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Dombey and Son
This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780140435467.
'The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light'
To Paul Dombey, business is all and money can do anything. He runs his family life as he runs his firm; coldly, calculatingly and commercially. The only person he cares for is his little son, while his motherless daughter Florence is merely a 'base coin that couldn't be invested'. As Dombey's callousness extends to others - from his defiant second wife Edith to Florence's admirer Walter Gay - he sows the seeds of his own destruction. A compelling depiction of a man imprisoned by his own pride, Dombey and Son (1848) explores the devastating effects of emotional deprivation on a dysfunctional family and on society as a whole.
In his introduction, Andrew Sanders discusses the character of Paul Dombey, business and family relationships in Dombey and Son and their similarities to Dickens' own childhood. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, notes and the original illustrations by H. K. Browne.
'The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light'
To Paul Dombey, business is all and money can do anything. He runs his family life as he runs his firm; coldly, calculatingly and commercially. The only person he cares for is his little son, while his motherless daughter Florence is merely a 'base coin that couldn't be invested'. As Dombey's callousness extends to others - from his defiant second wife Edith to Florence's admirer Walter Gay - he sows the seeds of his own destruction. A compelling depiction of a man imprisoned by his own pride, Dombey and Son (1848) explores the devastating effects of emotional deprivation on a dysfunctional family and on society as a whole.
In his introduction, Andrew Sanders discusses the character of Paul Dombey, business and family relationships in Dombey and Son and their similarities to Dickens' own childhood. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, notes and the original illustrations by H. K. Browne.
997 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1848
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19002 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dickens
12.6k books31.2k followersCharles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
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September 12, 2024
Dombey and Son is a novel about pride and ambition. Paul Dombey, proud, wealthy, arrogant and frigid, is a man to whom the idea of "Dombey and Son" is paramount. There has always been a "Dombey and Son"; there will always be a "Dombey and Son". It is his whole world, his reason for being. Everything in his life is focused and directed towards this.
The full title of the book is Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. Therefore the "son" of the title, although a real living person, is first and foremost an abstract concept, much as we are led to believe Paul Dombey senior himself had been to his own father, and so on, as far back as living memory allowed.
"The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light ... Common abbreviations took new meanings in his eyes, and had sole reference to them. A. D. had no concern with Anno Domini, but stood for anno Dombei - and Son."
The book starts with a defence of this character by Dickens himself, as part of the Preface from 1867, where he berates his earlier readers for "the confounding of shyness with arrogance", insisting that,
"Mr Dombey undergoes no violent change, either in this book, or in real life. A sense of his injustice is within him, all along. The more he represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is."
And although we despise Dombey Senior for his rigidity, his cold aloofness, his arrogance and pride, we see that he is the product of his class and time, and that any adapting of that initial "repression" as Dickens terms it, must represent a huge development in his character. This novel is partly about his eventual realisation and breaking out from such an inflexible mould. Dickens carefully inches Dombey along to more and more appallingly selfish acts, so that the reader comes to abominate the man's actions. Throughout he stays completely authentic and believable, even though at root Dombey is an honourable man. He is never a villain in the same mould as, for instance, his man of business the marvellously devious, scheming and manipulative wolf, Carker.
Once again we have a myriad of wonderful characters. James Carker is a moral thug who steals every scene in which he appears. He would shoot to the top of the tree of pantomime villains; a delight to read about with his,
"two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat."
Carker's beauteous teeth are mentioned no less than 69 times in the novel!
Dombey's little son Paul is, to use an expression of the the time, a strange old-fashioned boy. Dickens modelled him on his sister Fanny's crippled son Henry Burnett Junior. Paul's startling observations seem to indicate a wisdom, and perhaps a prescience, beyond his years. Coupled with his frailty, this increases our feelings of impending doom. Dombey also has a daughter, Florence, whom he ignores and despises. Her depiction is easily the most convincing "good" heroine he has created so far. She is virtuous, intelligent, hardworking, determined, modest and kind. In fact she has all the attributes Dickens admired in women. Yet unlike earlier female characters, she has what we would consider a "flaw". She feels guilt where there could not possibly be any. From a modern perspective then, she is very appealing. We do not like perfection.
Another character who appears later in the book is Edith Granger, a proud, bridling, passionate but penniless widow, and again, she is a very rounded and complex character, with nuances of ambition, confusion, bitterness, loathing and a kind of desperate love. Almost as many pages of this novel are devoted to female characters as to male characters, including the title character, Dombey himself. Florence and Edith together comprise much of this attention. Edith's mother Mrs. Skewton is a wonderfully monstrous creation, a sort of prototype for the much later Miss Havisham in "Great Expectations". But unlike her, she pimps out her daughter while she primps up herself.
As well as the great family of Dombey, there are other families whose kindness and warmth of their internal relationships provide a sharp contrast. There is young, good-hearted Walter Gay, his old salt-of-the-earth uncle Solomon Gills, a ship's instrument-maker, plus their friend the genial old Captain Cuttle. Captain Cuttle himself has an old seafaring friend called Captain Jack Bunsby, who is always called on in times of crisis for much-valued advice, although those around usually find such advice perplexing. Bunsby is hilariously described by Dickens as having,
"one stationary eye in the mahogany face, and one revolving one, on the principle of some lighthouses."
One cannot think of this family without thinking of Mrs. MacStinger, that fearsome harridan of a landlady, who terrifies the life out of Bunsby. The playing-out and denouement of their continuing saga, is both hilarious and satisfying, as it eventually weaves into another main theme. The strands in this novel are so subtly intertwined; the novel is superbly constructed.
This family represent to some extent the old world which is being left behind. The Toodle family, rosy-cheeked Polly - who has to become "Mrs Richards" in order to emphasise her position as nurse rather than her individuality, her "plump and apple-faced" husband, who later begins to work on the railway, plus all the little Toodles including their eldest rogue of a son Rob (the Grinder) represent the new world. There is Dombey's sister Louisa Chick, the only person to have any influence whatsoever over him, slight though it is, and whose byword seems to be "effort". Anything could be overcome by more effort. According to her, the fact that Dombey's first wife died during childbirth (at the beginning of the novel) - was due to her "not making an effort" - thus proving without a doubt that she was not a real Dombey, with the admirable Dombey marks of character.
There is Susan Nipper, initially an unpleasant and objectionable, waspish, sharp-tongued character, but as Florence's maid she proves to be a loyal and stout-hearted friend, who has the reader cheering from the sidelines when she tells some home truths to Paul Dombey. There is the gouty retired Major Joe Bagstock, put in for comic relief, as the objects of his amorous inclinations seem to change so very easily. Lucretia Tox too, switches her matrimonial attentions with equal alacrity - to our great entertainment once again. Another entertaining cameo role is played by Mrs Pipchin, the cantankerous operator of a boarding house in Brighton where Paul and Florence are sent for Paul's health. Never a comment goes by without her referring to her late husband, who had been killed 40 years earlier, in the Peruvian Mines. Dickens apparently modelled Mrs Pipchin on Mrs Roylance, who had been his landlady in London when his father was imprisoned for debt.
There is the grotesque witch "Good" Mrs Brown, in a frightening and shocking fairytale passage in the book which is extraordinarily redolent of "Hansel and Gretel" or "Baba Yaga". Incredibly unpleasant and bizarre, she is one of the few actual caricatures in the book. Yet she returns later on, more fully fleshed out, and is revealed to have a profound connection to the main storyline. There is the portly scholar Doctor Blimbers, his wife who, "was not learned herself, but she pretended to be, and that did quite as well" and the Doctor's daughter, the ghoulish Cornelia, "dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages". Kind but misguided, their strenuous disciplined instructive routine in their cramming Academy causes their little pupils such long-term distress.
Minor characters add to the book's enjoyment. There is Toots, little Paul's scatterbrained classmate, who becomes the humble admirer of Florence, permanently worried about his absent-mindedness and addled brain. There are many more quirky characters dotted around the novel, and several subplots, such as the hidden mysterious secret between the Carker brothers. Why is Carker's older brother John called "the Junior" by James, having a low position at the firm of Dombey and Son, and why is he looked upon generally with scorn? There is the sister of both brothers, Harriet, who for some unknown reason has elected to live with this less successful brother, John. Then there is the feisty, aggressively enigmatic Alice Brown - what is her secret? There is the good-natured aristocrat cousin Feenix, who makes everything all right in the end, Doctor Parker Peps, Sir Barnet, Lady and Master Skettles and the wonderfully named Reverend Melchisedech Howler.
There are many more characters who come to mind, but I cannot leave the topic without mentioning Florence's only true friend and sole companion at one point, a scruffy mutt, Diogenes the dog,
"Come, then, Di! Dear Di! Make friends with your new mistress. Let us love each other, Di!' said Florence, fondling his shaggy head. And Di, the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that dropped upon it, and his dog's heart melted as it fell, put his nose up to her face, and swore fidelity ... Diogenes already loved her for her own, and didn't care how much he showed it. So he made himself vastly ridiculous by performing a variety of uncouth bounces in the ante-chamber, and concluded, when poor Florence was at last asleep, and dreaming of the rosy children opposite, by scratching open her bedroom door: rolling up his bed into a pillow: lying down on the boards, at the full length of his tether, with his head towards her: and looking lazily at her, upside down, out of the tops of his eyes, until from winking and winking he fell asleep himself, and dreamed, with gruff barks, of his enemy."
We have this absurdity, this humour. We have our entertainment, our mystery - and sometime our horror. And we also have, perhaps for the first time, literary gravitas.
For instance, the motif of Time constantly rears its head, with timepieces, clocks and watches, all present at decisive moments of the story. Another noticable device is the sea, waves, and running water. A sense of "waves", or a kind of unsteadiness often seeps into the story just as a character is delerious or beginning to be seriously ill, when an enormous eventful change is in the air, or some thing or idea is to be swept away. There is so much symbolism with ringing and bells tolling the death knell. There are both overt and subtle references to earlier literary works. Is it not deliberate that Dickens has created three witches in the novel? First comes the kidnapper and thief, the ogress "Good" Mrs Brown. The second is the abominable Mrs Skewton, whom Dickens facetiously refers to throughout as "Cleopatra" because of her artificiality. This description is of her as her maid attends to Mrs. Skewton's dress as she retires at night,
"... her touch was as the touch of Death. The painted object shrivelled underneath her hand; the form collapsed, the hair dropped off, the arched dark eyebrows changed to scanty tufts of grey; the pale lips shrunk, the skin became cadaverous and loose, an old, worn yellow, nodding woman, with red eyes, alone remained in Cleopatra's place, huddled up, like a slovenly bundle, in a greasy flannel gown."
What an eye! The third hag, is a fortune-teller, or tramp,
"a withered and very ugly old woman ... munching with her jaws, as if the Death's Head beneath her yellow skin were impatient to get out". Scowling, screaming, wrathful, and "going backwards like a crab, or like a heap of crabs: for her alternately expanding and contracting hands might have represented two of that species, and her creeping face some half-a-dozen more: crouched on the veinous root of an old tree, pulled out a short black pipe from within the crown of her bonnet, lighted it with a match, and smoked in silence, looking fixedly at her questioner."
This narrative complexity marks a subtle change and expertise in Dickens's novel-writing. Dombey and Son is a book which can be read on many levels.
During 1844 to 1847, the railways were starting to be developed, and the impact this has on London life is also a major aspect of the book. Several of the characters can been seen as representing one age or another. Dombey epitomises the older age of traditional values, stymied by the new exciting upcoming age which was to clear away the stuffiness with more opportunities for all. Yet this new age was also to impose mechanisation and a lack of individuality. Dickens sees it all, and see the faults inherent in both. His powerful descriptive passages describing the coming of the railroad to Camden Town, conjure up a hellish place,
""The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the whole neighbourhood to its centre. Traces of its course were visible on every side. Houses were knocked down; streets broken through and stopped; deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up; buildings that were undermined and shaking, propped by great beams of wood ... Hot springs and fiery eruptions, the usual attendants upon earthquakes, lent their contributions of confusion to the scene. Boiling water hissed and heaved within dilapidated walls; whence, also, the glare and roar of flames came issuing forth; and mounds of ashes blocked up rights of way"
Dombey and Son was Charles Dickens's seventh novel, published, as his earlier ones had been, in monthly parts initially, between Oct 1846 and Apr 1848. He was between 34 and 36 years old when he wrote it. The first parts were written in Lausanne, Switzerland, before Dickens returned to England, via Paris, to complete it. He also published one of his Christmas books, "The Battle Of Life", was directing and acting in various theatrical productions, and set up "Urania Cottage" (for "fallen women") with his friend the philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, all within the space of time when he was writing Dombey and Son. As always, he was a literary dynamo, pushing himself to the absolute maximum.
Dickens asked his great friend, Hablot K. Browne, or "Phiz" to illustrate Dombey and Son. He was not sure how it would sell, as he had new publishers, Bradbury and Evans. As it turned out, he had been worrying quite needlessly. Before long the installments were selling at up to 40,000 copies a month. This was eight times as many as his main competitor, William Makepeace Thackeray, whose monthly installments of Vanity Fair were being issued by the same publisher, but only selling only 5000 copies a month at the most. Interestingly Vanity Fair is probably the more popular novel of the two nowadays. This is yet another example of how immensely popular Dickens was. He really could do no wrong in the public's eye.
Whenever considering a novel by Dickens it is always as well to bear in mind that what we now read in one book, was never read this way by the initial audience. It is serial fiction, and the structure has to take this into account. Those earlier readers may have forgotten a character or episode; equally, they may need a very dramatic or comic interlude to sustain their interest for the month ahead. This sort of imposed spasmodic reading is mostly alien to us now. Having said that, the writing is masterly. Dickens now has a much surer touch when describing his characters. Unlike Thackeray's or Trollope's, they range throughout the upper and lower classes, so that the reader gains a very clear picture of society in his time. There are fewer outright caricatures, but many outrageously funny ones. The female characters have far more depth than ever before, and the novel is devoted proportionally far more towards female characters.
Critics consider Dombey and Son to be Dickens's first artistically mature work. After this novel was published, his reputation had grown so much that he was by then considered a world class author. This is the first one for which he planned properly with notes to outline how the novel would progress. He called these notes "mems". All Dickens's novels up to this point had been created free-form, from a germ of a suggestion. Frequently they developed into something different from what the author originally had in mind, yet all are inspired pieces of writing.
