Little Dorrit: With original illustrations – annotated

The novel’s action starts in 1820, in a jail cell in Marseille where two prisoners named Cavalletto and Rigaud encounter each other. Not far away, a group of English travelers cross paths as they wait in quarantine. The group includes Arthur Clennam, a man of 40 who is returning home after 20 years in China, the Meagles family (husband, wife, their beautiful daughter Pet, and Tattycoram, an orphan who was adopted to be Pet’s companion), and Miss Wade, a mysterious and reserved woman who is travelling alone. After parting from the group, Arthur arrives in London and reunites with his mother who is cold and severe towards him. Arthur is happy to see Affery, a servant he remembers fondly, but is ill at ease with her husband, Jeremiah Flintwinch, an employee of the family business who now seems to work closely with his mother. Arthur’s questions about the business and whether anything unethical has ever been done lead to an estrangement with his mother, who cuts him off from working for the company. —- ISBN: 9798883872937