uncompleted novel had an opium addict as the main character. (This is not a spoiler as it is made clear in the first chapter.) We will have to see whether this idea is developed in Little Dorrit too.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Chapter 18:

Little Dorrit also has an admirer: “Young John” Chivery, the son of the turnkey. This short chapter is all about him.

John Chivery is one year older than Amy, who is 22; they were playmates when they were both children. He has been in love with Amy for as long as he can remember, admiring her when she was a tiny little child, sitting in her little armchair next to the benevolent turnkey who was her godfather, and watching her through the keyhole of the main door:

“Young John was small of stature, with rather weak legs and very weak light hair. One of his eyes (perhaps the eye that used to peep through the keyhole) was also weak, and looked larger than the other, as if it couldn’t collect itself. Young John was gentle likewise. But he was great of soul. Poetical, expansive, faithful.”



Young John Chivery - Sol Etynge

John does not live in the Marshalsea, but with his mother, who keeps a small tobacco shop. He is always respectful, and cultivates Amy’s family, presenting some cigars to the Father of the Marshalsea every week, attempting to show what a good suitor he would be. He dreams of how he himself will eventually be the chief turnkey, and Little Dorrit would officially reside in the chamber she had rented for so long, as his wife. He even dreams of their tombstones, being inscribed to them having long and happy lives until their eighties, and ending:

“Also of his truly beloved and truly loving wife, AMY, whose maiden name was DORRIT, Who survived his loss not quite forty-eight hours, And who breathed her last in the Marshalsea aforesaid. There she was born, There she lived, There she died.”

Little Dorrit’s family are aware of Young John’s devotion, and they all take advantage of this, deliberately increasing their pretensions to gentility, (although they pretend not to know about it). John’s parents too think this partnership would be no bad thing. As Father of the Marshalsea, Mr. Dorrit is respected by everyone who knows him, and by association, Little Dorrit is also respected. Mrs. Chivery adds that John himself is not very strong, and his passion is so intense that he might “being driven to do himself a mischief, as nobody couldn’t say he wouldn’t be if he was crossed.”

Mr. Dorrit, regularly in receipt of his “testimonials”, declares his opinion:

“‘Extremely civil person, Chivery; very attentive man and very respectful. Young Chivery, too; really almost with a delicate perception of one’s position here. A very well conducted family indeed, the Chiveries. Their behaviour gratifies me.’
The devoted Young John all this time regarded the family with reverence. He never dreamed of disputing their pretensions, but did homage to the miserable Mumbo jumbo they paraded.“

However, Little Dorrit herself is unaware of Young John’s infatuation, and is as always the last person considered.

One day Young John decides he must declare his love for Amy, and dresses in great finery:



Young John Chivery - Kyd

“He was neatly attired in a plum-coloured coat, with as large a collar of black velvet as his figure could carry; a silken waistcoat, bedecked with golden sprigs; a chaste neckerchief much in vogue at that day, representing a preserve of lilac pheasants on a buff ground; pantaloons so highly decorated with side-stripes that each leg was a three-stringed lute; and a hat of state very high and hard … [he] carried a pair of white kid gloves, and a cane like a little finger-post, surmounted by an ivory hand marshalling him the way that he should go.”

John first calls on Mr. Dorrit, with his regular offering of cigars, to which Mr. Dorrit makes a great show of surprise. He asks about “Miss Amy”, and is told that she has gone for a walk on the Iron Bridge. Straightaway, John turns in that direction.

When he comes across Amy, she seems lost in thought. Gaining her attention, it is obvious that John is the last person on earth whom she wishes to see there, although she attempts to cover up her instinctive reaction. Both are now very confused, and John feels “unutterable dismay”. Obviously he cannot now say what he had intended to.



"Little Dorrit's boyfriend" - James Mahoney

Instead he talks of his visit to her father, and is taken aback at her distraught reaction:

“Young John, who had never seen her bereft of her quiet self-command, who had seen her from her infancy ever so reliable and self-suppressed, there was a shock in her distress, and in having to associate himself with it as its cause, that shook him from his great hat to the pavement.”

John now feels that he must explain himself, and with his preamble, Little Dorrit immediately grasps the truth of his feelings, as he is not as quick-witted as she:

“There really was a genuineness in the poor fellow, and a contrast between the hardness of his hat and the softness of his heart (albeit, perhaps, of his head, too), that was moving.”

Amy begs him to stop before he goes any further. She speaks to him kindly, and says she know she can trust him to never come there again—to where she feels safe and alone—in search of her.

“Young John … was a miserable wretch, but her word was more than a law for him … the heart that was under the waistcoat of sprigs—mere slop-work, if the truth must be known—swelled to the size of the heart of a gentleman; and the poor common little fellow, having no room to hold it, burst into tears.”

They part, and the miserable John makes his way back home, imagining now a new inscription for his tombstone:

“Here lie the mortal remains Of JOHN CHIVERY, Never anything worth mentioning, Who died about the end of the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, Of a broken heart, Requesting with his last breath that the word AMY might be inscribed over his ashes, which was accordingly directed to be done, By his afflicted Parents.”

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

What a sweet chapter! Poor John.

Oh! I've just realised that "Kyd" (artist Joseph Clayton Clark) has the colour of his coat completely wrong! Never mind; I'll leave it there.

[Martha]

Elizabeth A.G. wrote: "I am curious about the early 19th century British trade with China and the merchant ships at that time. The opium trade was active with the British trading opium grown in India, selling it in China..."

Thank you for all this interesting history, Elizabeth. Very enlightening- makes me want to research more about China and this period if time!

[Sara]

Poor John, indeed. I'm not sure why Amy does not look favorably on John, he sincerely cares for her and she has so little other exposure to anyone who might wish to marry her. His position with regard to the Marshalsea would mean she could continue to see and care for her father without any objection. The first illustration is spot-on for how I had pictured him.

[Connie]

Amy seems to have treated everyone at Marshalsea with kindness, but only thinks of John as another friend. Since she has been acting as the responsible adult in her family for so long, she may be more attracted to someone a little older. I wonder if she is developing feelings for Arthur since he has been so good to her and her family.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Sara wrote: "Poor John, indeed. I'm not sure why Amy does not look favorably on John, he sincerely cares for her and she has so little other exposure to anyone who might wish to marry her ..."

All I can think is that he does not have her heart. They grew up together, and perhaps she thinks of him more like a brother. The particular sort of kindness she shows, also seems to indicate that she knows he is a little slow, and she feels sorry for him.