It would be hard to say when Dickens first started to conform to what we now think of as a novelist, rather than an observant recorder of life, taking his inspiration from the notes he made on what happens in the street, brilliantly embellishing them and throwing in a few sarcastic diatribes on the way. Mental giant though he undoubtably was, his writing often strikes the readers as a series of momentary farces. With Dombey and Son Dickens had made it clear in his letters to his friend and mentor John Forster, that he had resolved to be a serious novelist. This novel is more consistent, and has a sounder structure, with less discursiveness in the middle seeming to go nowhere. It has themes and subplots to which he returns again and again. It has pathos which has more emotional appeal than before; nothing seems quite so frivolous.
"Nicholas Nickleby" had represented Dickens's first attempt at a true novel. In that there is the unforgettable portrayal of a school, "Dotheboys Hall" with its ogre of a headmaster Mr. Squeers. Yet that part of the book is merely an episode, albeit an inspired, hilarious, scandalous, hugely entertaining episode. Nothing which happens there affects the main character very much. On the contrary, the character Nicholas Nickleby seems to exist merely in order to tell us about Dotheboys Hall.
But when little Paul Dombey goes to Dr. Blimber's, we get a real sense of the characters there, the kindly but old-fashioned cramming teachers. Little Paul's pathos is highlighted not by extreme contrast with some exaggerated cartoon character, but by contrast with old dusty pedantry. There is a real sense of predestination and tragedy throughout. Paul's childish innocence and extraordinary wisdom is eventually perceived and appreciated by all, and his departure from that school is one of the most affecting parts of the book.
Dombey and Son has all the satirical indignation readers relish so in his early novels, but it has new shades of darkness and a new narrative complexity. There are so many nuances and grim metaphors. To take a tiny example, think of the loss of the Walter's ship "The Son and Heir", and think of an alternative applied meaning. After Dombey and Son were to come Dickens's greatest novels. These are darker still, and even his absurdity was to be more grave.
I did not weep for Little Nell, in "The Old Curiosity Shop", but I wept for little Paul, that wise child, with a philosophical air lifting him preternaturally out of his small body. I was in good company. When that episode was first published, the entire nation of England was apparently prostrated by grief. William Thackeray, in the middle of serialising his own novel, "Vanity Fair", was consumed with envy, expostulating,
“There’s no writing against such power as this - one has no chance!”
And that in itself, is a measure to me, of just how far Dickens's writing has by now gained in mastery and stature.
The full title of the book is Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. Therefore the "son" of the title, although a real living person, is first and foremost an abstract concept, much as we are led to believe Paul Dombey senior himself had been to his own father, and so on, as far back as living memory allowed.
"The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light ... Common abbreviations took new meanings in his eyes, and had sole reference to them. A. D. had no concern with Anno Domini, but stood for anno Dombei - and Son."
The book starts with a defence of this character by Dickens himself, as part of the Preface from 1867, where he berates his earlier readers for "the confounding of shyness with arrogance", insisting that,
"Mr Dombey undergoes no violent change, either in this book, or in real life. A sense of his injustice is within him, all along. The more he represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is."
And although we despise Dombey Senior for his rigidity, his cold aloofness, his arrogance and pride, we see that he is the product of his class and time, and that any adapting of that initial "repression" as Dickens terms it, must represent a huge development in his character. This novel is partly about his eventual realisation and breaking out from such an inflexible mould. Dickens carefully inches Dombey along to more and more appallingly selfish acts, so that the reader comes to abominate the man's actions. Throughout he stays completely authentic and believable, even though at root Dombey is an honourable man. He is never a villain in the same mould as, for instance, his man of business the marvellously devious, scheming and manipulative wolf, Carker.
Once again we have a myriad of wonderful characters. James Carker is a moral thug who steals every scene in which he appears. He would shoot to the top of the tree of pantomime villains; a delight to read about with his,
"two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat."
Carker's beauteous teeth are mentioned no less than 69 times in the novel!
Dombey's little son Paul is, to use an expression of the the time, a strange old-fashioned boy. Dickens modelled him on his sister Fanny's crippled son Henry Burnett Junior. Paul's startling observations seem to indicate a wisdom, and perhaps a prescience, beyond his years. Coupled with his frailty, this increases our feelings of impending doom. Dombey also has a daughter, Florence, whom he ignores and despises. Her depiction is easily the most convincing "good" heroine he has created so far. She is virtuous, intelligent, hardworking, determined, modest and kind. In fact she has all the attributes Dickens admired in women. Yet unlike earlier female characters, she has what we would consider a "flaw". She feels guilt where there could not possibly be any. From a modern perspective then, she is very appealing. We do not like perfection.
Another character who appears later in the book is Edith Granger, a proud, bridling, passionate but penniless widow, and again, she is a very rounded and complex character, with nuances of ambition, confusion, bitterness, loathing and a kind of desperate love. Almost as many pages of this novel are devoted to female characters as to male characters, including the title character, Dombey himself. Florence and Edith together comprise much of this attention. Edith's mother Mrs. Skewton is a wonderfully monstrous creation, a sort of prototype for the much later Miss Havisham in "Great Expectations". But unlike her, she pimps out her daughter while she primps up herself.
As well as the great family of Dombey, there are other families whose kindness and warmth of their internal relationships provide a sharp contrast. There is young, good-hearted Walter Gay, his old salt-of-the-earth uncle Solomon Gills, a ship's instrument-maker, plus their friend the genial old Captain Cuttle. Captain Cuttle himself has an old seafaring friend called Captain Jack Bunsby, who is always called on in times of crisis for much-valued advice, although those around usually find such advice perplexing. Bunsby is hilariously described by Dickens as having,
"one stationary eye in the mahogany face, and one revolving one, on the principle of some lighthouses."
One cannot think of this family without thinking of Mrs. MacStinger, that fearsome harridan of a landlady, who terrifies the life out of Bunsby. The playing-out and denouement of their continuing saga, is both hilarious and satisfying, as it eventually weaves into another main theme. The strands in this novel are so subtly intertwined; the novel is superbly constructed.
This family represent to some extent the old world which is being left behind. The Toodle family, rosy-cheeked Polly - who has to become "Mrs Richards" in order to emphasise her position as nurse rather than her individuality, her "plump and apple-faced" husband, who later begins to work on the railway, plus all the little Toodles including their eldest rogue of a son Rob (the Grinder) represent the new world. There is Dombey's sister Louisa Chick, the only person to have any influence whatsoever over him, slight though it is, and whose byword seems to be "effort". Anything could be overcome by more effort. According to her, the fact that Dombey's first wife died during childbirth (at the beginning of the novel) - was due to her "not making an effort" - thus proving without a doubt that she was not a real Dombey, with the admirable Dombey marks of character.
There is Susan Nipper, initially an unpleasant and objectionable, waspish, sharp-tongued character, but as Florence's maid she proves to be a loyal and stout-hearted friend, who has the reader cheering from the sidelines when she tells some home truths to Paul Dombey. There is the gouty retired Major Joe Bagstock, put in for comic relief, as the objects of his amorous inclinations seem to change so very easily. Lucretia Tox too, switches her matrimonial attentions with equal alacrity - to our great entertainment once again. Another entertaining cameo role is played by Mrs Pipchin, the cantankerous operator of a boarding house in Brighton where Paul and Florence are sent for Paul's health. Never a comment goes by without her referring to her late husband, who had been killed 40 years earlier, in the Peruvian Mines. Dickens apparently modelled Mrs Pipchin on Mrs Roylance, who had been his landlady in London when his father was imprisoned for debt.
There is the grotesque witch "Good" Mrs Brown, in a frightening and shocking fairytale passage in the book which is extraordinarily redolent of "Hansel and Gretel" or "Baba Yaga". Incredibly unpleasant and bizarre, she is one of the few actual caricatures in the book. Yet she returns later on, more fully fleshed out, and is revealed to have a profound connection to the main storyline. There is the portly scholar Doctor Blimbers, his wife who, "was not learned herself, but she pretended to be, and that did quite as well" and the Doctor's daughter, the ghoulish Cornelia, "dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages". Kind but misguided, their strenuous disciplined instructive routine in their cramming Academy causes their little pupils such long-term distress.
Minor characters add to the book's enjoyment. There is Toots, little Paul's scatterbrained classmate, who becomes the humble admirer of Florence, permanently worried about his absent-mindedness and addled brain. There are many more quirky characters dotted around the novel, and several subplots, such as the hidden mysterious secret between the Carker brothers. Why is Carker's older brother John called "the Junior" by James, having a low position at the firm of Dombey and Son, and why is he looked upon generally with scorn? There is the sister of both brothers, Harriet, who for some unknown reason has elected to live with this less successful brother, John. Then there is the feisty, aggressively enigmatic Alice Brown - what is her secret? There is the good-natured aristocrat cousin Feenix, who makes everything all right in the end, Doctor Parker Peps, Sir Barnet, Lady and Master Skettles and the wonderfully named Reverend Melchisedech Howler.
There are many more characters who come to mind, but I cannot leave the topic without mentioning Florence's only true friend and sole companion at one point, a scruffy mutt, Diogenes the dog,
"Come, then, Di! Dear Di! Make friends with your new mistress. Let us love each other, Di!' said Florence, fondling his shaggy head. And Di, the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that dropped upon it, and his dog's heart melted as it fell, put his nose up to her face, and swore fidelity ... Diogenes already loved her for her own, and didn't care how much he showed it. So he made himself vastly ridiculous by performing a variety of uncouth bounces in the ante-chamber, and concluded, when poor Florence was at last asleep, and dreaming of the rosy children opposite, by scratching open her bedroom door: rolling up his bed into a pillow: lying down on the boards, at the full length of his tether, with his head towards her: and looking lazily at her, upside down, out of the tops of his eyes, until from winking and winking he fell asleep himself, and dreamed, with gruff barks, of his enemy."
We have this absurdity, this humour. We have our entertainment, our mystery - and sometime our horror. And we also have, perhaps for the first time, literary gravitas.
For instance, the motif of Time constantly rears its head, with timepieces, clocks and watches, all present at decisive moments of the story. Another noticable device is the sea, waves, and running water. A sense of "waves", or a kind of unsteadiness often seeps into the story just as a character is delerious or beginning to be seriously ill, when an enormous eventful change is in the air, or some thing or idea is to be swept away. There is so much symbolism with ringing and bells tolling the death knell. There are both overt and subtle references to earlier literary works. Is it not deliberate that Dickens has created three witches in the novel? First comes the kidnapper and thief, the ogress "Good" Mrs Brown. The second is the abominable Mrs Skewton, whom Dickens facetiously refers to throughout as "Cleopatra" because of her artificiality. This description is of her as her maid attends to Mrs. Skewton's dress as she retires at night,
"... her touch was as the touch of Death. The painted object shrivelled underneath her hand; the form collapsed, the hair dropped off, the arched dark eyebrows changed to scanty tufts of grey; the pale lips shrunk, the skin became cadaverous and loose, an old, worn yellow, nodding woman, with red eyes, alone remained in Cleopatra's place, huddled up, like a slovenly bundle, in a greasy flannel gown."
What an eye! The third hag, is a fortune-teller, or tramp,
"a withered and very ugly old woman ... munching with her jaws, as if the Death's Head beneath her yellow skin were impatient to get out". Scowling, screaming, wrathful, and "going backwards like a crab, or like a heap of crabs: for her alternately expanding and contracting hands might have represented two of that species, and her creeping face some half-a-dozen more: crouched on the veinous root of an old tree, pulled out a short black pipe from within the crown of her bonnet, lighted it with a match, and smoked in silence, looking fixedly at her questioner."
This narrative complexity marks a subtle change and expertise in Dickens's novel-writing. Dombey and Son is a book which can be read on many levels.
During 1844 to 1847, the railways were starting to be developed, and the impact this has on London life is also a major aspect of the book. Several of the characters can been seen as representing one age or another. Dombey epitomises the older age of traditional values, stymied by the new exciting upcoming age which was to clear away the stuffiness with more opportunities for all. Yet this new age was also to impose mechanisation and a lack of individuality. Dickens sees it all, and see the faults inherent in both. His powerful descriptive passages describing the coming of the railroad to Camden Town, conjure up a hellish place,
""The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the whole neighbourhood to its centre. Traces of its course were visible on every side. Houses were knocked down; streets broken through and stopped; deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up; buildings that were undermined and shaking, propped by great beams of wood ... Hot springs and fiery eruptions, the usual attendants upon earthquakes, lent their contributions of confusion to the scene. Boiling water hissed and heaved within dilapidated walls; whence, also, the glare and roar of flames came issuing forth; and mounds of ashes blocked up rights of way"
Dombey and Son was Charles Dickens's seventh novel, published, as his earlier ones had been, in monthly parts initially, between Oct 1846 and Apr 1848. He was between 34 and 36 years old when he wrote it. The first parts were written in Lausanne, Switzerland, before Dickens returned to England, via Paris, to complete it. He also published one of his Christmas books, "The Battle Of Life", was directing and acting in various theatrical productions, and set up "Urania Cottage" (for "fallen women") with his friend the philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, all within the space of time when he was writing Dombey and Son. As always, he was a literary dynamo, pushing himself to the absolute maximum.
Dickens asked his great friend, Hablot K. Browne, or "Phiz" to illustrate Dombey and Son. He was not sure how it would sell, as he had new publishers, Bradbury and Evans. As it turned out, he had been worrying quite needlessly. Before long the installments were selling at up to 40,000 copies a month. This was eight times as many as his main competitor, William Makepeace Thackeray, whose monthly installments of Vanity Fair were being issued by the same publisher, but only selling only 5000 copies a month at the most. Interestingly Vanity Fair is probably the more popular novel of the two nowadays. This is yet another example of how immensely popular Dickens was. He really could do no wrong in the public's eye.
Whenever considering a novel by Dickens it is always as well to bear in mind that what we now read in one book, was never read this way by the initial audience. It is serial fiction, and the structure has to take this into account. Those earlier readers may have forgotten a character or episode; equally, they may need a very dramatic or comic interlude to sustain their interest for the month ahead. This sort of imposed spasmodic reading is mostly alien to us now. Having said that, the writing is masterly. Dickens now has a much surer touch when describing his characters. Unlike Thackeray's or Trollope's, they range throughout the upper and lower classes, so that the reader gains a very clear picture of society in his time. There are fewer outright caricatures, but many outrageously funny ones. The female characters have far more depth than ever before, and the novel is devoted proportionally far more towards female characters.
