Day 5 - A Book That Makes Me Happy

I struggled with this one, because there are so many, and I really wanted to write about The Help, but I've done that before (I must spend a lot of time blogging about books), so the book I'm writing about as my top book for making me happy is...

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

The reason this book makes me happy is wide and varied.

A little known classic by Dickens, it has recently become popular by the dramatised version of it (it is a must-see - perfectly executed, almost word for word). I love adaptation movies that don't divert from the original stories (don't even get me started on the awful Miss Marple renditions that came out awhile ago).

Little Dorrit follows the adult life of Amy Dorrit, the daughter of a well-born man who has spent the last 20 years in a debtors prison.

Here is why this book makes me happy:

1. It is an interesting setting (the debtors prison)
2. It has romance
3. It has suspence - there's a real, true-blue murder and intrigue mystery in this.
4. It has sweetness and whimsy
5. It has villains
6. It has a cad you will love to hate
7. It mocks at beurocracy. I mean, really, really mocks. In fact, Dickens was the first to highlight the idiocy of beurocracy with this novel, inventing the term the 'circumlocution office' for the purposes of this book.
8. It has Italians
9. There are several mysteries within the story. Mysteries within mysteries. Typical Dickens, you might say.
10. Funny moments

And the thing I love the most about this book, is that everything and everyone is tied up nicely at the end. You are not left wondering about anyone or anything. I can't think of a more satisfying ending to a much-loved book.

Here is an excerpt from the movie if you haven't seen it: