The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Little Dorrit. N VIII. By Charles Dickens.
Although we heia now got to the end of the
eleventh chapter of the second moiety of Little
i)orrit, we cannot for the life of us guess our way
out of the tangled labyrinth of the plot. Tatty-
coram, M. Blandois, Miss Wade, Harry Gowan—
all the abominables of the book, including amongst
the number Mr. Casby, Mrs. Clennam, and Me.
Flintwinch, not forgetting, by the way, the princi-
pal members of the Central Dorrit Family, to wit,
Tip, Fanny, and the quondam Father of the Mar-
shalsea—fairly puzzle us. It is impossible to con-
jecture what on earth they are all driving at. We
look for a murder, at least, as a sequel to all this
ominous and diabolic preparation. Poor Cavalletto„
we presume, is still waiting in his garret in Bleed-
ing Heart Yard—for something to happen I Young
John is still pining, we suppose, in the Groves--
of clothes hanging out to dry ! The Patriarch
still with his list shoes on the fender—twirls
his thumbs down to the end of the chapter—until
Pancks the Tug can muster courage enough to
" do" for his Proprietor, avengingly, by cutting
his hair off ! Sparkler is still feeling his pulse at
his shirt collars ! Barnacle junior still wonder-
ingly goggles through his eye-glass at Clennam's
wanting to know you know Blandois' moustache
still goes up and his nose still comes down in
an evil smile at everything and everybody !
Mistress Affery wanders about the grim old
house-upon-crutches, with her apron thrown
up over her white face—a ghostly appeal/wee
dreading a ghostly appearance ! The Objection_
able dog, poisoned by Rigand, still rota some-
where at the " ooze and bottom "of one of the
canals of Venice! Old Mr. Nandy, out from
the Union upon holidays, still chirrups about
Daphne and Phillis to the delight of the Plornish
children ! Honest Daniel Doyce dreams still his
matter-of-fact dreams about working out his pet
invention in spite of all the tangling red tape of
the dread Office of Circumlocution ! And so on,
with all the rest of these vividly depicted and
motley characters : nevertheless, out of the throng
of them we cannot for the life of us, we repeat,
see our way yet in any one direction. lye dotal
know what is to come of it all. .1.1 seems to us for ell
the world, to employ the language of one of Mr.
Dickens's own characters (vide "Hard Times''),
to use the phrase of Stephen Blackpool—" Aw a
muddle'!" Scarcely any progress of any kind what,
ever is wade in the present number. Arthur
Clennam, fired by a sympathetic interest, takes up
anew the abandoned hebby of his partner Doyce--
intent upon fercingit,if possible, at last, through the
Circumlocution Office, in spite of all the Barnacles
sticking to all the posts set up by all those who
are, .ever and ever, despatch-boxing the compass
in the cause of Misrule, though in the name or
efood. Governmeet. In illustration of the course
pursued by Arthur in his new enterprise, we come
upon the following inimitable passage :
"The waiting-rooms of that department soon began
to be familiar with his presence, and he was generally
ushered into them by its janitors much as a pickpocket
might be shown into a police-office ; the principal differ-
ence being that the (Nee,: of the latter class of public
laniriess is to keep the pickpocket, while the Circumlo-
cution object was to get rid of Clennam. Hewever, he
was resnivi d to stick to the great department ; and so
the work of form-filing, corresponding, minuting, irs-
morandum-ma6i g, signing, counter-signing, counter
couner-Agnifig, referring backwards and forwards, and
referring sideways, crosswise, and zigzag, recommenced.
"Here arises a feature of the Circumlocution Office,
not previously mentioned in the present record. When
that admirable department got into trouble, and was,
by some infuriated member of Parliament, whom the
smaller Barnacles almost suspected of labouring under
diabolic possession, attacked, on the merits of no indi-
Narita! case, but as an institution wholly abominable and
Bedlarnite ; then the noble or right honourable Barna-
cle who repre.ented it in the house, would smite that
member and cleave him asunder with a statement of the
qsantity of business (for the prevention of business) done
by the Circumlocution Office. Theft would that noble
or right honourable Barnacle hold in his hand a paper con-
taining a few figures, to which, with the permission of
the house, he would entreat its attention. Then would
the inferior Barnacles exclaim, obeying orders, "Hear,
hear, hear," and " Read !" Then would the noble or
right honourable Barnacle perceive, sir, from this little
document, which be thought might carry conviction
even to the perversest minds—(derisive laughter and
cheering from the Barnacle fry)—that within the short
compass of the last financial half-year, this muoh-ma-
ligned department—tcheers)— had written and received
fifteen thousand letters—(load cheers)—twenty-four
thousand minutes—(louder cheers)—and thirty-two
thousand five hundred and seventeen memoranda. (Ts.
henient cheering.) Nay, an ingenious gentleman con-
nected with the department, and himself a valuable pub
lie servant, had done him the favour to make a curious
calculation of the amount of stationery consumed in it
daring the same period. It formed a part of this same
short document ; and he derived from it the remarkable
fact, that the sheets of foolscap paper it had devoted to
the public service would pave the footways on both sides
of Oxford-street from end to end, and leave nearly a
quarter of a mile to spare for the park—(immense cheer-
ing and laughter)—while of tape—red tape—it had used
enough to stretcb, in graceful festoons., from Hyde-park-
corner to the General Post-offirm, Then, amidst a burst
of official exultation, would the noble or right honour.
able Barnacle sit down, leaving the mutilated fragments
of the member on the field. No one, atter that exem-
plary demolition of him, would have the hardihood to
hint that the more the Circumlocution Office did, the
less was done, and that the greatest blessing it could
confer on au unhappy public would be to do nothing."
Au admirably humorous passage, this, occurring
in the course of chapter viii., in which- we are told
to our infinite amusement how "The Dowager
Mrs. Gowan, is reminded that it never does."
Chapter ix. affords us, through Arthur Clennam's
eyes, a horrid momentary glimpse or two of Miss
Wade and Tattycoram—miserable young female
nondeseripts, the latter of whom first startles Mrs.
Tickit with a ghost-like " Appearance and Disap-
pearance." Going in quest of them to the Pa-
triarch Casby's, Arthur has there a brief passage
of arms with Mr. F.'s Aunt—enough by reason of
its sheer extravagance to make the reader, as
the saying is, fairly die a-laughing t How
many of these half-witted people Mr. Dickens
has drawn to be sure !—.2lfiss Flits in " Bleak
House," Mr. Dick in " David Copperfield,"
Barnaby liudge himself, the Mad Gentle-
man in " Nicholas Nickleby," and, now
againt Mr. F.'s Aunt, last but not by any means
least in her amazing ridiculousness. Chapter
in which " The Dreams of Mrs. Flintwinch
Thicken," opens threateningly with a description
of the lurid surroundings of the House-upon-
Crutches, and closes almost awfully with Arthur
Clennam's retreat from the same house, leaving in
it the murderer Rigaud, or, as lie calls himself
latterly, Blandois, in grim conference with Mrs.
Clennam and her old hung of a partner Flintwinch.
Lastly, we have in chapter xi. another gentle,
genial, tender letter from Dear Little Dorrit, givingthr
e
US a glimpse of the Gowans' life in Rome, whither
they have been followed by excellent Father and
Mother Meagles, and where Minnie gives birth to
a little baby-boy. And so the number closes with
an affecting glimpse of Domestic Felicity and
Infelicity.