The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Monday, May 28, 2018

The inmates of Marshalsea

Dickens is endlessly sympathetic to the downtrodden who are, in his eyes, decent, responsible, enterprising, and upright - though only less so toward persons of like character who are not at all, or not much, downtrodden.

Even if and after they become extraordinarily rich by one sort of windfall or another, legally and respectably, and take up lives of leisure.

And he jeers at and satirizes not only the villains of his works but also those deficient in character in lesser degree, regardless of their social station.

In his works he makes sure to show us characters of both sorts all over the social map.

The contrast is stark, for example, between his attitude toward and treatment of Little Dorrit and his attitude toward and treatment of her father and the rest of her family, as well as the denizens of Marshalsea of whom most are their admirers and supporters.

I can see many reasons why some people might think of this as perhaps his finest book.

Not the least is the quality of the writing, itself.

And though some, it is said, find it rather darker than much else of his, it is all the same quite funny in many places.

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