Dickensians! discussion

LITTLE DORRIT: Fifth thread





Mrs. Clennam (Judy Parfitt) - 2008 film

This is the fifth thread for Little Dorrit, in which we have daily discussions of Book II Chapters 12 - 22: the middle threads in the second book.

This is a list of all the chapters in this thread, beginning with Second book: chapter 12, which is the first chapter in Charles Dickens's original monthly installment 14. Clicking on each chapter will automatically link you to the summary for that chapter:

Second Book: Riches

XIV – January 1857 (chapters 12–14)
Book II: Chapter 12 (Message 3)
Book II: Chapter 13 (Message 27)
Book II: Chapter 14 (Message 47)

XV – February 1857 (chapters 15–18)
Book II: Chapter 15 (Message 69)
Book II: Chapter 16 (Message 73)
Book II: Chapter 17 (Message 92)
Book II: Chapter 18 (Message 104)

XVI – March 1857 (chapters 19–22)
Book II: Chapter 19 (Message 131)
Book II: Chapter 20 (Message 155)
Book II: Chapter 21 (Message 172)
Book II: Chapter 22 (Message 196)

Book II: Chapter 12:

This is a long, quite difficult and sardonic chapter to begin installment 14. It begins:

“The famous name of Merdle became, every day, more famous in the land.”

so we know who is to be the focus of this chapter, and the way it continues gives us a sense of unease:

“All people knew (or thought they knew) that he had made himself immensely rich; and, for that reason alone, prostrated themselves before him, … degradedly…. The multitude worshipped on trust.”

Mr. Merdle has remained at home, while Mrs. Merdle and her son are abroad travelling. He keeps up the entertaining, under the aegis of his butler, who would accept nothing less than excellence, with no expense spared; who invariably “set forth the table for his own dignity …

Our dear Merdle would then receive his instructions; and would sit heavily among the company at table and wander lumpishly about his drawing-rooms afterwards.“ Mr. Merdle is keen to continue his Society dinners despite the absence of his wife:

“If he missed the presiding bosom, it was as a part of his own state of which he was, from unavoidable circumstances, temporarily deprived, just as he might have missed a centre-piece, or a choice wine-cooler, which had been sent to the Banker’s.”

This particular dinner is a great occasion, with important guests, including Lord Decimus Barnacle, Mr. Tite Barnacle, and the pleasant young Barnacle. A Chorus of Parliamentary Barnacles who “went about the provinces when the House was up, warbling the praises of their Chief” were also to be there.

The purpose of this dinner is known to every one of the guests. Mrs. Merdle had written to her husband, and told him that “now or never was the time to provide for Edmund Sparkler …

In the grammar of Mrs Merdle’s verbs on this momentous subject, there was only one mood, the Imperative; and that Mood had only one Tense, the Present.“

“Mr Merdle’s right hand was filled with the evening paper, and the evening paper was full of Mr Merdle. His wonderful enterprise, his wonderful wealth, his wonderful Bank, were the fattening food of the evening paper that night.”

As the honoured guests arrive, they discuss among themselves the reason for this special dinner:

“‘Our illustrious host and friend,’ said Bar; ‘our shining mercantile star;—going into politics?’”

And they talk about something and nothing of consequence, until:

“Mr Tite Barnacle, who, like Dr Johnson’s celebrated acquaintance, had only one idea in his head and that was a wrong one, had appeared by this time. This eminent gentleman and Mr Merdle, seated diverse ways … on a yellow ottoman in the light of the fire, … bore a strong general resemblance to the two cows in the Cuyp picture over against them.”



'The Patriotic Conference' - Phiz

And presently the most important guest arrives, he who this whole charade has been played for: Lord Decimus Barnacle himself. Lord Decimus has been carefully coached by the sprightly young Barnacle, Ferdinand, on what to say to each guest:

“up to the point of noticing all the fellows he might find there, and saying he was glad to see them. When he had achieved this rush of vivacity and condescension, his Lordship composed himself into the picture after Cuyp, and made a third cow in the group.”

After much inconsequential chatter between the assorted guests, someone manages to manipulate Lord Decimus into telling a joke, so that he will subsequently feel pleased with himself. It is “Bar”, the member of the legal profession. He edges the conversation onto the weather, and which fruits are being badly affected so that their harvest is poor.

“Bar, sticking to him fresh as ever, said, ‘As to pears, now?’
Long after Bar got made Attorney-General, this was told of him as a master-stroke.“

Bar remembers a humorous pun—in fact the only pun—Lord Decimus has made before, and has cleverly placed the conversation precisely in the way of Lord Decimus making it again. It turns on the different meanings of “pears” and “pairs”.