Critics consider Dombey and Son to be Dickens's first artistically mature work. After this novel was published, his reputation had grown so much that he was by then considered a world class author. This is the first one for which he planned properly with notes to outline how the novel would progress. He called these notes "mems". All Dickens's novels up to this point had been created free-form, from a germ of a suggestion. Frequently they developed into something different from what the author originally had in mind, yet all are inspired pieces of writing.
It would be hard to say when Dickens first started to conform to what we now think of as a novelist, rather than an observant recorder of life, taking his inspiration from the notes he made on what happens in the street, brilliantly embellishing them and throwing in a few sarcastic diatribes on the way. Mental giant though he undoubtably was, his writing often strikes the readers as a series of momentary farces. With Dombey and Son Dickens had made it clear in his letters to his friend and mentor John Forster, that he had resolved to be a serious novelist. This novel is more consistent, and has a sounder structure, with less discursiveness in the middle seeming to go nowhere. It has themes and subplots to which he returns again and again. It has pathos which has more emotional appeal than before; nothing seems quite so frivolous.
"Nicholas Nickleby" had represented Dickens's first attempt at a true novel. In that there is the unforgettable portrayal of a school, "Dotheboys Hall" with its ogre of a headmaster Mr. Squeers. Yet that part of the book is merely an episode, albeit an inspired, hilarious, scandalous, hugely entertaining episode. Nothing which happens there affects the main character very much. On the contrary, the character Nicholas Nickleby seems to exist merely in order to tell us about Dotheboys Hall.
But when little Paul Dombey goes to Dr. Blimber's, we get a real sense of the characters there, the kindly but old-fashioned cramming teachers. Little Paul's pathos is highlighted not by extreme contrast with some exaggerated cartoon character, but by contrast with old dusty pedantry. There is a real sense of predestination and tragedy throughout. Paul's childish innocence and extraordinary wisdom is eventually perceived and appreciated by all, and his departure from that school is one of the most affecting parts of the book.
Dombey and Son has all the satirical indignation readers relish so in his early novels, but it has new shades of darkness and a new narrative complexity. There are so many nuances and grim metaphors. To take a tiny example, think of the loss of the Walter's ship "The Son and Heir", and think of an alternative applied meaning. After Dombey and Son were to come Dickens's greatest novels. These are darker still, and even his absurdity was to be more grave.
I did not weep for Little Nell, in "The Old Curiosity Shop", but I wept for little Paul, that wise child, with a philosophical air lifting him preternaturally out of his small body. I was in good company. When that episode was first published, the entire nation of England was apparently prostrated by grief. William Thackeray, in the middle of serialising his own novel, "Vanity Fair", was consumed with envy, expostulating,
“There’s no writing against such power as this - one has no chance!”
And that in itself, is a measure to me, of just how far Dickens's writing has by now gained in mastery and stature.
August 12, 2025
I discovered the work of Charles Dickens quite late, in adulthood, and it took me several years to let myself be entirely caught in the net of its charms. However, today, having read many of his novels, I consider him a brilliant storyteller with a singular voice, and I am determined to read his fictional work in its entirety.
"Dombey and Son" is not Charles Dickens's best-known novel; it is far from it. However, its thousand pages contain a lovely family and social fiction that his contemporary Victor Hugo will doubtless not have disdained. All the ingredients make a Dickensian novel an extraordinary universe of shattered destinies and colorful figures.
A novel of vanity and ambition, "Dombey & Son" denounces the greed of the heart, the pretension of class, the manipulation of beings, and the harshness of a society that does not spare those in need. With unique humor, Charles Dickens deploys this talent that belongs only to him to give life to a massive gallery of characters to eat in both senses.
I don't know of any other period author capable of featuring many leading and supporting characters, nimbly interlocking them with each other, and giving them a personality of their own, endearing or repulsive. Likewise, each actor in this beautiful drama searched and worked in-depth until he offered the reader the best of his qualities or faults. The result is such a closeness to the ordinary heroes and heroines of the novel that we, the readers, feel ourselves becoming one of them.
Charles Dickens did not in any way usurp his status as a beloved author of the English Language, and I am one of his great admirers.
"Dombey and Son" is not Charles Dickens's best-known novel; it is far from it. However, its thousand pages contain a lovely family and social fiction that his contemporary Victor Hugo will doubtless not have disdained. All the ingredients make a Dickensian novel an extraordinary universe of shattered destinies and colorful figures.
A novel of vanity and ambition, "Dombey & Son" denounces the greed of the heart, the pretension of class, the manipulation of beings, and the harshness of a society that does not spare those in need. With unique humor, Charles Dickens deploys this talent that belongs only to him to give life to a massive gallery of characters to eat in both senses.
I don't know of any other period author capable of featuring many leading and supporting characters, nimbly interlocking them with each other, and giving them a personality of their own, endearing or repulsive. Likewise, each actor in this beautiful drama searched and worked in-depth until he offered the reader the best of his qualities or faults. The result is such a closeness to the ordinary heroes and heroines of the novel that we, the readers, feel ourselves becoming one of them.
Charles Dickens did not in any way usurp his status as a beloved author of the English Language, and I am one of his great admirers.
September 20, 2023
I find it hard to describe my love of this book. This is my fourth or fifth reading and I absolutely loved it - it's incredibly powerful, such a compelling and interesting story, with such brilliant explorations of grief, love, family, gender and Victorian marriage. It's a very underrated Dickens and a real gem - I highly recommend!
An update on rereading: as marvellous as ever.
An update on rereading: as marvellous as ever.
May 18, 2023
The uber-proud and arrogant Dombey; the scheming Carker, poor Florence, the proud Edith, Cap'n Cuttle and more; what I found was character and coincidence overload in this study of family relationships, child cruelty, arranged marriages and other areas impacted by the Industrial Revolution. It also felt like it really took a long time to get going, in my opinion... but still, an entertaining saga overall. 6 out of 12, Three Star read.
2009 read
2009 read
May 5, 2021
Charles Dickens, more than any other author I know of, has come to symbolize his times; with barely a person alive today who would not equate Victorian England with Dickens, if only through his book, A Christmas Carol. Many of his books are very well-known and still frequently taught and read, but Dombey and Son is one that I would count as more obscure. Having now read it, I wonder why. It is a remarkable piece of literature, emblematic of the coming of the Industrial Age, and loaded with everything that makes Dickens so unique.
I read this in much the way Victorian readers would have done, because I read it one chapter a day with a terrific group, Dickensians!. Of course, even this was accelerated reading, the Victorians would have gotten it over a much longer spread, since Dickens released it in 20 monthly installments.
This is primarily the story of Mr. Dombey, a man obsessed with his company and money, and his desire to leave his kingdom to a male heir. Dombey has his heir in the first chapter of the novel, a lovely boy named Paul, a child he worships, but he also has a daughter, Florence, whom he resents and mistreats abominably. This is a dysfunctional household and family, made more pitiful by the death of the mother with the birth of the son, and we are given to see that much more clearly by Dickens’ presenting us with two other households that are nowhere near as wealthy, but contain all the loving relationships this one is missing. In many ways, this is Florence’s story...the story of a daughter, not a son.
In the course of this novel, Dickens addresses pride, deceit, the value of love over money, child to parent relationships, the degradation of the human soul, unrequited love, the insufferability of blowhards, retribution, revenge, and reclamation. If I took a few minutes, I could probably make another list just as long of themes he explores, for he explores the human condition in all its glory and shame. He accomplishes this through an array of unforgettable characters, the proud and beautiful Edith, the evil James Carker, the delightful Toodles, precious Captain Cuttle, strong Susan Nipper, devoted Mr. Toots, and the faithful Walter and Uncle Sol.
One of the things I most appreciated about this story was Dickens' ability and willingness to depict strong women and to show that strength does not exclude deep or motherly feeling. On the other hand, he also showed us some mothers who were unfit to raise kittens, let alone children. Dickens is never afraid of any level of society or any emotion, showing a balanced view of upper and lower classes, and men and women, that I believe was rare in his time.
In addition to loving this book, I must say how much more interesting and meaningful it was to read it with the Dickensians! group. Our leader, the inimitable Bionic Jean, is a wealth of information on both Dickens and his era. She adds another level of understanding to all of his works, and it is a privilege to be allowed to read and discuss with so many intelligent and informed readers. The last time I got this kind of background and information from a group, I was in college and they were making me pay for the course. But, far from feeling like I was sitting in a stuffy classroom, this kind of reading is so, so much fun. I am glad to have now read Dombey and Son. I have four more Dickens novels to read before I can say I have read them all. I have read many of his novels more than once, and I imagine I will be reading them until I take my last breath, because, read them as often as you will, never can you say you have gleaned everything Dickens has to offer.
I read this in much the way Victorian readers would have done, because I read it one chapter a day with a terrific group, Dickensians!. Of course, even this was accelerated reading, the Victorians would have gotten it over a much longer spread, since Dickens released it in 20 monthly installments.
This is primarily the story of Mr. Dombey, a man obsessed with his company and money, and his desire to leave his kingdom to a male heir. Dombey has his heir in the first chapter of the novel, a lovely boy named Paul, a child he worships, but he also has a daughter, Florence, whom he resents and mistreats abominably. This is a dysfunctional household and family, made more pitiful by the death of the mother with the birth of the son, and we are given to see that much more clearly by Dickens’ presenting us with two other households that are nowhere near as wealthy, but contain all the loving relationships this one is missing. In many ways, this is Florence’s story...the story of a daughter, not a son.
In the course of this novel, Dickens addresses pride, deceit, the value of love over money, child to parent relationships, the degradation of the human soul, unrequited love, the insufferability of blowhards, retribution, revenge, and reclamation. If I took a few minutes, I could probably make another list just as long of themes he explores, for he explores the human condition in all its glory and shame. He accomplishes this through an array of unforgettable characters, the proud and beautiful Edith, the evil James Carker, the delightful Toodles, precious Captain Cuttle, strong Susan Nipper, devoted Mr. Toots, and the faithful Walter and Uncle Sol.
One of the things I most appreciated about this story was Dickens' ability and willingness to depict strong women and to show that strength does not exclude deep or motherly feeling. On the other hand, he also showed us some mothers who were unfit to raise kittens, let alone children. Dickens is never afraid of any level of society or any emotion, showing a balanced view of upper and lower classes, and men and women, that I believe was rare in his time.
In addition to loving this book, I must say how much more interesting and meaningful it was to read it with the Dickensians! group. Our leader, the inimitable Bionic Jean, is a wealth of information on both Dickens and his era. She adds another level of understanding to all of his works, and it is a privilege to be allowed to read and discuss with so many intelligent and informed readers. The last time I got this kind of background and information from a group, I was in college and they were making me pay for the course. But, far from feeling like I was sitting in a stuffy classroom, this kind of reading is so, so much fun. I am glad to have now read Dombey and Son. I have four more Dickens novels to read before I can say I have read them all. I have read many of his novels more than once, and I imagine I will be reading them until I take my last breath, because, read them as often as you will, never can you say you have gleaned everything Dickens has to offer.
August 31, 2025
“Her father did not know – she held to it from that time – how much she loved him”
There really can be no other suitable word. DOMBEY AND SON is, in many respects, a stereotypical Dickensian tale. It’s dense, it’s long, it’s hilarious, it’s heartwarming, it’s heartbreaking, it’s shocking, it’s complex, it’s multi-thematic, it’s plot-driven, it’s character driven, it’s forward thinking and generally left-wing – in short, it’s Dickensian. And, despite the fact that if general readers, or even confirmed Dickens fans, are asked to name a Dickens title, few will think to mention DOMBEY AND SON, I think it’s one of his best.
Consumed with the desire and the need to see his family name, his wealth, and his business success continued through his only son, Dombey ignores, and indeed comes to bitterly hate, his dedicated, loving daughter who blames herself for her father’s failure to love her. The themes that Dickens tosses into the DOMBEY AND SON kettle are legion – parental, filial, and romantic love; friendship and loyalty; patriarchy and misogyny; evil, theft, and embezzlement; feminism; family; wealth versus poverty; marriage, divorce, and the societal expectations and laws that govern them; and much more.
I can only ask, as a confirmed Dickens fan, what was I thinking of waiting so long to pull this one off my shelf. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss
There really can be no other suitable word. DOMBEY AND SON is, in many respects, a stereotypical Dickensian tale. It’s dense, it’s long, it’s hilarious, it’s heartwarming, it’s heartbreaking, it’s shocking, it’s complex, it’s multi-thematic, it’s plot-driven, it’s character driven, it’s forward thinking and generally left-wing – in short, it’s Dickensian. And, despite the fact that if general readers, or even confirmed Dickens fans, are asked to name a Dickens title, few will think to mention DOMBEY AND SON, I think it’s one of his best.
Consumed with the desire and the need to see his family name, his wealth, and his business success continued through his only son, Dombey ignores, and indeed comes to bitterly hate, his dedicated, loving daughter who blames herself for her father’s failure to love her. The themes that Dickens tosses into the DOMBEY AND SON kettle are legion – parental, filial, and romantic love; friendship and loyalty; patriarchy and misogyny; evil, theft, and embezzlement; feminism; family; wealth versus poverty; marriage, divorce, and the societal expectations and laws that govern them; and much more.
I can only ask, as a confirmed Dickens fan, what was I thinking of waiting so long to pull this one off my shelf. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss
January 3, 2022
I finished my Dickens so the year must be over.
Midway through this cursed year of 2021, I had a crisis just like the characters in this astoundingly modern novel! And it took me almost as long as the novel to tuck myself safely into the happy ending of it, - in order to be able to leave the rollercoaster behind in true Dickensian spirit and set sails towards 2022.
Maybe I read Dickens in December to sing myself a lullaby after having been rocked by intense dreams, good and bad? The comfort of knowing that he takes care of the characters I have grown to love is just what I need when I close the accounts for a year and need to summon up the bravery to embark on a new year's adventure full of hope, good spirit and energy.
It is not about forgetting the dark tales and the dead ends and the nerve-shattering moments of "not knowing" what will happen next. It is about remembering, with love and fondness! And therefore, I leave my most recent favourite Dickens with the satisfaction that whatever happens, he stays my friend, and he makes me think and feel and rage. The emotions stirred by Edith's tragic fate midway through Dombey and Son are as real as fiction can get. I sometimes think fiction is more real than anything that actually happens to me. To Edith, my Mid-December rant:
Oh Edith!
