Little less than a novel name (6)
I believe the answer is:
dorrit
'little less' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'than a novel name' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'name' could be 'dorri' and 'dorri' is present in the answer.
A single letter 't' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dorrit that I've seen before include "Little girl" , "See 1" , "Dickens novel 'Little .....'" , "See 13" , "See 7" .)