Lord Decimus has fond memories from when he was young, and a pear-tree used to grow in a garden near the back of his dame’s house at Eton. He talks at length to his audience about this tree, and how it had changed through the seasons, believing that only then would they appreciate his hilarious joke. His audience naturally appear to be rapt, avidly waiting for the punchline about the difference between “Eton pears and Parliamentary pairs”, and Bar was so interested in the story that he “had to go down-stairs with Lord Decimus, and even then to be seated next to him at table in order that he might hear the anecdote out.”

When all were seated, the magnificent banquet begins, but as usual Mr. Merdle just takes his “usual poor eighteenpennyworth of food in his usual indigestive way,”

Bar makes his move. He says that he has heard that they will soon be joined by “the sound and plain sagacity—not demonstrative or ostentatious, but thoroughly sound and practical—of our friend Mr Sparkler.”

Yet Mr. Sparkler is unaccountably not there. Mr. Merdle explains that Edmund is with his mother, abroad, but that “I believe the people in my interest down there will not make any difficulty.”

And after some elegant waffling by Bar, Mr. Merdle clarifies:

“They are perfectly aware, sir, of their duty to Society. They will return anybody I send to them for that purpose.”

From this we deduce—and indeed the narrator confirms—that Edmund Sparkler is to be sent as a political candidate to a “safe seat”, an area of the country which is under the control of a wealthy few. These areas are called “rotten boroughs”:

“The three places in question were three little rotten holes in this Island, containing three little ignorant, drunken, guzzling, dirty, out-of-the-way constituencies, that had reeled into Mr Merdle’s pocket.”

The conversation moves on rapidly to another subject. Lord Decimus asks the airy young Barnacle Ferdinand, about a story he has heard of a gentleman long confined in a debtor’s prison, who has been proved to be of a wealthy family, and subsequently released. He asks for more information on the story, but neither we readers nor Lord Decimus really get any. We just learn that all the recent developments in the case have entailed a lot of extra work of form-filling and so on, for the Circumlocution Office.

Lord Decimus, asks “if Mr Darrit—or Dorrit—has any family?” and it is possible that Mr. Merdle divulges a little more than he intended, in his reply. He says that Mr. Dorrit has two daughters, and:

“I rather believe that one of the young ladies has made an impression on Edmund Sparkler. He is susceptible, and—I—think—the conquest—”

and stops.

The chapter ends with a long account of a diversionary tactic, made by Bar and “the engaging Ferdinand”, to get together the two men of the moment who simply have to have the discussion which Mrs. Merdle had requested of her husband. For some reason these two illustrious men seem to be avoiding each other at every turn. After a lot of drollery, Bar and Ferdinand hit on a plan. Bar takes Mr Merdle’s arm and engages him in conversation about an (invented) legal problem he has, and firmly leads him to a couch, side by side with Lord Decimus “and to it they must go, now or never.”

All the guests “pretended to be chatting easily on the infinite variety of small topics, while everybody’s thoughts and eyes were secretly straying towards the secluded pair.”

Finally, within a quarter of an hour the matter is concluded, and now Lord Decimus may leave. He remembers his coaching by Ferdinand, on how to make himself popular, shaking hands “in the most brilliant manner with the whole company”. He even tries a witticism on Bar: “I hope you were not bored by my pears?” allowing Bar to retort, “Eton, my lord, or Parliamentary?” showing to Lord Decimus’s complete satisfaction that Bar had not only understood the joke, but also implied that he could never ever forget it.

A day or two later, it is announced all over London, that Edmund Sparkler, the son-in-law of the eminent Mr. Merdle is now made “one of the Lords of the Circumlocution Office”. And everyone is lost in admiration; some even coming to gape at Harley Street, Cavendish Square, to look at the house where “the golden wonder” lives, and wonder just how much money he actually has.

“But, if they had known that respectable Nemesis better, they would not have wondered about it, and might have stated the amount with the utmost precision.”

This chapter is masterly in telling us what happens to Edmund Sparkler, and how the strings are pulled for him - thus allowing Charles Dickens to portray government institutions (the Circumloction office) in a damning light. I particularly enjoyed the references to Aelbert Cuyp, a Dutch landscape painter - who also included cows in the foreground!

Hopefully this chapter will stretch over two days. I'll tell you why in Mrs. Dickens' parlour, and will post the summary for chapter 13 on Thursday :)

And a little more …

About “Dame schools”.

Just a word about the “garden near the back of Lord Decimus’s dame’s house at Eton”:

First of all “Eton” is probably the most prestigious public school in England. A English “public school”, by the way, is a fee-paying private school, and Eton is a school for young gentlemen, who will be trained as future leaders of society.

