SOURCE: Page, H. M. “‘A More Seditious Book Than Das Kapital’: Shaw on Little Dorrit.” Shaw Review 21, no. 3 (September 1977): 171-77.

In the following essay, Page discusses George Bernard Shaw's appraisal of Little Dorrit as a masterpiece, which inspired a marked change in the novel's evaluation by scholars.

In the last century, most critics were indifferent or hostile to Little Dorrit, which was often regarded even by Dickens' admirers as the worst of his works. In contrast, since 1950 many critics have thought it a masterpiece, perhaps Dickens' greatest novel. A pioneer of this change of attitude was Shaw, who, at intervals throughout his long career, continued to insist on the profundity of Dickens' art in Little Dorrit, its truthfulness to human character, and its value as a portrayal of and revolt against the corrupt political and social system of the modern world. Shaw's criticism was epigrammatic and fragmentary, expressed...