Dickens

There's no doubt that Dickens's account of the Circumlocution Department, in Little Dorrit, is among the highlights not only of D's work but of al British social satire - a direct descendant of Swift and a forerunner of 20th-century dark comedy and social commentary. The idea of a government agency whose sole purpose is to never provide aid or information will ring true painfully for too many supplicants and journalists. The sense of nightmare futility obviously was developed further by Kafka and also anticipates the bureaucratic nightmare depicted in Seghers's Transit. And the humor of course is an early anticipation of such absurdities as Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks. Dickens has here moved beyond his account of Chancery in his previous novel, Bleak House, and has imagined not just a government agency that does its job poorly but one who does its job - preventing public access and information and providing sinecure appointments and do-nothing posts - to perfection .

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