My mini review of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit - left on Amazon site

I did not find it long. I learned a lot about Dickens and his social conscience from reading this. I also saw the Masterpiece Theatre TV series a few years ago, but what was lost there was Charles Dickens' incomparable authorial voice and his sense of humor. The TV version did help me anticipate the plot somewhat, but Dickens can still kill people off in one paragraph, and it does not seem contrived. The mental decline of the overly prestige-conscious Father of the Marshalsea debtors' prison and his ho-humming pronouncements was wonderfully done. So much so that his final breakdown came as no surprise. The speech patterns of the fat Flora, said to be modeled on Dickens' wife, and the dialogue involving others were also excellent. I think the plot has been changed a bit in the TV version. However, Little Dorrit is still one of the best works for anyone to read who wishes to paint on a large canvas and handle serious, societal issues. I was able to relate to it more because as someone born in Burma with its Gulag of military-operated prisons and its prison of a country, I could relate to the Marshalsea more. The audio version, judging from the sample, is also excellent. People should read the classics more. They should not impose their 20th and 21st century values on the 19th century. K.M.Kaung