Midway through the novel, you are sold to Dombey by your immature mother, who would probably qualify on the extreme end of narcissistic personality disorder if she lived in our times of psychological diagnoses. I so desperately, desperately want you and Florence to be united in loving sistership against patriarchy in its ugliest excesses, but knowing there are another 500 pages to go, and cunning enemies like Carker will work hand in hand with gullible and witless friends like Cuttle to undermine you, in the most infuriatingly Dickensian way, I am without hope. As that scoundrel Dickens certainly intended when he set up all these traps for me, while making me like the characters! How easy it would be to read Dickens if it was purely tragic, or purely comic. You would set your emotional reading barometer, and go with it.
But now it is like glazing sun and snowstorm!
Go, Edith!
And before the mid-novel storm had broken, there was the eager, expecting beginning of it, the sensation of an unread Dickens in my winter-pale hands!
In principium erat Dickens:
It's December Dickens Time (almost, with 2 days to get started!), and I feel like shouting out my joy at having navigated this rollercoaster year of 2021 to the point of reaching the Cookies, Coffee, Cava & Charles (sorry, Mr Dickens, I would obviously never address you by your first name, but otherwise you wouldn't make an alliteration with my other favourite Christmas things, and that is an argument I feel you will somehow understand) phase!
So, without further ado, I declare December Dickens to be READY, SET, ...
Midway through this cursed year of 2021, I had a crisis just like the characters in this astoundingly modern novel! And it took me almost as long as the novel to tuck myself safely into the happy ending of it, - in order to be able to leave the rollercoaster behind in true Dickensian spirit and set sails towards 2022.
Maybe I read Dickens in December to sing myself a lullaby after having been rocked by intense dreams, good and bad? The comfort of knowing that he takes care of the characters I have grown to love is just what I need when I close the accounts for a year and need to summon up the bravery to embark on a new year's adventure full of hope, good spirit and energy.
It is not about forgetting the dark tales and the dead ends and the nerve-shattering moments of "not knowing" what will happen next. It is about remembering, with love and fondness! And therefore, I leave my most recent favourite Dickens with the satisfaction that whatever happens, he stays my friend, and he makes me think and feel and rage. The emotions stirred by Edith's tragic fate midway through Dombey and Son are as real as fiction can get. I sometimes think fiction is more real than anything that actually happens to me. To Edith, my Mid-December rant:
Oh Edith!
Midway through the novel, you are sold to Dombey by your immature mother, who would probably qualify on the extreme end of narcissistic personality disorder if she lived in our times of psychological diagnoses. I so desperately, desperately want you and Florence to be united in loving sistership against patriarchy in its ugliest excesses, but knowing there are another 500 pages to go, and cunning enemies like Carker will work hand in hand with gullible and witless friends like Cuttle to undermine you, in the most infuriatingly Dickensian way, I am without hope. As that scoundrel Dickens certainly intended when he set up all these traps for me, while making me like the characters! How easy it would be to read Dickens if it was purely tragic, or purely comic. You would set your emotional reading barometer, and go with it.
But now it is like glazing sun and snowstorm!
Go, Edith!
And before the mid-novel storm had broken, there was the eager, expecting beginning of it, the sensation of an unread Dickens in my winter-pale hands!
In principium erat Dickens:
It's December Dickens Time (almost, with 2 days to get started!), and I feel like shouting out my joy at having navigated this rollercoaster year of 2021 to the point of reaching the Cookies, Coffee, Cava & Charles (sorry, Mr Dickens, I would obviously never address you by your first name, but otherwise you wouldn't make an alliteration with my other favourite Christmas things, and that is an argument I feel you will somehow understand) phase!
So, without further ado, I declare December Dickens to be READY, SET, ...
May 8, 2021
May, 2021: I have now finished reading Dombey and Son for the second time, this time with a Goodreads group, Dickensians. It was a wonderful experience that heightened my enjoyment of the book and resulted in my raising my rating from 4* to 5*.
The group reads Dickens’ novels at a slow rate of a chapter per day which has multiple benefits. First, each reader gets a small taste of what the experience would have been like to read the novel as it was originally written and produced, in serial form. In its original form, readers may have waited weeks to months after a cliffhanger chapter to learn what happened next. Another benefit for me was to be able to see the “bones” of the book better than in my first reading. I found I was more aware of Dickens use of language, powerful use of imagery throughout the novel, character development and consistency, plot details. What I declared as over-written and repetitive in my last review I now view a bit differently as increasing emphasis. My initial reading caught the major plot points but not how Dickens built them.
I really enjoyed this reading and look forward to my next long read with this group.
*********************************
While at times a bit over-written and somewhat repetitive, Dombey & Son does sparkle with some of Dickens’ trademark clever character descriptions, sly humor woven into descriptions of people and their actions, evocative pictures of London and the surrounding area, and harrowing views of lives lived in Victorian England.
to be continued...
The group reads Dickens’ novels at a slow rate of a chapter per day which has multiple benefits. First, each reader gets a small taste of what the experience would have been like to read the novel as it was originally written and produced, in serial form. In its original form, readers may have waited weeks to months after a cliffhanger chapter to learn what happened next. Another benefit for me was to be able to see the “bones” of the book better than in my first reading. I found I was more aware of Dickens use of language, powerful use of imagery throughout the novel, character development and consistency, plot details. What I declared as over-written and repetitive in my last review I now view a bit differently as increasing emphasis. My initial reading caught the major plot points but not how Dickens built them.
I really enjoyed this reading and look forward to my next long read with this group.
*********************************
While at times a bit over-written and somewhat repetitive, Dombey & Son does sparkle with some of Dickens’ trademark clever character descriptions, sly humor woven into descriptions of people and their actions, evocative pictures of London and the surrounding area, and harrowing views of lives lived in Victorian England.
to be continued...
October 13, 2022
Note, Oct. 13, 2022: I've just edited this review to correct a misspelled word.
I've now read this wonderful novel twice, the first time being some 50 years ago, give or take. But my appreciation of it really benefited from my taking part in a (still ongoing --I finished ahead of schedule) group read in the excellent Goodreads group Dickensians! (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ). Though I could remember the very bare bones of the plot, the main characterizations, and in several places exact or nearly exact words of dialogue or narration, I could never have done this book justice in a review without the reread!
Dombey and Son, our titular firm here, is a long-established and very successful mercantile house, engaging in both domestic and foreign trade. It was established by the grandfather of our wealthy protagonist, Paul Dombey, who rose (like his father before him) from "Son" to "Dombey." As the book opens, he's exulting in the minutes-ago birth of his first son, after 10 years of marriage (he's 48, at this point), whose future he already has mapped out as following the same pattern. (He also has a daughter, Florence, but she's unwanted and unloved --as a female, she's incapable of being "Son" to his "Dombey.") From this beginning, Dickens spins his tale, keeping Dombey at the center, but deftly weaving into the story various sub-plots of characters related, connected or known to him or to his firm, and of their own connections. Always a master of complicated plotting, he ties these together adroitly.
The central moral question of this novel, as it is in several of Dickens' other works, is: what is most important in life --money, and the physical things and social position it can buy, or human relationships and human kindness? Here as always, Dickens comes down on the side of the latter. But Dombey has a lot to learn about that. The main point of suspense here, of course, is whether he actually will learn it or not; and his chances frankly don't look very good. From my earlier read, I remembered him as a proud, arrogant, emotionally cold man utterly wrapped up in his thriving business and the sense of self-importance it gives him, to the exclusion of real relationships even with his own family. But I'd forgotten just how utterly obnoxious, conceited, overbearing, self-centered, insensitive, condescending, classist and sexist a horse's posterior he actually is, so that struck me full force on this read. Few Victorians, even of the upper classes, were quite as self-absorbed, business-obsessed, indifferent to family life and devaluing of women as he is. But Dickens isn't beating a dead horse here. Not just in Victorian England, but in all times and places, the temptation to overvalue money and social prestige, to center our universe around ourselves as if we could be God (or at least make those around us treat us as if we were) and to view other humans solely in terms of their utility to us is a universal human one. By creating an exaggerated version of these traits in Dombey, Dickens lets us recognize them for what they are --and implicitly invites us to take stock of whether we recognize features of ourselves we should change. That's why this novel still speaks to human experience over 170 years after it was written.
At 878 pages (in this edition), this is a long read, demanding a pretty fair investment of time. But it's well worth it, and it held my interest throughout. The length isn't due, as some people mistakenly believe, to Dickens being paid by the word (he wasn't); rather, it's the result of his taking time to develop the story and characters in depth, and with great literary artistry. (Fiction writers are sometimes divided into "pantsers" or "plotters" --that is, those who write "by the seat of their pants," making up the story as they go along without a definite prearranged plan, vs. those who lay out the plot in detail before they start. Interestingly, in his previous works Dickens had always been the former; this is the first novel he had plotted out before starting it.) All of his inimitable features are displayed here, including his broad range of interest (encompassing all strata of society) his social consciousness, and above all his capacity for creating memorable characters, good and bad: Dombey himself, Florence, Captain Cuttle, little Paul, Walter Gay, Susan Nipper, Mr. Toots, Major Bagstock, Edith, who's one of his most compelling and complex female characters, and many others. (And he gives us here one of his most despicable villains; and no, surprisingly, it's not Dombey!) I'd also forgotten the rich leavening of humor he brings to an often somber tale (I often found myself laughing or chuckling out loud in places on this read!) and the frequent clear references to Christian faith and hope that pepper the text. His mastery of symbolism is on full display as well. Deathbed scenes were a staple feature of 19th-century fiction --as of 19th-century life; most people then died at home, without massive medical interventions that kept loved ones at arms length-- they're sneered at by modern critics, who dislike being reminded of their own mortality, but more perceptive readers recognize that these have a potential for a meaningful and serious look at ultimate realities that few other human experiences do. Nobody does deathbed scenes better than Dickens. He gives us more than one here; and at least one is among English-language literature's most powerful.
Note: I read this in the Oxford University Press hardcover edition, part of its Oxford Illustrated Dickens set. It includes an Introduction (IMO, un-illuminating, unperceptive, and patronizing) by an H. W. Garrod, whom I'm guessing was a faculty member at the university. Since it contains spoilers, I'd advise readers to do as I did, and read it (if at all) as an afterword. (The same actually goes for Dickens' own Preface.) It also includes the 40 black-and-white illustrations by Dickens' friend Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") that graced the novel during its original serial publication in 1846-48 --a nice feature, though many of them aren't placed with the part of the text they're illustrating.
I've now read this wonderful novel twice, the first time being some 50 years ago, give or take. But my appreciation of it really benefited from my taking part in a (still ongoing --I finished ahead of schedule) group read in the excellent Goodreads group Dickensians! (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ). Though I could remember the very bare bones of the plot, the main characterizations, and in several places exact or nearly exact words of dialogue or narration, I could never have done this book justice in a review without the reread!
Dombey and Son, our titular firm here, is a long-established and very successful mercantile house, engaging in both domestic and foreign trade. It was established by the grandfather of our wealthy protagonist, Paul Dombey, who rose (like his father before him) from "Son" to "Dombey." As the book opens, he's exulting in the minutes-ago birth of his first son, after 10 years of marriage (he's 48, at this point), whose future he already has mapped out as following the same pattern. (He also has a daughter, Florence, but she's unwanted and unloved --as a female, she's incapable of being "Son" to his "Dombey.") From this beginning, Dickens spins his tale, keeping Dombey at the center, but deftly weaving into the story various sub-plots of characters related, connected or known to him or to his firm, and of their own connections. Always a master of complicated plotting, he ties these together adroitly.
The central moral question of this novel, as it is in several of Dickens' other works, is: what is most important in life --money, and the physical things and social position it can buy, or human relationships and human kindness? Here as always, Dickens comes down on the side of the latter. But Dombey has a lot to learn about that. The main point of suspense here, of course, is whether he actually will learn it or not; and his chances frankly don't look very good. From my earlier read, I remembered him as a proud, arrogant, emotionally cold man utterly wrapped up in his thriving business and the sense of self-importance it gives him, to the exclusion of real relationships even with his own family. But I'd forgotten just how utterly obnoxious, conceited, overbearing, self-centered, insensitive, condescending, classist and sexist a horse's posterior he actually is, so that struck me full force on this read. Few Victorians, even of the upper classes, were quite as self-absorbed, business-obsessed, indifferent to family life and devaluing of women as he is. But Dickens isn't beating a dead horse here. Not just in Victorian England, but in all times and places, the temptation to overvalue money and social prestige, to center our universe around ourselves as if we could be God (or at least make those around us treat us as if we were) and to view other humans solely in terms of their utility to us is a universal human one. By creating an exaggerated version of these traits in Dombey, Dickens lets us recognize them for what they are --and implicitly invites us to take stock of whether we recognize features of ourselves we should change. That's why this novel still speaks to human experience over 170 years after it was written.
At 878 pages (in this edition), this is a long read, demanding a pretty fair investment of time. But it's well worth it, and it held my interest throughout. The length isn't due, as some people mistakenly believe, to Dickens being paid by the word (he wasn't); rather, it's the result of his taking time to develop the story and characters in depth, and with great literary artistry. (Fiction writers are sometimes divided into "pantsers" or "plotters" --that is, those who write "by the seat of their pants," making up the story as they go along without a definite prearranged plan, vs. those who lay out the plot in detail before they start. Interestingly, in his previous works Dickens had always been the former; this is the first novel he had plotted out before starting it.) All of his inimitable features are displayed here, including his broad range of interest (encompassing all strata of society) his social consciousness, and above all his capacity for creating memorable characters, good and bad: Dombey himself, Florence, Captain Cuttle, little Paul, Walter Gay, Susan Nipper, Mr. Toots, Major Bagstock, Edith, who's one of his most compelling and complex female characters, and many others. (And he gives us here one of his most despicable villains; and no, surprisingly, it's not Dombey!) I'd also forgotten the rich leavening of humor he brings to an often somber tale (I often found myself laughing or chuckling out loud in places on this read!) and the frequent clear references to Christian faith and hope that pepper the text. His mastery of symbolism is on full display as well. Deathbed scenes were a staple feature of 19th-century fiction --as of 19th-century life; most people then died at home, without massive medical interventions that kept loved ones at arms length-- they're sneered at by modern critics, who dislike being reminded of their own mortality, but more perceptive readers recognize that these have a potential for a meaningful and serious look at ultimate realities that few other human experiences do. Nobody does deathbed scenes better than Dickens. He gives us more than one here; and at least one is among English-language literature's most powerful.
