Dear Serial Readers,
Dickens's Circumlocution Office dovetails so wonderfully with his rendering of institutional misery and mismanagement. Of course, I couldn't help but think of the Court of Chancery from his previous serial novel BLEAK HOUSE. How timely still is the "science" of government satire on "how not to do it." I wonder too if "circumlocution" especially suits Dickens' narrative style here--both the circuitously (at best) related variety of chapters within an installment and more broadly his serial structure where plot lines and characters move in and out of focus. Is there a center, or just meandering to various places?
I was surprised too that this installment concludes with the chapter out of London, out of England, as the Marseilles prisoners journey northward in France, toward Paris and England. This moving back and forth between London and out of England really intrigues me in this circumlocutionary narrative! Also in this number Clennam describes himself as a "stranger in England"--so the foreign and strange are accentuated both in this center character (if there is a center, which seems both Clennam and A. Dorrit) and in the various ex-centric movements away from Dorrits and Clennams and England altogether. Don't know what to make of the brief appearances of Meagles (and his Circumlocution office post) and the disguised convicted Rigaud and the Italian Cavalletto, who flees from the French inn from his former prisonmate.
Maggy reminds me of Dickensian disabilities--how Dickens sometimes uses disabled characters to showcase virtue (either via the character or someone--like Amy Dorrit--who shows compassion) or some moral perversion. I was also interested in Doyce, the wronged inventor with patents problems--
Next time, chapters 12-14.
Serially sailing,
Susan
3 comments:
I am curious about Dorrit’s family’s view of her, presented from Arthur's perspective. “They regarded her as being in her necessary place; as holding a position toward them all which belonged to her, like her name or her age. He fancied that they viewed her, not as having risen away from the prison atmosphere, but as appertaining to it; as being vaguely what they had a right to expect, and nothing more.” They sound a typical dysfunctional family, as current now as then, assigning the eldest girl the role of serving their overarching needs.
I was delighted by the protracted characterization of Barnacle with his eyeglass in Chapter 10. His five-and-twenty-syllable enunciation of “circumlocution” is hilarious, and reminiscent (jumping forward) of the spirit in which Holden Caulfield would out a phony.
In Chapter 11 the plot thickens, beginning with “a wrathful sunset” and the surprising (to me) reappearance of Rigaud and Cavalletto. I enjoyed the signature up-down motion of the mustache and nose, but even more the subtle but perfect gesture identifying Rigaud when he “touched his discolored slouched hat, as he came in at the door, to a few men who occupied the room.” Whatever has happened to him since we last saw him has not in the least punctured his inflated image of himself. When Cavalletto woke up to recognize Rigaud in the room, everything in me called out to him, Run! And I was surprised he had the gumption to do so.
So far, I love this book.
Oh, the Circumlocution office was funny, but also so uncomfortable, like when my muscles really need stretching and I have to sit still. How Not To Do It is indeed so timely, and I'll mention health care even if Susan doesn't! Not to mention how to approach change in a college--How Not To Do It seems our top study in faculty meeting. I'm shuddering already, and longing to just stretch out all my limbs. I enjoyed Tite Barnacle, but the name did seem a little over the top.
I'm really enjoying this book, in part for its great riches of connections, but I do feel it's less subtle than CD's later works--but that's the impression of a non-Dickens scholar.
Susan's right: This is such a disparate set of chapters! And what a surprise to get back to Rigaud. I'm with readerann: I wanted Cavalletto to get away, but didn't think he would. Of course, I'm sure he'll be haunted by Rigaud in the future. I wonder how they will connect back to London, and how that will all connect with Flintwinch's brother. At least, I assume he was a brother.
Even the minor characters are so engaging, such as the landlady at the "Cabaret" (I was struck by that term) the Break of Day.
I was happy to see Mr. Meagles again, but I do wonder where he will come up again. One thing I remembered during this encounter with him is his compelling "practicality" in chapter 2--and again here. His notion of what is "practical" is so often compassionate and sensible and not at all the notion of "practicality" that Mr. Barnacle, Rigaud, or no doubt Clennam's mother would have.
I love the Circumlocution Office, and the acidity in every word of its description. That is what attracted me to Dickens when I was a young reader. There's such rage behind the prim words. As Kari says, there has been more subtle Dickens, but his description of the "Science of Government" is delicious for its darkness (once the panicked guffaw of recognition has passed, I mean).
I'm interested in Clennam "playing detective" in these first eleven chapters and how far he'll get in unraveling the mystery of the Clennam-Dorrit connection!
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