“Dame schools” in the 18th and 19th centuries were schools for the elite, run by an unmarried woman in her own house. They offered a handful of boys and girls from wealthy families a “polite education”. The women running these elite dame schools taught reading, writing, English, French, arithmetic, music and dancing.

I assume that Lord Decimus attend a dame school when young, and moved on to Eton to take his final school examinations, before going to university at Oxford or Cambridge.

(Incidentally, I had an aunt who went to a dame school! So they still existed, even in the 20th century. By then they were not so high status - just an ordinary front room of someone's house - and catered for parents who did not want their children to attend a school. My aunt and uncle's house had been bombed during World War II while they were in it, and although they all survived, as a consequence they were very protective of their little daughter.)

And about 'Phiz', or Hablot Knight Browne, who illustrated this chapter:

The descriptions written by Charles Dickens are, as we can see, so very detailed, that one critic said:

“Browne’s (Phiz) greatest problem was that by now Dickens usurped his very function. The author had always written unusually pictorial prose. In Little Dorrit his writing became so graphically suggestive yet selective that it needed little visual help.”

He did still provide an illustration for most of the installments though.

Jean,
interesting about the Dame schools. I never heard of them before.

Edmund Sparkler has been portrayed in other chapters as a sociable young man who is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He should fit in just fine with the other inefficient men in the Circumlocution Office! Maybe his new status will help him make a good impression on Fanny Dorrit.

Haha Connie “not the sharpest tool in the shed.” I, too think Sparkler will fit in perfectly with the other worthies at the Circumlocution Office. 😺

Conie and Mona,

I couldn't agree with you two more. Sparker will shine at the Circumlocution Office where his natural tendencies will work perfectly.

But what do you think about everyone investing with his father knowing nothing about him other than that he is rich. Dickens makes a big deal of this. I'm very suspicious that things will go wrong for anyone who invests with him.

I am wondering if having Edmund Sparkler in the Circumlocution Office will result in Doyce's invention getting approval.

Debra wrote: "I am wondering if having Edmund Sparkler in the Circumlocution Office will result in Doyce's invention getting approval."

I doubt it. The purpose of this office is NOT to get anything done.

From some of the comments made by various people in the office, it appears they are after Mr. Dorrits money... all because he paid them...

Jenny wrote: "From some of the comments made by various people in the office, it appears they are after Mr. Dorrits money... all because he paid them..."

Really? I just thought that they were mad at him for having the nerve to try to pay what he owed (making them. work).

I can't explain why, but that is how it seams to me

Jenny wrote: "I can't explain why, but that is how it seams to me"

Uh oh!

Anne wrote: "Debra wrote: "I am wondering if having Edmund Sparkler in the Circumlocution Office will result in Doyce's invention getting approval."

I doubt it. The purpose of this office is NOT to get anythin..."

Yes, but Edmund not being overly smart might mess something up. Or he might try and gain Little Dorrit's approval (to get closer to her sister).

Debra wrote: "Anne wrote: "Debra wrote: "I am wondering if having Edmund Sparkler in the Circumlocution Office will result in Doyce's invention getting approval."

I doubt it. The purpose of this office is NOT t..."

He might mess something up and get something done?! Haha! That's funny. He's not going to be able to follow Fanny around anymore if he has a job in London and the Dorrit are still in Europe. He's not going to like that. He probably doesn't even know what his parents have arranged for him.

Anne wrote: "Debra wrote: "Anne wrote: "Debra wrote: "I am wondering if having Edmund Sparkler in the Circumlocution Office will result in Doyce's invention getting approval."

I doubt it. The purpose of this o..."

I wonder if that's why his mother urged his father to get him the job, to get him away from Fanny.

Katy, that never even crossed my mind. But, I could see being true.

But why would his mother want to do that now that Fanny is so rich?

Because Fanny was an actor/dancer. Not the proper type of girl. I am not sure that the money would make a difference.

Debra wrote: "Because Fanny was an actor/dancer. Not the proper type of girl. I am not sure that the money would make a difference."

That's true, she was. I wonder if that matters now that her family is so rich. It seems like rich people care only about wealth in this book. I guess we'll find out.

Anne, I agree with your observations about people flocking to invest with Merdle. (view spoiler)[When Pancks suggests...in the next Chapter, Chapter 13, that Arthur do this, Arthur seems to have some vague intuition or foreboding that it’s a bad idea. However, Arthur catches the “moral disease” that everyone around him has (i.e., the notion that investing with Merdle is a sure thing). I have a feeling that something will go wrong with this investment. I also wonder what motivated Pancks to suggest this investment to Arthur. Does he mean well or has he a hidden ulterior motive? (hide spoiler)]

Oof sorry inadvertent spoiler..next chapter. Will delete comment or add spoiler tags.

