Little Dorrit grows up in the Marshalsea debtor's prison, where her father has been imprisoned ever since her birth. When Mr Dorrit's debt is excused, he is anxious to forget his inglorious past and be accepted back into the best circles of society. Dickens criticizes the hierarchical society which would demand such an impossible thing of a man, and also questions which class of their acquaintance are good people and true friends. When one of London's

The fourth entry in Anthony Trollope's Palliser series about Parliament, this volume follows up on Irish member of Parliament Phineas Finn. After suffering a profound personal loss, Finn returns to his native Ireland to lick his wounds and start a new life. But before long, the siren song of London and its political movers and shakers begins to beckon. Will Finn give up his hard-won independence to put himself back into the parliamentary fray?