Little Dorrit

The Father of the Marshalsea was supposed to know nothing about the matter, of course: his poor dignity could not see so low. But he took the cigars, on Sundays, and was glad to get them; and sometimes even condescended to walk up and down the yard with the donor (who was proud and hopeful then), and benignantly to smoke one in his society.

Marseilles mystery → Marshalsea childhood → Dorrit's fortune and fall → Merdle crash → Clennam imprisoned → Amy's devotion rewarded forms a two-book poverty-to-riches-to-poverty arc with bureaucracy as permanent antagonist, so plot scores 90.

Flora, whom he had left a lily, had become a peony; but that was not much. Flora, who had seemed enchanting in all she said and thought, was diffuse and silly. That was much. Flora, who had been spoiled and artless long ago, was determined to be spoiled and artless now. That was a fatal blow. This is Flora!

Amy Dorrit, William Dorrit, Arthur Clennam, Flora Finching, Mr. Pancks, Mrs. Clennam, and Rigaud/Blandois populate prison and office at every register, so cast scores 92.

It is true that How not to do it was the great study and object of all public departments and professional politicians all round the Circumlocution Office. It is true that every new premier and every new government, coming in because they had upheld a certain thing as necessary to be done, were no sooner come in than they applied their utmost faculties to discovering How not to do it.

Thirty-six chapters per book with Circumlocution Office set-pieces and Dorrit's Continental tour dilating the middle; Merdle's crash and Clennam's imprisonment restore urgency, so pace scores 79.

The first half of that space of her life was only just accomplished, when her pitiful and plaintive look saw her father a widower. From that time the protection that her wondering eyes had expressed towards him, became embodied in action, and the Child of the Marshalsea took upon herself a new relation towards the Father.

"The Father of the Marshalsea" passages, Flora's breathless monologues, and the Circumlocution Office chapters fuse Marseilles opening and prison shadows in one moral vision, so prose scores 93.

Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France then, than at any other time, before or since. Everything in Marseilles, and about Marseilles, had stared at the fervid sky, and been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there.

The Marshalsea prison, Bleeding Heart Yard, the Circumlocution Office, and the Continent of the nouveau-riche Dorrits render England as carceral system from birth to bankruptcy, so world scores 95.

"Stay!" said the jailer, putting his little daughter on the outer ledge of the grate, "she shall feed the birds. This big loaf is for Signor John Baptist. We must break it to get it through into the cage. So, there's a tame bird to kiss the little hand! This sausage in a vine leaf is for Monsieur Rigaud."

Ch.1—Marseilles in blazing sun, quarantine, Rigaud—establishes the Mediterranean frame before London prison; atmospheric rather than character-first but immediately vivid, so hook scores 88.

From that time the protection that her wondering eyes had expressed towards him, became embodied in action, and the Child of the Marshalsea took upon herself a new relation towards the Father. At first, such a baby could do little more than sit with him, deserting her livelier place by the high fender, and quietly watching him.

The prison as womb and social metaphor, bureaucracy satire ("How not to do it") as plot engine, and the child who raises her father template institutional novels and the "born in debt" protagonist, so innov scores 91.

When they had both accosted it, and spoken many kind words, Little Dorrit turned back one last time with her hand stretched out, saying, "Good-bye, good John! I hope you will live very happy, dear!" Then they went up the steps of the neighbouring Saint George's Church, and went up to the altar, where Daniel Doyce was waiting in his paternal character.

Amy and Arthur's marriage with Doyce as surrogate father—"Good-bye, good John!"—closes the debt cycle with earned modest happiness after Merdle's catastrophe and Mrs. Clennam's revelation, so ending scores 89.