Mona wrote: "Oof sorry inadvertent spoiler..next chapter. Will delete comment or add spoiler tags."

I thought that may have been what happened.

There are some great theories here!!

Thanks Mona.

And now to reveal the next chapter ...

Book II: Chapter 13:

As the chapter begins, the narrator seems to be describing a huge epidemic or plague, which is sweeping across the country. But we are quickly put right, as it is of that great “paragon of men” Mr. Merdle we read, and although:

“Nobody, as aforesaid, knew what he had done; but everybody knew him to be the greatest that had appeared.”

Even in Bleeding Heart Yard, where money is scarce, and every single halfpenny has to be accounted for, people talk with admiration of Mr. Merdle. Mrs. Plornish is now established in a small grocery and general shop, with her father Old Nandy and Maggy helping out, and she talks about Mr. Merdle with her customers.



Mr. and Mrs. Plornish and John Edward Nandy - Sol Eytinge Jnr.

Her husband now has a small share in a small builder’s business—and he too talks highly of Mr. Merdle from the tops of scaffolds and tiles of houses. It is even rumoured that Mr. Baptiste has given over his precious savings, for investment in one of Merdle’s enterprises. And Mr. Pancks, when he goes through the yard collecting—or attempting to collect—the rents is told by the tenants, that they don’t have the money but that they would certainly pay if they were “the rich gentleman whose name is in everybody’s mouth”.

One day after many such comments commending Mr. Merdle, Pancks calls on Mrs. Plornish, for “a little brightening”. He often visits Mr. and Mrs. Plornish when he has finished work, and they talk about old times, and Little Dorrit. Mrs. Plornish has painted the side of their premises to look like a thatched cottage, complete with smoke coming out of the chimney, a dog at the threshold, and a sign announcing the name, “Happy Cottage”. Indeed, Mrs. Plornish is very happy with it:

“No Poetry and no Art ever charmed the imagination more than the union of the two in this counterfeit cottage charmed Mrs Plornish …To come out into the shop after it was shut, and hear her father sing a song inside this cottage, was a perfect Pastoral to Mrs Plornish, the Golden Age revived.”

Mr. Pancks is warmly welcomed as a regular visitor. He asks about “that lively Altro chap”, and chats to Master Plornish about his school work, which has been to learn the letter “M” by words such as “Merdle” and “Millions”. This naturally leads on to talk of a business nature, whereupon Mrs. Plornish carefully arranges for her father, Mr. Nandy, to be occupied elsewhere. She is always aware that Old Mr. Nandy feels obliged to them for taking him in, and does not want to be a financial burden to them. She:

“was always in mortal terror of mentioning pecuniary affairs before the old gentleman, lest any disclosure she made might rouse his spirit and induce him to run away to the workhouse,”

In private, Mrs. Plornish tells Pancks that everyone in Bleeding Heart Yard is very loyal to them and never purchase things elsewhere. However, despite this welcome business, their shop is not doing very well:

“the business was extremely brisk, and the articles in stock went off with the greatest celerity. In short, if the Bleeding Hearts had but paid, the undertaking would have been a complete success; whereas, by reason of their exclusively confining themselves to owing, the profits actually realised had not yet begun to appear in the books.”

They have plenty of business, but their neighbours buy everything on credit, and never get round to paying for them.

Mr. Nandy having come back into the room, they all then notice the odd behaviour of Mr. Baptist, outside. He seems very scared, and looks pale and agitated. First he goes one way up the Yard, and then another—and then disappears. Eventually he comes into the shop, having made a diversion round the back way to do so, and Pancks asks him in a friendly fashion, what the matter is.



Mr Baptist is supposed to have Seen Something - Phiz

Mrs. Plornish tries to encourage Cavalletto to explain, with her unique invention of simplified English phrases which she considers understandable to an Italian:

“‘E ask know,’ said Mrs Plornish, ‘what go wrong?’ …

Mrs Plornish was proud of the title Padrona, which she regarded as signifying: not so much Mistress of the house, as Mistress of the Italian tongue …
’I have seen some one,’ returned Baptist. ‘I have rincontrato him.’
‘Im? Oo him?’ asked Mrs Plornish.
‘A bad man. A baddest man. I have hoped that I should never see him again.’“

And he insists that he does not want to say any more.



Mr. Baptist Takes Refuge in Happy Cottage - Harry Furniss

Everyone is surprised by Mr. Baptist’s unusually scared behaviour, not least Maggy, and the two little Plornishes, but as time goes on, he manages to relax a little.