Note: I read this in the Oxford University Press hardcover edition, part of its Oxford Illustrated Dickens set. It includes an Introduction (IMO, un-illuminating, unperceptive, and patronizing) by an H. W. Garrod, whom I'm guessing was a faculty member at the university. Since it contains spoilers, I'd advise readers to do as I did, and read it (if at all) as an afterword. (The same actually goes for Dickens' own Preface.) It also includes the 40 black-and-white illustrations by Dickens' friend Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") that graced the novel during its original serial publication in 1846-48 --a nice feature, though many of them aren't placed with the part of the text they're illustrating.
May 8, 2021
Dombey and Son is a novel by Charles Dickens that admittedly I had never heard of before. In fact, I never imagined I’d pick up Dickens outside of a classroom setting until last year when I found the lovely Goodreads group Dickensians! We spent 3 months reading this excellent story one chapter a day while interacting and talking about it at length learning so much from one another. Now I am spoiled and must have my Dickensians! friends along with me when I pick up another Dickens novel.
Paul Dombey’s world revolves around his business and his money. He is a cold, arrogant, unaffectionate man who doesn’t know how to show love or sympathy. His sole desire is for an heir, a son, so that Dombey and Son will continue on and prosper. In fact, Paul Dombey could only really love one of his children, his son, little Paul.
But he loved his son with all the love he had. If there were a warm place in his frosty heart, his son occupied it; if its very hard surface could receive the impression of any image, the image of that son was there; though not so much as an infant, or as a boy, but as a grown man - the ‘Son’ of the Firm.
Dombey, however, has a daughter as well. Florence is a loving, caring, gentle soul who seeks the love of her father in vain. Motherless and alone, Florence finds friendship with her feisty maid, Susan Nipper. Throughout the story, Florence and little Paul are adversely affected by their father’s rigidity. Dickens’ portrayal of a Victorian dysfunctional family truly demonstrates how emotional depravation can leave a lasting impact. This quote is shuddering and demonstrates the lovelessness and neglect that Florence lived with:
But what was a girl to Dombey and Son! In the capital of the House’s name and dignity, such a child was merely a piece of base coin that couldn’t be invested - a bad Boy - nothing more.
Dickens writing is superb. The intricate web of characters he creates are all important in their own ways whether a major or minor role. There are comic and grotesque, eccentric and bizarre, creepy and sinister characters. One of the most heinous and conceited villains ever written is Carker, the man with the teeth! Unforgettable characters were the ever-helpful and faithful friend, Captain Cuttle. Major Bagstock was the selfish, “devil-ish sly” and obnoxiously entertaining (in all aspects) comedic disruption. Edith Granger represented Dickens’ depiction of the strong, unyielding female character. In fact, Dickens’ females stood out amongst the crowd. Mrs. MacStinger, Mrs. Skewton, Polly Toodles, Mrs. Pipchin, Miss Lucretia Tox, Mrs. Louisa Chick provided their own idiosyncrasies to the narrative. I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention some of my other favorite characters: Mr. Toots, Solomon Gills, Walter Gay and Rob the Grinder. Aren’t these just the best names ever?
The time period of this novel coincides with the inception of the railway progress in Britain. The Industrial Revolution becomes a main artery that permeates throughout the text. The train becomes a character in a sense with Dickens’ vivid and heart pumping descriptions of “the triumphant monster, Death”.
Away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, from the town, burrowing among the dwellings of men and making the streets hum, flashing out into the meadows for a moment, mining in through the damp earth, booming on in darkness and heavy air, bursting out again into the sunny day so bright and wide; away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, through the fields, through the woods, through the corn, through the hay, through the chalk, through the mould, through the clay, through the rock, among objects close at hand and almost in the grasp, ever flying from the traveller, and a deceitful distance ever moving slowly within him: like as in the track of the remorseless monster, Death!
Dickens provides his readers (now and then, the Victorian age) his own insights into many themes that were important to him. Some of these include education, family, redemption, revenge, unrequited love, loyalty, class differences, jealousy, money, greed, technology(of its time) in modernization. This was his 7th novel and the the first he wrote completely planned beforehand. It marked a turning point in his writing from his earlier novels even though it is a lesser known work. Every character and plot point was carefully laid out with nothing meant to be insignificant. Originally Dickens wrote this in and published it in 20 monthly installments. I am happy to have been able to have the entire tome to read at my pleasure! This won’t be my last Dickens and I hope to reread this wonderful work again someday.
Paul Dombey’s world revolves around his business and his money. He is a cold, arrogant, unaffectionate man who doesn’t know how to show love or sympathy. His sole desire is for an heir, a son, so that Dombey and Son will continue on and prosper. In fact, Paul Dombey could only really love one of his children, his son, little Paul.
But he loved his son with all the love he had. If there were a warm place in his frosty heart, his son occupied it; if its very hard surface could receive the impression of any image, the image of that son was there; though not so much as an infant, or as a boy, but as a grown man - the ‘Son’ of the Firm.
Dombey, however, has a daughter as well. Florence is a loving, caring, gentle soul who seeks the love of her father in vain. Motherless and alone, Florence finds friendship with her feisty maid, Susan Nipper. Throughout the story, Florence and little Paul are adversely affected by their father’s rigidity. Dickens’ portrayal of a Victorian dysfunctional family truly demonstrates how emotional depravation can leave a lasting impact. This quote is shuddering and demonstrates the lovelessness and neglect that Florence lived with:
But what was a girl to Dombey and Son! In the capital of the House’s name and dignity, such a child was merely a piece of base coin that couldn’t be invested - a bad Boy - nothing more.
Dickens writing is superb. The intricate web of characters he creates are all important in their own ways whether a major or minor role. There are comic and grotesque, eccentric and bizarre, creepy and sinister characters. One of the most heinous and conceited villains ever written is Carker, the man with the teeth! Unforgettable characters were the ever-helpful and faithful friend, Captain Cuttle. Major Bagstock was the selfish, “devil-ish sly” and obnoxiously entertaining (in all aspects) comedic disruption. Edith Granger represented Dickens’ depiction of the strong, unyielding female character. In fact, Dickens’ females stood out amongst the crowd. Mrs. MacStinger, Mrs. Skewton, Polly Toodles, Mrs. Pipchin, Miss Lucretia Tox, Mrs. Louisa Chick provided their own idiosyncrasies to the narrative. I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention some of my other favorite characters: Mr. Toots, Solomon Gills, Walter Gay and Rob the Grinder. Aren’t these just the best names ever?
The time period of this novel coincides with the inception of the railway progress in Britain. The Industrial Revolution becomes a main artery that permeates throughout the text. The train becomes a character in a sense with Dickens’ vivid and heart pumping descriptions of “the triumphant monster, Death”.
Away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, from the town, burrowing among the dwellings of men and making the streets hum, flashing out into the meadows for a moment, mining in through the damp earth, booming on in darkness and heavy air, bursting out again into the sunny day so bright and wide; away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, through the fields, through the woods, through the corn, through the hay, through the chalk, through the mould, through the clay, through the rock, among objects close at hand and almost in the grasp, ever flying from the traveller, and a deceitful distance ever moving slowly within him: like as in the track of the remorseless monster, Death!
Dickens provides his readers (now and then, the Victorian age) his own insights into many themes that were important to him. Some of these include education, family, redemption, revenge, unrequited love, loyalty, class differences, jealousy, money, greed, technology(of its time) in modernization. This was his 7th novel and the the first he wrote completely planned beforehand. It marked a turning point in his writing from his earlier novels even though it is a lesser known work. Every character and plot point was carefully laid out with nothing meant to be insignificant. Originally Dickens wrote this in and published it in 20 monthly installments. I am happy to have been able to have the entire tome to read at my pleasure! This won’t be my last Dickens and I hope to reread this wonderful work again someday.
April 15, 2021
I read this book for the first time as a teenager, many years ago. I didn’t remember much about it, other than it wasn’t a favourite. On this reread, I got it! Dickens, with his mastery, showing us how pride can be a downfall; how family and love are what are truly important.
Dickens is a master at creating a world of people and circumstances that slowly build and evolve to a rich conclusion.
We meet Dombey, of the title-proud, aloof, entitled, pompous! His one dream is for his son to hurry and grow up so his firm again would really be Dombey and Son.
Paul, his son, a sweet boy who never got to feel the love of his mother. He is wise beyond his years.
Florence, Paul’s beloved older sister and a totally non existent daughter to Dombey.
There are many peripheral characters, some more central to the story, but all integral to the story. Dickens creates wonderful people that a reader can love and characters that inspire total dislike.
I am so glad that I reread this book. This time I found it to be spectacular- a book rich in detail and rich in characterizations.
My thanks to Jean for inviting me to join the Dickensian group. This book is the current read. To be read one chapter a day with breaks, i found I could not stop reading it, so moved ahead and finished it. I am still following the daily discussions. Everyone’s comments are very inspiring and made me appreciate the book even more.
April 15- I started reading Out Stealing Horses by Per Peterson after finishing this book and interestingly, Dickens came up in the novel. .Just want to share a quote from that book:
“ It may be all very well in Dickens, but when you read Dickens you’re reading a long ballad from a vanished world, where everything has to come together in the end like an equation, where the balance of what was once disturbed must be restored so that the gods can smile again.”
Dickens is a master at creating a world of people and circumstances that slowly build and evolve to a rich conclusion.
We meet Dombey, of the title-proud, aloof, entitled, pompous! His one dream is for his son to hurry and grow up so his firm again would really be Dombey and Son.
Paul, his son, a sweet boy who never got to feel the love of his mother. He is wise beyond his years.
Florence, Paul’s beloved older sister and a totally non existent daughter to Dombey.
There are many peripheral characters, some more central to the story, but all integral to the story. Dickens creates wonderful people that a reader can love and characters that inspire total dislike.
I am so glad that I reread this book. This time I found it to be spectacular- a book rich in detail and rich in characterizations.
My thanks to Jean for inviting me to join the Dickensian group. This book is the current read. To be read one chapter a day with breaks, i found I could not stop reading it, so moved ahead and finished it. I am still following the daily discussions. Everyone’s comments are very inspiring and made me appreciate the book even more.
April 15- I started reading Out Stealing Horses by Per Peterson after finishing this book and interestingly, Dickens came up in the novel. .Just want to share a quote from that book:
“ It may be all very well in Dickens, but when you read Dickens you’re reading a long ballad from a vanished world, where everything has to come together in the end like an equation, where the balance of what was once disturbed must be restored so that the gods can smile again.”
February 6, 2022
I loved this book!! I had never heard of this novel by Dickens and I am so grateful to being invited into the Dickensians group with whom I discovered this wonderful novel. Dickens' writing is sublime and it was easy to get invested in the characters whether you loved them or hated them ( and there are many to hate). A long novel but worth the time!
Dombey is a very proud man and has a vision of what his life and legacy should be and when reality doesn't match up with it, he moves down a path that is ultimately self-destructive, leaving others broken in his wake whether intentional or not. He has a wonderful daughter, Florence, whom he treats as an after thought, if at all , yet she never ceases to love him. Their relationship is truly the core of the novel. There are plenty of subplots and interesting characters that also populate the story. The last third of the novel is non-stop "action" as tensions come to a head, secrets or mysteries are revealed, & resolutions abound.
Dombey is a very proud man and has a vision of what his life and legacy should be and when reality doesn't match up with it, he moves down a path that is ultimately self-destructive, leaving others broken in his wake whether intentional or not. He has a wonderful daughter, Florence, whom he treats as an after thought, if at all , yet she never ceases to love him. Their relationship is truly the core of the novel. There are plenty of subplots and interesting characters that also populate the story. The last third of the novel is non-stop "action" as tensions come to a head, secrets or mysteries are revealed, & resolutions abound.
December 28, 2016
I pretty much spent all day reading this. I really wanted to finish it in 2016 and I really got into last quarter of the book. This is my third Dickens as an adult (not counting the Christmas stories) and it is my least favorite of the 3 but it's still well worth the time to read it. There were a few too many coincidences needed to move the plot along and just some (I thought) unnecessary things but reading Dickens is like going on a long trip with a bunch of fun friends. It doesn't really matter where you are going it's the fun you have along the way. I'm very happy I have so many left to explore. I'm still looking for one to come close to the magic of Bleak House.
June 29, 2023
نُشرت رواية دومبي وولده ضمن أجزاء شهريّة بين عاميّ 1846م – 1848م، حتى جمعها ديكنز في رواية واحدة، تدور أحداثها حول بول دومبي، رجل ثريّ يملك شركة شحن تحمل أسمه، وكان يحلم أن يكون له ولداً يستمر في مسيرته بعد وفاته.
تبدأ الرواية عند ولادة ذلك الأبن، ووفاة زوجته بعد ولادة الطفل، كما أن دومبي لديه إبنة عمرها ستة أعوام تدعى فلورنس كان دومبي يهملها لأنها لم تكن ذلك الصبيّ المنشود.
وظّف دومبي ممرضة و مرضعة للطفل تدعى ريتشاردز بناءً على نصيحة أخته له للعناية بالطفل، سُميّ الطفل على أسم والده بول، وقد كان ضعيفاً ومريضاً وغير منسجم مع الآخرين بشكل طبيعي، فأطلق عليه لقب "قديم الطراز"، وقد كان ذلك الطفل متعلقاً بشقيقته فلورنس بشكل كبير، والتي أهملها والدها عن عمد باعتبارها غير مهمة بالنسبة له.
على إثر التدهور المستمر لصحة الطفل يقرر السيد دومبي ارساله إلى مدينة برايتون البحرية والتي نصحه البعض أنها ستساعد على تحسّن صحة الطفل بسبب شواطئها، ونتيجة لذلك تحسنت صحته فقرّر والده أن يربيه فيها، وهناك تلقى تعليمه، إذ خضع مع الآخرين إلى تعليم مكثف ومرهق، أدى إلى مزيد من تدهور صحته ووفاته بعد ذلك .
يستمر دومبي في أبعاد ابنته فلورنس عنه بعد وفاة أبنه بينما كانت تحاول دون فائدة أن تكسب حبه، فلورنس التي تجمعها علاقة صداقة مع أحد موظفي شركة والدها يدعى والتر والذي طرده دومبي من عمله ليبعده عن ابنته، وفي أثناء رحيله تُفيد تقارير أن المركب الذي رحل عليه قد تعرض للغرق.
تخرج فلورنس من بيت أبيها وتذهب للعيش في بيت عم حبيبها والتر الذي غرق، ويخرج العم في مهمة للبحث عن والتر حيث لم يصدق قصة غرقه.
