About this story
The Circumlocution Office perfects the art of how not to do it; Doyce's invention is praised in every room and used in none; your father, freed into wealth, dies in Rome and the prison is never told. Thirty-five chapters carry you from a gate that closes at midnight to a morning walk out of it, married.
How it opens
The old Clennam house held London daylight behind bars of leaded glass and dusty counting-room windows.
Clocks disagreed along the walls, though each tick sounded stern enough to govern a household.
Mrs ClennamAmy, finish the seam before you leave; charity must not encourage careless work.
Mother, I have returned after twenty years, and still this room refuses the sun.
Choose
I sew here by Mrs Clennam's kindness, sir.
My name is Amy Dorrit, and I work until the evening gate closes.