Later Arthur stops in on his way home from the factory. He too, like Pancks, is feeling depressed, in his case because of the wasted time in the waiting-rooms of the Circumlocution Office, and also the events at his mother’s house. He looks “worn and solitary” But Arthur has received a letter from Little Dorrit and wants to share the news with the Plornishes. They are all pleased and interested. Maggy:

“was particularly delighted when Clennam assured her that there were hospitals, and very kindly conducted hospitals, in Rome.” And Mr. Pancks is especially pleased at his being specially remembered and mentioned in the letter.

As Arthur leaves for home he asks if Pancks will accompany him and stay for supper, “for I am weary and out of sorts to-night.’.

Pancks is happy to do so:

“Between this eccentric personage and Clennam, a tacit understanding and accord had been always improving since Mr Pancks flew over Mr Rugg’s back in the Marshalsea Yard.”

Mr. Pancks asks Arthur if he knows what might be wrong with “little Altro”. However, Arthur is no wiser than he, and likes Cavalletto; saying he is “in every way so diligent, so grateful (for little enough), and so trustworthy” that he does not want to ask Cavalletto outright, in case it looks as if Arthur is suspicious of him. Perhaps Cavalletto, like so many people, is thinking of investing with Mr. Merdle?

After their dinner, Pancks returns to the subject of Mr. Merdle and his enterprises.

“But think of the whole Yard having got it. Think of their all meeting me with it, on my collecting days, here and there and everywhere. Whether they pay, or whether they don’t pay. Merdle, Merdle, Merdle. Always Merdle.’
‘Very strange how these runs on an infatuation prevail,’ said Arthur.“

Mr. Pancks goes on to tell Arthur that he has himself invested with Mr. Merdle:

“I’ve gone into it. I’ve made the calculations. I’ve worked it. They’re safe and genuine … He’s a man of immense resources—enormous capital—government influence. They’re the best schemes afloat. They’re safe. They’re certain.’
‘Well!’ returned Clennam, looking first at him gravely and then at the fire gravely. ‘You surprise me!’“

Pancks advises Arthur to do the same:



'And you have really Invested Your Money'? - Arthur and Pancks - James Mahoney

Then, he says, Arthur could invest the money from their business and recompense Daniel Doyle for his work and disappointments. He laughs when Arthur says he is old, and instead tells Arthur it is Mr. Doyce who is growing old. It is Arthur’s duty to be as rich as he can, for his partner, and also for his mother who depends on him.

But the narrator has commented wryly:

“Of whom Mr Pancks had taken the prevalent disease, he could no more have told than if he had unconsciously taken a fever. Bred at first, as many physical diseases are, in the wickedness of men, and then disseminated in their ignorance, these epidemics, after a period, get communicated to many sufferers who are neither ignorant nor wicked.”

All the next day, Arthur is preoccupied with thought of Pancks’s idea, and how Pancks is usually so astute about these things. He is tempted to help his friend Daniel Doyce, and his home, and:

“began to think it was curious too that it should be everywhere, and that nobody but he should seem to have any mistrust of it.

But the narrator observes, with gloomy foreboding:

“Such symptoms, when a disease of the kind is rife, are usually the signs of sickening.”

I like this quotation from today's chapter:

"As a vast fire will fill the air to a great distance with its roar, so the sacred flame which the mighty Barnacles had fanned caused the air to resound more and more with the name of Merdle. It was deposited on every lip, and carried into every ear. There never was, there never had been, there never again should be, such a man as Mr Merdle. Nobody, as aforesaid, knew what he had done; but everybody knew him to be the greatest that had appeared."

Charles Dickens is building him up so much, that I'm waiting for everything to come crashing down! On the other hand Pancks says he has checked him out throughly - and we know how knowledgeable about money matters Pancks is, "squeezing the tenants" when collecting the rents for Mr. Casby, and he sorted out the Dorrit case when many other skilled lawyers had got nowhere. Could he really have been taken in?

I'm really enjoying the illustrations to this novel! Sometimes Sol Eytinge Junior's work seems a bit sketchy to me, but this one is full of life and humour.

The one by Harry Furniss is similar to Phiz's of the same scene, but feels more "arty". His are like drawings and Phiz's are caricatures or cartoons (as we understand the term nowadays).

James Mahoney produced far more than the other three, but they vary quite a bit in quality. I think this one of Pancks and Arthur Clennam is good though, and it reminds me a bit of the later work by Sidney Paget. (He became famous for illustrating the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle in "The Strand" magazine a bit later.)

Bionic Jean wrote: "I like this quotation from today's chapter:

"As a vast fire will fill the air to a great distance with its roar, so the sacred flame which the mighty Barnacles had fanned caused the air to resound..."