في هذه الأثناء تزوج دومبي مرة أخرى من امرأة من عائلة مرموقة ولديها المؤهلات العلمية العالية المستوى، لكن دومبي لم يكن يملك أيّ مشاعر نحوها.
أخيراً وجد العم الذي خرج للبحث عن ابن أخيه والتر وعاد به إلى إنجلترا وتزوج من فلورنس بعيداً عن أبيها.
أما السيد دومبي فقد كان يجلس وحيداً في غرفته يعيش في بؤس وألم بعدما هربت زوجته الجديدة مع مساعده و فقدها وفقد ابنته فلورنس.
لكن فلورنس بعد أن تتزوج ويصبح لديها أطفال تحنّ إلى والدها العجوز وتعود للبحث عنه وتبدأ الإهتمام به من جديد، بعد أن كان يفكر في قتل نفسه، لكن أبنته عادت إليه مع طفلها الذي أسمته بول على أسمه وأسم أخيها الذي فقدته.
وهكذا أضحت الأبنة بعد كل شئ هي (دومبي وولده) حقاً، أصبح دومبي في النهاية رجلاً أبيض الشعر ويحمل وجهه آثار ثقيلة من الهموم والمعاناة، لكنها مجرد آثار، فقد انحسر فخره وزهوه في ابنته وزوجها، وطفلها بول الذي كان يراقبه الجد كثيراً، ويقضي معه أوقاتاً طويلة.
تبدأ الرواية عند ولادة ذلك الأبن، ووفاة زوجته بعد ولادة الطفل، كما أن دومبي لديه إبنة عمرها ستة أعوام تدعى فلورنس كان دومبي يهملها لأنها لم تكن ذلك الصبيّ المنشود.
وظّف دومبي ممرضة و مرضعة للطفل تدعى ريتشاردز بناءً على نصيحة أخته له للعناية بالطفل، سُميّ الطفل على أسم والده بول، وقد كان ضعيفاً ومريضاً وغير منسجم مع الآخرين بشكل طبيعي، فأطلق عليه لقب "قديم الطراز"، وقد كان ذلك الطفل متعلقاً بشقيقته فلورنس بشكل كبير، والتي أهملها والدها عن عمد باعتبارها غير مهمة بالنسبة له.
على إثر التدهور المستمر لصحة الطفل يقرر السيد دومبي ارساله إلى مدينة برايتون البحرية والتي نصحه البعض أنها ستساعد على تحسّن صحة الطفل بسبب شواطئها، ونتيجة لذلك تحسنت صحته فقرّر والده أن يربيه فيها، وهناك تلقى تعليمه، إذ خضع مع الآخرين إلى تعليم مكثف ومرهق، أدى إلى مزيد من تدهور صحته ووفاته بعد ذلك .
يستمر دومبي في أبعاد ابنته فلورنس عنه بعد وفاة أبنه بينما كانت تحاول دون فائدة أن تكسب حبه، فلورنس التي تجمعها علاقة صداقة مع أحد موظفي شركة والدها يدعى والتر والذي طرده دومبي من عمله ليبعده عن ابنته، وفي أثناء رحيله تُفيد تقارير أن المركب الذي رحل عليه قد تعرض للغرق.
تخرج فلورنس من بيت أبيها وتذهب للعيش في بيت عم حبيبها والتر الذي غرق، ويخرج العم في مهمة للبحث عن والتر حيث لم يصدق قصة غرقه.
في هذه الأثناء تزوج دومبي مرة أخرى من امرأة من عائلة مرموقة ولديها المؤهلات العلمية العالية المستوى، لكن دومبي لم يكن يملك أيّ مشاعر نحوها.
أخيراً وجد العم الذي خرج للبحث عن ابن أخيه والتر وعاد به إلى إنجلترا وتزوج من فلورنس بعيداً عن أبيها.
أما السيد دومبي فقد كان يجلس وحيداً في غرفته يعيش في بؤس وألم بعدما هربت زوجته الجديدة مع مساعده و فقدها وفقد ابنته فلورنس.
لكن فلورنس بعد أن تتزوج ويصبح لديها أطفال تحنّ إلى والدها العجوز وتعود للبحث عنه وتبدأ الإهتمام به من جديد، بعد أن كان يفكر في قتل نفسه، لكن أبنته عادت إليه مع طفلها الذي أسمته بول على أسمه وأسم أخيها الذي فقدته.
وهكذا أضحت الأبنة بعد كل شئ هي (دومبي وولده) حقاً، أصبح دومبي في النهاية رجلاً أبيض الشعر ويحمل وجهه آثار ثقيلة من الهموم والمعاناة، لكنها مجرد آثار، فقد انحسر فخره وزهوه في ابنته وزوجها، وطفلها بول الذي كان يراقبه الجد كثيراً، ويقضي معه أوقاتاً طويلة.
May 4, 2023
I came to this reread (with the local Dickens Fellowship) remembering only two specific, powerful things from my first read many years ago. Or rather I thought I’d remembered the two things; I’d apparently misremembered them for the most part.
The first was the imagery in my head about the results of the construction of a railroad into a working-poor (of course) section of London and how that displaced and crowded the residents. The imagery had gained such power in my mind that reading it this time I read past it wondering if I hadn’t gotten to the passage yet. I may have attributed a (cumulative) power to this section with a much later one of a train and a character’s fate. This person’s fate is preceded by a carriage escape that was dramatically effective—cinematic—and brought to mind the same feeling I had about the dramatic carriage escape in A Tale of Two Cities.
The second misremembered element was of a certain female character giving an impassioned, cathartic dressing-down to a male character who deserved that and more. It held such power for me that I’d retained the image of it in my head. Except … she wasn’t the female character I’d remembered. (Once again, I think I’d combined the passage with a later one, though both are of different characters.) Reading the passage this time might not have been as powerful for me, but it was just as cathartic.
At one of the Fellowship meetings, the discussion of who is the main character of the book arose. As with Martin Chuzzlewit and Barnaby Rudge, and despite their titles, there was no definitive answer. (I think, like with Oliver Twist but unlike with David Copperfield, these novels revolve around the titled character, though he may not be the protagonist.) Before writing this review, I flipped to the novel’s title page and was reminded of its full title: Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation—perhaps Dickens’s main character isn’t a person at all. (I’ve already heard a disagreement with that theory.)
The first was the imagery in my head about the results of the construction of a railroad into a working-poor (of course) section of London and how that displaced and crowded the residents. The imagery had gained such power in my mind that reading it this time I read past it wondering if I hadn’t gotten to the passage yet. I may have attributed a (cumulative) power to this section with a much later one of a train and a character’s fate. This person’s fate is preceded by a carriage escape that was dramatically effective—cinematic—and brought to mind the same feeling I had about the dramatic carriage escape in A Tale of Two Cities.
The second misremembered element was of a certain female character giving an impassioned, cathartic dressing-down to a male character who deserved that and more. It held such power for me that I’d retained the image of it in my head. Except … she wasn’t the female character I’d remembered. (Once again, I think I’d combined the passage with a later one, though both are of different characters.) Reading the passage this time might not have been as powerful for me, but it was just as cathartic.
At one of the Fellowship meetings, the discussion of who is the main character of the book arose. As with Martin Chuzzlewit and Barnaby Rudge, and despite their titles, there was no definitive answer. (I think, like with Oliver Twist but unlike with David Copperfield, these novels revolve around the titled character, though he may not be the protagonist.) Before writing this review, I flipped to the novel’s title page and was reminded of its full title: Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation—perhaps Dickens’s main character isn’t a person at all. (I’ve already heard a disagreement with that theory.)
May 3, 2021
"The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships, rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planers circled in their orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre."(12)
Mr Dombey is the head of the Dombey and Son firm, an import and export business, and wants to pass it down to a male heir. He's full of pride, and thinks the world revolves around him. He ignores his daughter, Florence, who only wants her father to love her. His son and heir, young Paul, is sickly and frail. Much of the story revolves around Mr Dombey's interactions (or lack of) with Florence. His proud wife, Edith, and his villainous manager, Mr Carker, play important roles in knocking down Mr Dombey off his pedestal.
"Dombey and Son" is the story of a dysfunctional family, and a cast of characters from all social classes. The story is mostly set in Victorian London and Brighton. London's neighborhoods are being torn apart to make way for the railways. The trains were portrayed as an important part of economic progress, but also noisy demons that could cause death and destruction. The sea is another important symbol used to show the transition from life to death. The beaches of Brighton, the London ports, some seasoned ship captains, ocean voyages, and global trading also involve the sea. Pride, money, jealousy, family in many forms, changing technology, education, and forgiveness are all important themes in the story.
Dickens wrote the novel in serial form in 1846-48, juggling the stories of a large group of characters. Dark or emotionally draining chapters are alternated with chapters featuring some lovable comic characters. I read the book with the Dickensian group over two months, and have grown very attached to certain characters during this slow read. It's a wonderful classic that still has the power to make the reader laugh and shed a few tears.
Mr Dombey is the head of the Dombey and Son firm, an import and export business, and wants to pass it down to a male heir. He's full of pride, and thinks the world revolves around him. He ignores his daughter, Florence, who only wants her father to love her. His son and heir, young Paul, is sickly and frail. Much of the story revolves around Mr Dombey's interactions (or lack of) with Florence. His proud wife, Edith, and his villainous manager, Mr Carker, play important roles in knocking down Mr Dombey off his pedestal.
"Dombey and Son" is the story of a dysfunctional family, and a cast of characters from all social classes. The story is mostly set in Victorian London and Brighton. London's neighborhoods are being torn apart to make way for the railways. The trains were portrayed as an important part of economic progress, but also noisy demons that could cause death and destruction. The sea is another important symbol used to show the transition from life to death. The beaches of Brighton, the London ports, some seasoned ship captains, ocean voyages, and global trading also involve the sea. Pride, money, jealousy, family in many forms, changing technology, education, and forgiveness are all important themes in the story.
Dickens wrote the novel in serial form in 1846-48, juggling the stories of a large group of characters. Dark or emotionally draining chapters are alternated with chapters featuring some lovable comic characters. I read the book with the Dickensian group over two months, and have grown very attached to certain characters during this slow read. It's a wonderful classic that still has the power to make the reader laugh and shed a few tears.
August 24, 2023
OK, I've tried giving Dickens another try. We seem to rub each other the wrong way! The book is making me miserable. I see no point in continuing. A bit more than half is enough! Keep in mind, this is a very long book.
The story is plot oriented rather than focusing on character portrayal. To make things worse, the characters are mere caricatures. I think people are complicated and this is how I want them drawn. Caricatures bore me. If it’s plot, action and surprises hat attract you, I’ll bet my bottom dollar, you won’t be disappointed despite that the story is not my cup of tea.
I laughed in the first chapter, but after that nothing amused me. I see where I am supposed to be laughing, but I don’t! Rather than laughing at the stupid things that get said, I get irritated. Two travel to Paris, and they think the place is dull and boring. This annoyed me.
The prose irritates me. It’s wordy and long-winded—you must wade through words. I noted that not only I had trouble making sense of what is said-. Characters remark that they do not understand what another person has said! I ditto this! This comment is made numerous times! The characters speak in a vernacular dictated by their social standing and circumstances. This is good, but only if you comprehend what is meant! Dickens fails to pull this off successfully.
The only character I liked was a dog--Diogenes! The human characters leave me cold. I feel nothing for them. Not pity. Not anger. Nothing whatsoever! This is because they are plastic, flat, cardboard figures!
I promise you, I’ve tried to like this, but I don’t. I’ve failed totally.
The narration by John Richmond, working with RNIB, was very good. His intonation for a character called Toots made me laugh. Four stars for the narration. It’s wrong to blame a audiobook’s narrator, if it’s the author’s lines that annoy you. That is my opinion.
No more Dickens for me!
******************
*A Christmas Carol 3 stars
*David Copperfield 2 stars
*The Chimes 2 stars
*A Tale of Two Cities 2 stars
*Great Expectations 1 star
*Dombey and Son 1 star
*Bleak House not for me
*Küçük Dorrit not for me
*Charles Dickens by 4 stars Claire Tomalin
The story is plot oriented rather than focusing on character portrayal. To make things worse, the characters are mere caricatures. I think people are complicated and this is how I want them drawn. Caricatures bore me. If it’s plot, action and surprises hat attract you, I’ll bet my bottom dollar, you won’t be disappointed despite that the story is not my cup of tea.
I laughed in the first chapter, but after that nothing amused me. I see where I am supposed to be laughing, but I don’t! Rather than laughing at the stupid things that get said, I get irritated. Two travel to Paris, and they think the place is dull and boring. This annoyed me.
The prose irritates me. It’s wordy and long-winded—you must wade through words. I noted that not only I had trouble making sense of what is said-. Characters remark that they do not understand what another person has said! I ditto this! This comment is made numerous times! The characters speak in a vernacular dictated by their social standing and circumstances. This is good, but only if you comprehend what is meant! Dickens fails to pull this off successfully.
The only character I liked was a dog--Diogenes! The human characters leave me cold. I feel nothing for them. Not pity. Not anger. Nothing whatsoever! This is because they are plastic, flat, cardboard figures!
I promise you, I’ve tried to like this, but I don’t. I’ve failed totally.
The narration by John Richmond, working with RNIB, was very good. His intonation for a character called Toots made me laugh. Four stars for the narration. It’s wrong to blame a audiobook’s narrator, if it’s the author’s lines that annoy you. That is my opinion.
No more Dickens for me!
******************
*A Christmas Carol 3 stars
*David Copperfield 2 stars
*The Chimes 2 stars
*A Tale of Two Cities 2 stars
*Great Expectations 1 star
*Dombey and Son 1 star
*Bleak House not for me
*Küçük Dorrit not for me
*Charles Dickens by 4 stars Claire Tomalin
November 28, 2021
Seems I have gotten into a reread-and-upgrade groove recently.
I read Dombey and Son a very long time ago and only remembered it in a vague way.
But it had been the book with which I had decided to give Dickens another chance after the much disliked Great Expectations (although I think I should totally give that another chance!). I gave it 4 stars originally, but now I think it utterly deserves that fifth star.
I enjoyed it very much.
I read Dombey and Son a very long time ago and only remembered it in a vague way.
But it had been the book with which I had decided to give Dickens another chance after the much disliked Great Expectations (although I think I should totally give that another chance!). I gave it 4 stars originally, but now I think it utterly deserves that fifth star.
I enjoyed it very much.
