Little Dorrit, in Two Volumes, with the Original Illustrations (The Gadshill Edition) (The Works of Charles Dickens in Thirty-four Volumes, Vols. XIX & XX)

xviii, [2] 537, [2]; viii, [2], 500. 8" x 5 7/8". 8vo. Complete in two hardcover volumes. Original red cloth, gilt titles and author's device, gilt top page ridge. Original illustrations protected by tissue guards. Introduction & notes by Andrew Lang, a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic best known for his collections of folk and fairy tales. Little Dorrit is a serial novel by Charles Dickens published originally between 1855 and 1857. It is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtors' prisons—in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they have repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned. Most of Dickens' other critiques in this particular novel concern the social safety net: industry, and the treatment and safety of workers; the bureaucracy of the British Treasury (as figured in the fictional 'Circumlocution Office' [Bk. 1, Ch. 10]); and the separation of people based on the lack of intercourse between the classes. Little Dorrit was published in 19 monthly instalments, each comprising 32 pages and featuring two illustrations by Phiz. Each instalment cost a shilling, with the exception of the last, a double issue which cost two shillings. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles Dickens was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime. Later critics, beginning with George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton, championed his mastery of prose, his endless invention of memorable characters and his powerful social sensibilities, but fellow writers such as George Henry Lewes, Henry James and Virginia Woolf fault his work for sentimentality, implausible occurrence and grotesque characters. The popularity of Dickens' novels and short stories has meant that not one has ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories was eagerly anticipated by the reading public.