That paragraph and others seem to point to Merdle or the "cult of Merdle" as the contagion that is spreading like the plague. Pancks may have checked him out but my theory that Merdle is going to be the cause of a financial disaster for all the people who have contracted the "Merdle virus."

Great quotation, Jean and Anne. If people hear something over and over again, they think it's the truth. (Politicians use this technique all the time in their campaigns!) I feel apprehensive for Arthur since he trusts Pancks, and Pancks would not purposely deceive him.

Connie,

not on purpose:

"Of whom Mr Pancks had taken the prevalent disease, he could no more have told than if he had unconsciously taken a fever. Bred at first, as many physical diseases are, in the wickedness of men, and then disseminated in their ignorance, these epidemics, after a period, get communicated to many sufferers who are neither ignorant nor wicked. Mr Pancks might, or might not, have caught the illness himself from a subject of this class; but in this category he appeared before Clennam, and the infection he threw off was all the more virulent."

Connie wrote: "Pancks would not purposely deceive him ..."

I agree. We have been shown that Pancks is honourable.
Therefore, if the narrator is leading us aright, we are being told that Pancks himself must have been deceived.

Anne, I think you are both in agreement!

.Jean,..
yes, indeed. I was just supplying the corroborating quote. I listen on audio and often follow along on Shmoop .

Pancks talked Arthur into investing. Oh no! Dickens' is brilliant the way he writes about this as a form of the plague. It's so true. It's like a disease that cannot be seen and can infect people without their knowing it. At first Arthur is skeptical:

"But what of Go in and lose?' said Arthur.

'Can't be done, sir,' returned Pancks. 'I have looked into it. Name up everywhere--immense resources--enormous capital--great position--high connection--government influence. Can't be done!'"

This idea that investments cannot go down, but only up is inherently
inaccurate. And even if the government investments are sound that doesn't mean that the person or people holding these investments (Merdle) are sound in the way they handle the millions of dollars with which they are dealing. I've seen this happen so many times in my country, so many Ponzi schemes and cheats who look respectable which smart people and institutions invested in. Words gets past around like "the plague" in just the way Arthur goes from doubt to being assured.

"He began to think it was curious too that it should be everywhere, and that nobody but he should seem to have any mistrust of it. Though indeed he began to remember, when he got to this, even _he_ did not mistrust it; he had only happened to keep aloof from it.

: .Such symptoms, when a disease of the kind is rife, are usually the signs of sickening.."

That's such a beautiful sentence. I'm admiring the way Dickens' compares the idolatry of Merdle (for no reason that anyone can recall) to the plague. Arthur is sickening now which means he will invest his and Doyce's money.

The entire chapter is an ironic tribute to the grip of a sort of disease, so I included the beginning and ending analogies to a plague in my summary. Yes, it's superb, Anne :) And rather odd, considering that even the plague comparison is contemporary.

Unfortunately, it is all too contemporary.

I'm still womdering, is Merdle going to make a bad investment, innocently, or is he going to do something more deliberate? Or will it have something to do with the enamored Sparkler?

I'm sorry Pancks has put his thousand with Merdle and very sorry he has encouraged Arthur to do the same. I'm even more distressed that Arthur might invest Doyle's money without consulting him first. Merdle is destined to fail, because Dickens has built him up and yet insured us that this is a plague that is going around!

It was lovely to visit with the Plornishes again, and of course the fright of Cavalletto in seeing Blandois...whatever is Blandois up to hanging out in Bleeding Heart Yard? Arthur?

Can't resist this quote. Loved it so: "So stimulated, the business was extremely brisk, and the articles in stock went off with the greatest celerity. In short, if the Bleeding Hearts had but paid, the undertaking would have been a complete success..."

I ran a business and I can relate 100%.

It is a wonderful comparison the way gossip, both good news and bad news, spreads like a disease. Thanks for all the quotations, everyone.

Merdle may be financially brilliant, but are all these investments too much for one man to handle? We've all seen properties and businesses run up in price beyond their real value, and then there's a crash. I'm worrying along with you, Jenny.

That's such a good point, Sara, that Arthur might invest Doyle's money while he is away. If he didn't have his permission, he would feel responsible to pay the money back if it was lost.

And what if he couldn't? This could mean disaster for Arthur. Anne had mentioned Bernie Madoff earlier and I feel like Merdle is the Victorian version of Bernie.

Sara. Exactly. I didn't use his name again because not everyone is from the US and knows about Madoff. But Dickens has been hinting for a while about Merdle and this chapter is clear. I think Merdle is a Madoff. There are enough hints.