July 12, 2024
Dombey and Son is one of Dickens' best! This novel, in my opinion, rivals Little Dorrit. The main protagonist, Florence Dombey is an amazing woman, full of strength and character which guides her through some incredibly miserable years. Some of the characters that Dickens develops during the course of this novel are some of the most heinously evil or sad, or full of goodness and love, or are just plain funny. There's a powerful message about the influence of "wealth", not just money, on the individual, as well as family and friends. The explosion of the "Industrial Age" in Victorian England, and its impact on the culture plays a prominent role too. I fell in love with Florence Dombey, Little Paul, Wal'r, Cap'n Ed'ard Cuttle, Mr. Toots, and Miss Susan Nipper. I shuddered in fear and loathing with each entrance of Mr. James Carker in the plot (ohhh, the 'teeth'); and felt deep sorrow with each mis-step that 'Pere' Dombey takes. All in all, I could not put this down, and look forward to reading this again sometime in the near future. A wonderful book; and the characters truly deserved of the moniker - "Dickensian"!
April 14, 2025
“Strange study for a child, to learn the road to a hard parent’s heart.”
Another fitting title for this novel would be “Daughters,” as the story is about prideful parents neglecting or exploiting their female offspring. Of the Dickens novels I’ve read, this is the best. There is a wide cast of characters, some of whom are entertaining and funny, whereas some will stir your emotions and break your heart: “would lead her bleeding feet along that stony road which ended in her father’s heart.” Although there are sad moments in the story, and some infuriating scenes, there are also laugh-out-loud bits. And there is a wonderfully funny dog, Diogenes, who becomes a girl’s friend and protector.
“And Di, the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that dropped upon it, and his dog’s heart melted as it fell, put his nose up to her face and swore fidelity.”
One of the most memorable parts of the story is a female character who is resigned to her fate but fierce. Having been exploited by her mom, and having lost her childhood, she owns up to what she has done (and will do), all the while confronting the world for its faults and hypocrisies.
“What childhood did you ever leave to me? I was a woman—artful, designing, mercenary, laying snares for men—before I know myself, or you, or even understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt. You gave birth to a woman. Look upon her.”
“Did I ever tempt you to seek my hand? Did I ever use any art to win you? … Do you think you can degrade, or bend or break, me to submission and obedience?”
Another thing that stands out about this novel is the writing. In places, the prose is stunning, either because of the substantive points it makes (e.g., about poverty) or because of its brilliance and beauty. I reread many passages because they were so well-written. Here are some examples:
“Time, consoler of affliction and softener of anger, could do nothing to help them. Their pride, however different in kind and object, was equal in degree; and, in their flinty opposition, struck out fire between them which might smoulder or might blaze, as circumstances were, but burned up everything within their mutual reach, and made their marriage way a road of ashes.”
“Without a tremor in her voice, or frame, and passing onward with a foot that set itself upon the neck of every soft emotion, she bade her mother good-night, and repaired to her own room … Drawn nearer, nearer, nearer yet; at last, drawn so near, that stooping down, she pressed her lips to the gentle hand that lay outside the bed, and put it softly to her neck. Its touch was like the prophet’s rod of old upon the rock. Her tears sprang froth beneath it, as she sank upon her knees, and laid her aching head and streaming hair upon the pillow by its side.”
OTHER MEMORABLE QUOTES:
“Whatever shapes of outrage and affront, and black foreshadowing of things that might happen, flickered, indistinct and giant-like, before her, one resented figured marshalled them against her. And that figure was her husband.”
“You did not know how exacting and how proud he is, or how he is, if I may say so, the slave of his own greatness, and goes yoked to his own triumphal car like a beast of burden, with no idea on earth but that it is behind him and is to be drawn on, over everything and through everything.”
“Vainly attempt to think of any simple plant, or flower, or wholesome weed, that, set in this foetid bed, could have its natural growth, or put its little leaves off to the sun as God designed it. And then, calling up some ghastly child, with stunted form and wicked face, hold forth on its unnatural sinfulness, and lament its being, so early, far away from Heaven—but think a little of its having been conceived, and born and bred, in Hell!”
“But if the moral pestilence that rises with them, and in the enteral laws of outraged Nature, is inseparable from them, could be made discernable too, how terrible the revelation! Then should we see depravity, impiety, drunkenness, theft, murder, and a long train of nameless sins against the natural affections and repulsions of mankind, overhanging the devoted spots, and creeping on, to blight the innocent and spread contagion among the pure. The should we see how the same poisoned fountains that flow into our hospitals and lazar-houses, inundate the gaols, and make convict-ships swim deep, and roll across the seas, and overrun vast continents with crime.”
Another fitting title for this novel would be “Daughters,” as the story is about prideful parents neglecting or exploiting their female offspring. Of the Dickens novels I’ve read, this is the best. There is a wide cast of characters, some of whom are entertaining and funny, whereas some will stir your emotions and break your heart: “would lead her bleeding feet along that stony road which ended in her father’s heart.” Although there are sad moments in the story, and some infuriating scenes, there are also laugh-out-loud bits. And there is a wonderfully funny dog, Diogenes, who becomes a girl’s friend and protector.
“And Di, the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that dropped upon it, and his dog’s heart melted as it fell, put his nose up to her face and swore fidelity.”
One of the most memorable parts of the story is a female character who is resigned to her fate but fierce. Having been exploited by her mom, and having lost her childhood, she owns up to what she has done (and will do), all the while confronting the world for its faults and hypocrisies.
“What childhood did you ever leave to me? I was a woman—artful, designing, mercenary, laying snares for men—before I know myself, or you, or even understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt. You gave birth to a woman. Look upon her.”
“Did I ever tempt you to seek my hand? Did I ever use any art to win you? … Do you think you can degrade, or bend or break, me to submission and obedience?”
Another thing that stands out about this novel is the writing. In places, the prose is stunning, either because of the substantive points it makes (e.g., about poverty) or because of its brilliance and beauty. I reread many passages because they were so well-written. Here are some examples:
“Time, consoler of affliction and softener of anger, could do nothing to help them. Their pride, however different in kind and object, was equal in degree; and, in their flinty opposition, struck out fire between them which might smoulder or might blaze, as circumstances were, but burned up everything within their mutual reach, and made their marriage way a road of ashes.”
“Without a tremor in her voice, or frame, and passing onward with a foot that set itself upon the neck of every soft emotion, she bade her mother good-night, and repaired to her own room … Drawn nearer, nearer, nearer yet; at last, drawn so near, that stooping down, she pressed her lips to the gentle hand that lay outside the bed, and put it softly to her neck. Its touch was like the prophet’s rod of old upon the rock. Her tears sprang froth beneath it, as she sank upon her knees, and laid her aching head and streaming hair upon the pillow by its side.”
OTHER MEMORABLE QUOTES:
“Whatever shapes of outrage and affront, and black foreshadowing of things that might happen, flickered, indistinct and giant-like, before her, one resented figured marshalled them against her. And that figure was her husband.”
“You did not know how exacting and how proud he is, or how he is, if I may say so, the slave of his own greatness, and goes yoked to his own triumphal car like a beast of burden, with no idea on earth but that it is behind him and is to be drawn on, over everything and through everything.”
“Vainly attempt to think of any simple plant, or flower, or wholesome weed, that, set in this foetid bed, could have its natural growth, or put its little leaves off to the sun as God designed it. And then, calling up some ghastly child, with stunted form and wicked face, hold forth on its unnatural sinfulness, and lament its being, so early, far away from Heaven—but think a little of its having been conceived, and born and bred, in Hell!”
“But if the moral pestilence that rises with them, and in the enteral laws of outraged Nature, is inseparable from them, could be made discernable too, how terrible the revelation! Then should we see depravity, impiety, drunkenness, theft, murder, and a long train of nameless sins against the natural affections and repulsions of mankind, overhanging the devoted spots, and creeping on, to blight the innocent and spread contagion among the pure. The should we see how the same poisoned fountains that flow into our hospitals and lazar-houses, inundate the gaols, and make convict-ships swim deep, and roll across the seas, and overrun vast continents with crime.”
July 2, 2020
Pride Will Have a Fall
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2024
As part of my personal reading project to read the works of Charles Dickens in the order of publication, I have just completed Dombey and Son, a true Dickensian novel that I loved. The novel was first published in monthly parts between 1846 and 1848, with illustrations by Hablot Knight Brown (“Phiz”). The story tells the tale of Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of shipping company whose dream is to have a son to continue his business.
As the tale of Dombey and Son begins the night that young Paul Dombey is born but his wife dies subsequent to the birth, with her young daughter, Florence, in her arms. But young Florence will continue to be neglected by her father in spite of her efforts to learn as much as she can about the mechanics of the shipping firm, Dombey and Son. When a visit is secretly paid to the home of their governess Mrs. Richards, Florence becomes briefly separated from their party and is kidnapped for a time. When released, Florence makes her way to the offices of Dombey and Son, where Walter Gay, an employee, recognizes her and sees that she is taken home. A lifelong friendship will develop between Walter and Florence that resonates throughout the book. Dombey’s son is a weak and sickly child who doesn’t socialize normally with others. Young Paul is intensely fond of his sister Florence, and she of him. Paul is sent to the seaside at Brighton for his health where they all reside. With young Paul’s health beginning to improve by the sea, Mr. Dombey keeps him there and enrolls him in a school with a tutor to assist him in his studies. Young Paul is very lonesome and looks forward to each weekend when he will be able to see Florence who has gone to great lengths to assist young Paul in his studies.
And the story continues with many characters and Dickensian themes including a number of socially significant themes such as arranged marriages for financial gain, child cruelty, familial relationships, and betrayal and deceit with its consequences. A wonderful book that I have been reading for months and enjoying it immensely.
”And again he said Dombey and Son, in exactly as the same tone as before.”
“Those three words conveyed the one idea of Mr. Dombey’s life. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the center.”
As the tale of Dombey and Son begins the night that young Paul Dombey is born but his wife dies subsequent to the birth, with her young daughter, Florence, in her arms. But young Florence will continue to be neglected by her father in spite of her efforts to learn as much as she can about the mechanics of the shipping firm, Dombey and Son. When a visit is secretly paid to the home of their governess Mrs. Richards, Florence becomes briefly separated from their party and is kidnapped for a time. When released, Florence makes her way to the offices of Dombey and Son, where Walter Gay, an employee, recognizes her and sees that she is taken home. A lifelong friendship will develop between Walter and Florence that resonates throughout the book. Dombey’s son is a weak and sickly child who doesn’t socialize normally with others. Young Paul is intensely fond of his sister Florence, and she of him. Paul is sent to the seaside at Brighton for his health where they all reside. With young Paul’s health beginning to improve by the sea, Mr. Dombey keeps him there and enrolls him in a school with a tutor to assist him in his studies. Young Paul is very lonesome and looks forward to each weekend when he will be able to see Florence who has gone to great lengths to assist young Paul in his studies.
”He loved to be alone; and in those short intervals when he was not occupied with his books, liked nothing so well as wandering about the house by himself, or sitting on the stairs, listening to the great clock in the hall. He was intimate with all the paperhanging in the house; saw things that no one else saw in the patterns; found out miniature tigers and lions running up the bedroom walls, and squinting faces leering in the squares and diamonds of the floorcloth.”
“The solitary child lived on, surrounded by this arabesque work of his musing fancy, and no one understood him”
And the story continues with many characters and Dickensian themes including a number of socially significant themes such as arranged marriages for financial gain, child cruelty, familial relationships, and betrayal and deceit with its consequences. A wonderful book that I have been reading for months and enjoying it immensely.
March 9, 2012
This is a great mid-period Dickens written just about at the point where his optimism about human beings and his zest to improve the conditions of all the hapless grovellers is at the tipping point of being transformed by a horrible realisation that the corruption of the ruling classes, the venality of the middle classes and the ground-down-and-outness of the labouring men and women meant that only a root and branch revolution would do, reform would simply fail, be watered down by the circumlocutors, revolution was the only hope.
But he was terrified of revolution and wrote two books about his fear, Barnaby Rudge (which i haven't read yet) and A Tale of Two Cities, which I have. He knew that social upheaval uncorks the violence, he knew the highway to hell paved with good intentions.
So he was in a complete political bind. Couldn't go back, couldn't go forward. All his middle to late masterpieces are written from this agonised political dilemma. Beginning with Dombey and Son he gets gloomier and gloomier.
But being Dickens his genius covers the gloom with hectic merriment and gurning gargoylery, which we love.
But he was terrified of revolution and wrote two books about his fear, Barnaby Rudge (which i haven't read yet) and A Tale of Two Cities, which I have. He knew that social upheaval uncorks the violence, he knew the highway to hell paved with good intentions.
So he was in a complete political bind. Couldn't go back, couldn't go forward. All his middle to late masterpieces are written from this agonised political dilemma. Beginning with Dombey and Son he gets gloomier and gloomier.
But being Dickens his genius covers the gloom with hectic merriment and gurning gargoylery, which we love.
June 10, 2018
Good old Dickens! Don't know why I haven't read it earlier, but coming across it by accident I immediately thought I'd read it for sentimental reasons. This novel is definitely underrated! Great panorama of the society and minute details make this novel a masterpiece.
September 17, 2012
This one is 800+ pages, and has about 300 pages of material in it. Worse, it almost feels like Dickens stepped back, analyzed his previous stuff, and decided that the problem with all of it was that there was too much fun. So he deliberately went out of his way to excise the fun, and accentuate the grim. Of course, being Dickens, he couldn't get rid of all the fun, and there are still some very charming moments here. But they are fairly few, and spread out sparsely over the course of what otherwise amounts to a fairly tedious slog through some of the grimmest and dullest stuff he ever wrote.
The main problem, in my eyes, is that the two main characters, Dombey and his daughter, are almost completely passive. Florence is slighted and unloved. What does she do about it? She perseveres. And that's about it, for 800 pages. Dombey is a great businessman, and he takes his entire identity from his business. But what does he do? I haven't a clue. Mostly, he seems to accept compliments on his greatness, and otherwise remains haughty and taciturn.
There are a few interesting and charming characters here, notably Captain Cuttle and Toots. But, except possibly for Cuttle, they are all very much of the Dickens' one-note variety. And with some, it goes to new extremes. Carker, for example, seems to be nothing but a set of teeth.
I like the basic set-up. Dombey, who identifies himself with his business (Dombey and Son), is left with an only daughter, whom he despises. But Florence, his daughter, is so perfect that she is a total snooze. And Dombey is so shallow that it's almost impossible to take an interest in him. Combine with that with the ultimate passivity of these two, and its amazing that the novel goes anywhere at all, even if it is at a glacial pace.
