a novel of serendipity, of fortunes won and lost, and of the spectre of imprisonment that hangs over all aspects of victorian society when arthur clennam returns to england after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in amy dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of amy's father, william dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in marshalsea prison. as arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly mr panks, the reluctant rent-collector of bleeding heart yard, and the tipsily garrulous flora finching, to merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic barnacles in the circumlocution office. a masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, little dorrit is one of the supreme works of dickens's maturity. stephen wall's introduction examines dickens's transformation of childhood memories of his father's incarceration in the marshalsea debtors' prison. this revised edition includes expanded notes, appendices and suggestion for further reading by helen small, a chronology of dickens's life and works, and original illustrations. for more than seventy years, penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the english-speaking world. with more than 1,700 titles, penguin classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.