Connie, Arthur is planning to invest his money and I assume Doyce's money since they are in business together. Remember the quote above about Arthur sickening?

It is interesting that I mentioned Madoff in the review I wrote in 2018 for Little Dorrit, Anne. I think the things people are saying (like this can't fail and everyone who touches him makes money, and how can I get in on this?) And the fact that people who might otherwise be smart and cautious are taken in, like Pancks and now Arthur, somehow just echo those times and make you draw the parallel in your mind.

Sara wrote: "It is interesting that I mentioned Madoff in the review I wrote in 2018 for Little Dorrit, Anne. I think the things people are saying (like this can't fail and everyone who touches him makes money,..."

Exactly! It's funny because I purposely did not read your review yet and you came up with Madoff too. yes, everything Dickens writes about feels exactly the same. An easy association to Madoff.

It is the idea that someone has the magic touch in investments and that you are lucky to get in on this special opportunity. It helps if the person is charismatic and confident and seems trustworthy. Madoff was a famous one but I know of people who ran into similar issues with advisors they trusted.

It is the same principle as chain letters when I was a kid. You were supposed to send a small amount of money to the person whose name was at the top of the list and put your name on the bottom and send it to 5 friends and eventually you would get a big payoff. My brother and I were already planning how we would spend our windfall. No one ever got anything except maybe the person who started it and I believe they are now illegal.

For those who read my "a little more" posts, you may remember that when Mr. Merdle first came into the story, I wrote about the real person he is based on. But I had to cut it short, and promised to tell the ending later, as it would have been a spoiler!

Yes, human nature is the same the world over, whether noble or self-seeking. In this read we have English, Scottish, American, Canadian, Italian, Dutch, and Turkish readers that I'm sure of - and probably others too! But we all recognise the Merdle syndrome, with different names :)

Book II: Chapter 14:

The final chapter in installment 14.

When it becomes generally known that Edmund Sparkler holds an important position in the Circumlocution Office, people react in various ways:

“Some laughed; some said, … that the post was virtually a sinecure, and any fool who could spell his name was good enough for it; some, … more solemn political oracles, said that Decimus did wisely to strengthen himself, and that the sole purpose of all places within the gift of Decimus, was, that Decimus should strengthen himself.”

Mrs. Merdle is deliberately spreading the news of Edmund’s new position. She well knows the importance of this position in the Circumlocution Office, and hints that the Circumlocution office are lucky to have him. She dissembles, saying that, yes, it is true that he has accepted the place and that she hopes he might like it, but she doesn’t know. It will keep him in town, and he prefers the country, and if he likes it it was just as well he should have something to do.

“‘There was no denying that the thing was a compliment to Mr Merdle, and was not a bad thing for Edmund if he liked it …’

Thus the Bosom; accomplished in the art of seeming to make things of small account, and really enhancing them in the process.“

Henry Gowan is just as skilled at manipulating his audience. He is adept at twisting his words to belittle Mr. Sparkler, whilst appearing to wish to congratulate him. He says that:

“Sparkler was the sweetest-tempered, simplest-hearted, altogether most lovable jackass that ever grazed on the public common”

and goes around to all his acquaintances, making sure everyone knows that he professes to be delighted that Edmund has got the position. He says it is the perfect job for Sparkler, as there is nothing to do, and he will do it charmingly. The only thing better would have been for Henry himself to be offered it:

“he almost forgave the donor his slight of himself, in his joy that the dear donkey for whom he had so great an affection was so admirably stabled.”

And Henry delights in taking Edmund Sparkler round all his acquaintances, to share the good news. Edmund Sparkler of course makes “a dreary and forlorn mental spectacle of himself,” and this puts Fanny in a difficult position. Everyone knows how much Mr. Sparkler admires Fanny, and she has never actually got rid of him as her beau.

“Hence, she was sufficiently identified with the gentleman to feel compromised by his being more than usually ridiculous; and … she sometimes came to his rescue against Gowan … But, while doing this, she was ashamed of him, undetermined whether to get rid of him or more decidedly encourage him, distracted with apprehensions … and tortured by misgivings that Mrs Merdle triumphed in her distress.”



Mrs. Merdle, Mr. Sparkler and Fanny - Sol Eystinge Jnr., 1871

One day, Fanny comes home from a ball, upset from all her conflicting feelings, and Amy tries to comfort her. But Fanny bursts out that she detests everybody, and that she wishes she were dead. Amy is concerned, and begs Fanny to tell her what is the matter. Is it something to do with Mr. Sparkler? Fanny, irritated, reacts peevishly calling Amy a “mole” and “Miss Bat”, and then immediately feels ashamed, and says she is sorry for it, that:

“she knew she made herself hateful, but that everybody drove her to it.”

