A novel set largely in London, centred on Amy Dorrit, who was born in the Marshalsea debtors' prison where her father has long been held. Arthur Clennam, a reserved man returning from abroad, takes an interest in her family and begins to unravel a mystery involving his own. The book explores debt, bureaucracy, social ambition and imprisonment of many kinds, including the invented Circumlocution Office, a satire of official delay.
Quotes
I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything; for whom what could not be weighed, measured, and priced, had no existence.
Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving — HOW NOT TO DO IT.
A person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs, to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking match.
I revere the memory of Mr. F. as an estimable man and most indulgent husband, only necessary to mention Asparagus and it appeared or to hint at any little delicate thing to drink and it came like magic in a pint bottle; it was not ecstasy but it was comfort.