Poor Little Dorrit decides it is best to remain quiet, and Fanny works her temper out with a long speech.

“Finally she burst into violent weeping, and, when her sister came and sat close at her side to comfort her, said, ‘Amy, you’re an Angel!’”

Fanny now says that she will share her problems with Amy, and that Amy may advise her; which strange idea makes them both smile, and be friends again.

Fanny begins by saying that although they as a family now have property, and a high social position, they still have disadvantages. Their father is extremely gentlemanly, but he is still in some respects, a little different from wealthy gentlemen, because of what he has gone through. Plus:

“I fancy, on account of its often running in his mind that other people are thinking about that, while he is talking to them.”

Fanny considers their uncle Frederick to also be a problem; he is “altogether unpresentable”, and her their brother Edward is “frightfully expensive and dissipated”—and not in the way one might expect a young gentleman might be.

Fanny thinks it may be up to her to carry the family through, and she is not willing to submit to either Mrs. General or Mrs. Merdle. She says to Amy that she is sure Mrs. General wants to marry their father. This idea is a new one to Amy, who tries to object, but Fanny will not listen.

She goes on to say that she doubts whether she would want a clever husband and believes Sparkler will make an acceptable husband, especially now that he has attained a very good position. Amy protests that if she really loved someone, none of this would matter. Fanny thinks that the very idea of Amy knowing such things, is most amusing, but Amy still begs her not to marry Mr. Sparkler, as Fanny has “qualities to make you the wife of one very superior to Mr. Sparkler.”

Fanny replies she has no intention of doing so to-night or tomorrow morning either, but she does not like her position, and wants to change it. She begins to look triumphant as she considers how she could then behave around Mrs. Merdle, and says to Amy:

“That piece of insolence may think, now, that it would be a great success to get her son off upon me, and shelve me. But, perhaps, she little thinks how I would retort upon her if I married her son. I would oppose her in everything, and compete with her. I would make it the business of my life …

I could make her older. And I would! … I would talk of her as an old woman …affectionately, quite dutifully and affectionately: how well she looked, considering her time of life. I could make her seem older at once, by being myself so much younger. I may not be as handsome as she is … but I know I am handsome enough to be a thorn in her side. And I would be!“

Amy is troubled to hear all this, but Fanny says she has almost made up her mind to do it. From now on Amy pays close attention to how Fanny behaves towards Edward Sparkler. Sometimes she seems to get on much better with him, when she can feel superior, and at others she “appeared quite unable to endure his mental feebleness”. Throughout all this, Mr. Sparkler remains faithful, following along, and taking the rough with the smooth, as if he is towed by a steam-ship.

About a month or six weeks later Little Dorrit begins to notice a difference. Mr. Sparkler behaves proprietorially towards her, and becomes almost like a brother, sometimes putting his arm protectively round her waist.

One day, Amy is at home sitting at one end of their drawing-room, looking down over the street, and watching the world go by, in the Corso:



Fanny and Edmund Sparkler with Amy - James Mahoney

She is considering what this new behaviour by Mr. Sparkler might mean, when Fanny and her faithful follower come in, and sit down one on each side of her, on the window seat. Together they give her their news, that Fanny is to be married to Mr. Sparkler, in an very amusing episode, where Fanny keeps attempting to stop Mr. Sparker’s effusive compliments, referring to herself, Amy, or his mother as being “remarkably fine,” and having a “no nonsense about them”. Mr. Sparkler does say that Amy will always be welcome in their home.

Finally, Mr. Sparkler dimly perceives that the two sisters might wish to be alone, and leaves the room. Amy turns to Fanny, and they both cry a little, in each other’s arms. The narrator comments:

“It was the last time Fanny ever showed that there was any hidden, suppressed, or conquered feeling in her on the matter. From that hour the way she had chosen lay before her, and she trod it with her own imperious self-willed step.”

While I feel sorry for Fanny and Edmund, I am happy that they are willing to give Amy space in their home, to get her away from Mrs. General.

One critic has commented that in Sol Eytinge Junior's drawing, Mrs. Merdle looks like Queen Victoria, and that her son Edmund Sparkler like a youthful, corpulent Prince of Wales!

I must admit, they don't really accord with my mental image.

The James Mahoney drawing, with Fanny dominating the scene, does reveal the comparative positions in society of the two sisters. Edmund may be an imbecile, but he is allowing Fanny to join as a fully fledged member of Society, whereas Amy is a looker-on, just as she watches life passing her by through the window.

This does not look good for Fanny.

And, in the previous chapter, we have the money investments not looking good.

I wonder were all this is going?

And I want to get back to "what's in the box?"