I know this sounds like I hated the novel, and in some ways I did. But as always, with Dickens, there are passages and chapters that are so brilliant that they partially redeem what would otherwise be irredeemable. And that's also true here. And because of that, I will probably go on to read the remaining books that I haven't: Sketches by Boz, Old Curiosity Shop, and Our Mutual Friend. I'll probably do Old Curiosity next, and I expect it to be even worse. I've never heard anyone say anything good about Little Nell. And I'm leaving Mutual Friend for last, because I have hopes that it will be really good.
The main problem, in my eyes, is that the two main characters, Dombey and his daughter, are almost completely passive. Florence is slighted and unloved. What does she do about it? She perseveres. And that's about it, for 800 pages. Dombey is a great businessman, and he takes his entire identity from his business. But what does he do? I haven't a clue. Mostly, he seems to accept compliments on his greatness, and otherwise remains haughty and taciturn.
There are a few interesting and charming characters here, notably Captain Cuttle and Toots. But, except possibly for Cuttle, they are all very much of the Dickens' one-note variety. And with some, it goes to new extremes. Carker, for example, seems to be nothing but a set of teeth.
I like the basic set-up. Dombey, who identifies himself with his business (Dombey and Son), is left with an only daughter, whom he despises. But Florence, his daughter, is so perfect that she is a total snooze. And Dombey is so shallow that it's almost impossible to take an interest in him. Combine with that with the ultimate passivity of these two, and its amazing that the novel goes anywhere at all, even if it is at a glacial pace.
I know this sounds like I hated the novel, and in some ways I did. But as always, with Dickens, there are passages and chapters that are so brilliant that they partially redeem what would otherwise be irredeemable. And that's also true here. And because of that, I will probably go on to read the remaining books that I haven't: Sketches by Boz, Old Curiosity Shop, and Our Mutual Friend. I'll probably do Old Curiosity next, and I expect it to be even worse. I've never heard anyone say anything good about Little Nell. And I'm leaving Mutual Friend for last, because I have hopes that it will be really good.
January 6, 2022
I approached Dombey and Son knowing nothing about it and thinking it would be boring. I was SO WRONG. This is my favorite Dickens novel so far. I enjoyed Bleak House and David Copperfield very much, but they are both sprawling stories with many characters and plotlines. Dombey and Son is a more compact story with a more straightforward narrative and timeline and a tighter focus on the Dombey family at its core. The story was slow to start for me, but as soon as the narrative shifted to Florence and her brother Paul's relationship, I was all in.
The story covers about 15 years and nearly all the characters are linked to the Dombey family in some way. Mr. Dombey's relationship with his son Paul and his daughter Florence is at the very heart of the novel. We also get to read about an office environment, a boys' school, estranged siblings, a lost ship, marriages (and an escaped marriage), deaths, betrayal, the parallel of several mother-daughter relationships, a found family, and more. The plot is exciting and took some turns that I didn't expect.
But the characters! The characters are at the heart of this book and they are WONDERFUL. I won't name them all, but I do have to name some of my favorites. Little Paul Dombey is a delight. He is a fragile child, and he has that expansive, sensitive soul that fragile children (in novels at least) often have. He is quiet, almost grave, and insightful and sweet. Florence is also like this, though with a more feminine cast. She is loyal and loving and sweet. Idealized perhaps, but it works in the story.
James Carker is an excellent villain. He gets a lot of page time, and I think Dickens does a marvelous job showing his manipulation over the course of the novel. Edith Dombey is a fascinating female character, and Dickens does so much through her to speak to the often oppressive gender norms of his age. I can't remember reading a character quite like Edith Dombey before. I won't say more because of spoilers.
Finally, Captain Cuttle and Mr. Toots. They are the comic relief in this novel, and they are SO FUNNY. I laughed out loud multiple times when reading about them. Captain Cuttle is a old seaman with a hook for a hand. At the beginning of the novel, he lives with a widow, Mrs. MacStinger, and her children, and he's always trying to escape from her matrimonial designs. He's more of a comic character at that point. Later in the novel, when he moves into the Midshipman, he becomes a central character who is integral to the plot and to Florence's own story. Though he's a bit light on brains (rather Bertie-Wooster-like, in fact), he is lovable, upright, honest, fastidious, emotional, and tender-hearted.
Mr. Toots first meets little Paul Dombey when Paul becomes a student at Mr. Blimber's school in Brighton. Mr. Toots is around 18 years old when we first meet him, and he is also hilariously light on brains. He often mixes up people's names, like calling Captain Cuttle Captain Gills and Walter Gay Lieutenant Walters. He soon leaves Dr. Blimber's and is launched into the world with his fortune and no occupation. He is most certainly a hobbledehoy, but such an endearing one. Despite his awkwardness, he has a steadfast heart, a delicacy of feeling, and an eagerness to do what is right. He provides Florence with a dog when she is particularly in need of a companion. There's so much more I could write about him.
I haven't said much about Walter Gay because of spoilers, but he is a splendid manly hero. Brave, loyal, kind-hearted, etc. And Susan Nipper! How can I forget that sprightly, feisty, protective Nipper! Dickens often refers to her simply as 'Nipper', which I think is hilarious. It fits her quite well, I'd say.
There's more, oh so much more! But I won't write any more for now except to say that there were passages of beautiful writing in this as well and an extended metaphor that I found moving. As Kathleen Kelly says in You've Got Mail: "Read it. I know you'll love it."
The story covers about 15 years and nearly all the characters are linked to the Dombey family in some way. Mr. Dombey's relationship with his son Paul and his daughter Florence is at the very heart of the novel. We also get to read about an office environment, a boys' school, estranged siblings, a lost ship, marriages (and an escaped marriage), deaths, betrayal, the parallel of several mother-daughter relationships, a found family, and more. The plot is exciting and took some turns that I didn't expect.
But the characters! The characters are at the heart of this book and they are WONDERFUL. I won't name them all, but I do have to name some of my favorites. Little Paul Dombey is a delight. He is a fragile child, and he has that expansive, sensitive soul that fragile children (in novels at least) often have. He is quiet, almost grave, and insightful and sweet. Florence is also like this, though with a more feminine cast. She is loyal and loving and sweet. Idealized perhaps, but it works in the story.
James Carker is an excellent villain. He gets a lot of page time, and I think Dickens does a marvelous job showing his manipulation over the course of the novel. Edith Dombey is a fascinating female character, and Dickens does so much through her to speak to the often oppressive gender norms of his age. I can't remember reading a character quite like Edith Dombey before. I won't say more because of spoilers.
Finally, Captain Cuttle and Mr. Toots. They are the comic relief in this novel, and they are SO FUNNY. I laughed out loud multiple times when reading about them. Captain Cuttle is a old seaman with a hook for a hand. At the beginning of the novel, he lives with a widow, Mrs. MacStinger, and her children, and he's always trying to escape from her matrimonial designs. He's more of a comic character at that point. Later in the novel, when he moves into the Midshipman, he becomes a central character who is integral to the plot and to Florence's own story. Though he's a bit light on brains (rather Bertie-Wooster-like, in fact), he is lovable, upright, honest, fastidious, emotional, and tender-hearted.
Mr. Toots first meets little Paul Dombey when Paul becomes a student at Mr. Blimber's school in Brighton. Mr. Toots is around 18 years old when we first meet him, and he is also hilariously light on brains. He often mixes up people's names, like calling Captain Cuttle Captain Gills and Walter Gay Lieutenant Walters. He soon leaves Dr. Blimber's and is launched into the world with his fortune and no occupation. He is most certainly a hobbledehoy, but such an endearing one. Despite his awkwardness, he has a steadfast heart, a delicacy of feeling, and an eagerness to do what is right. He provides Florence with a dog when she is particularly in need of a companion. There's so much more I could write about him.
I haven't said much about Walter Gay because of spoilers, but he is a splendid manly hero. Brave, loyal, kind-hearted, etc. And Susan Nipper! How can I forget that sprightly, feisty, protective Nipper! Dickens often refers to her simply as 'Nipper', which I think is hilarious. It fits her quite well, I'd say.
There's more, oh so much more! But I won't write any more for now except to say that there were passages of beautiful writing in this as well and an extended metaphor that I found moving. As Kathleen Kelly says in You've Got Mail: "Read it. I know you'll love it."
May 4, 2021
I read this a chapter a day with the Dickensians group. Thanks Jean for your wonderful summaries and insights, and thanks to all the other commenters.
Dombey and son is a long book and as I love Dickens I enjoyed all his characters and the way he remembers them all, even those mentioned briefly. When you first read this , the shock is that dickens . Death is one of the first scenes, when Mrs Dombey dies after giving birth. Dombey only wants a son, his pride and arrogance means he ignores his daughter and anybody who doesn’t play to his selfishness. Florence is lovely throughout and there are many other strong female characters. There is of course lots of humour in amongst the sadness.
The main themes of this novel are family and parenting, there are many styles and comparisons, Dombey and his children, mothers and daughters. Education is another big theme, Dickens takes aim at a couple of schooling methods here. The other major theme is progress, this is the railway novel. London is changing as building takes place, whole areas destroyed to make way for the railway.
What I love most about Dickens work is how he treasures good people whatever their class background and his dislike of injustice and greed.
Dombey and son is a long book and as I love Dickens I enjoyed all his characters and the way he remembers them all, even those mentioned briefly. When you first read this , the shock is that dickens . Death is one of the first scenes, when Mrs Dombey dies after giving birth. Dombey only wants a son, his pride and arrogance means he ignores his daughter and anybody who doesn’t play to his selfishness. Florence is lovely throughout and there are many other strong female characters. There is of course lots of humour in amongst the sadness.
The main themes of this novel are family and parenting, there are many styles and comparisons, Dombey and his children, mothers and daughters. Education is another big theme, Dickens takes aim at a couple of schooling methods here. The other major theme is progress, this is the railway novel. London is changing as building takes place, whole areas destroyed to make way for the railway.
What I love most about Dickens work is how he treasures good people whatever their class background and his dislike of injustice and greed.
October 22, 2016
This is by far my favorite Dickens after The Christmas Carol (whose reigning place has more to do with nostalgia than anything else). I found all of the characters interesting and compelling. None of them slowed down the narrative for me, unlike in Little Dorrit. This is a wonderfully dense book about families and gender roles and the different forms of love. I highly enjoyed so many of the plot lines. My favorite characters were Walter, Susan Nipper, Edith and Captain Cuttle. I'm not sure if I'm spelling those correctly, as I listened to the audiobook narrated by David Timson, who did an excellent job. I look forward to listening to more Dickens narrated by him! Here I come, Our Mutual Friend!
November 1, 2015
This was my first reading of Dombey and Son, and I found it to be one of Dickens’s less successful novels. I know some rank it highly. But I found the plot mostly uninteresting and even more dependent than is usual for Dickens on unlikely events and coincidences, and much of the writing turgid and uninspired. The first third of the book managed to engage me as the situations developed, but after that I increasingly read more out of duty than out of pleasure. I have enjoyed so much of Dickens’s work that I kept reading in the expectation that things must improve, but they never did.
I never managed to get a good sense of the character of Dombey or understand why he acted in such self-destructive ways. My experience of highly successful businessmen is that they are almost universally much better judges of character than Dombey turned out to be. His marriage to Edith Granger was unjustified by any aspect of his character, especially since he didn’t have the excuse of love or even affection blinding his judgment, as there was none of that on either side of the marriage. His treatment of Florence was inexplicable even for Victorian England.
Florence herself was sappy and insipid. I longed to find a single mention of any possible hint of reality in her, but never did. Reading about her was like eating an endless bowl of undiluted sugar.
The backgrounds were less interesting and less finely drawn than in most Dickens novels. London didn’t come alive in nearly the way it does in Bleak House, for example, and there was no location of great interest, such as the Marshelsea in Little Dorrit or the marshes or Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations.
As is typical of Dickens, there were plenty of well drawn minor characters. I particularly enjoyed Captain Cuttle (from whom the phrase “when found, make a note on” apparently comes), Solomon Gills, and Susan Nipper, and appreciated the humor in Mr. Toots and Cousin Feenix.
I have read many of Dickens’s works multiple times, and will read many of them again in future, but Dombey and Son will not be among my choices for rereading. However, it does merit three stars, because even a weak Dickens is still a Dickens.
I never managed to get a good sense of the character of Dombey or understand why he acted in such self-destructive ways. My experience of highly successful businessmen is that they are almost universally much better judges of character than Dombey turned out to be. His marriage to Edith Granger was unjustified by any aspect of his character, especially since he didn’t have the excuse of love or even affection blinding his judgment, as there was none of that on either side of the marriage. His treatment of Florence was inexplicable even for Victorian England.
Florence herself was sappy and insipid. I longed to find a single mention of any possible hint of reality in her, but never did. Reading about her was like eating an endless bowl of undiluted sugar.
The backgrounds were less interesting and less finely drawn than in most Dickens novels. London didn’t come alive in nearly the way it does in Bleak House, for example, and there was no location of great interest, such as the Marshelsea in Little Dorrit or the marshes or Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations.
As is typical of Dickens, there were plenty of well drawn minor characters. I particularly enjoyed Captain Cuttle (from whom the phrase “when found, make a note on” apparently comes), Solomon Gills, and Susan Nipper, and appreciated the humor in Mr. Toots and Cousin Feenix.
I have read many of Dickens’s works multiple times, and will read many of them again in future, but Dombey and Son will not be among my choices for rereading. However, it does merit three stars, because even a weak Dickens is still a Dickens.
October 20, 2018
I’m glad to have read Dombey and Son, but I can’t exactly say I enjoyed reading it—at least not consistently. There is some wonderful writing in it, but also some very poor, by-the-yard stuff. It screams for a fiery red pen.
I was drawn to the novel—Dickens’s seventh (1846-48), often seen as marking the beginning of his “late, great” phase—by the theme of a father over-investing in his son and underinvesting in his daughter. That worked enough well for me as a thread, although Florence Dombey’s unfailingly humble love and duty towards the father who spurns her does grate a little on modern sensibilities. I had to play around with theories of her as a Christian allegory—a modern Job, or Griselda—to make anything very satisfying out of her. Dickens evokes all kinds of fairy tale imagery for her, and maybe that’s another way to read her: a princess under some very perverse kind of spell.
The passage in the novel where I felt most engaged was when I thought it might be heading into deeper and darker fairy-tale territory. As if fearing that the lovely Florence might be a little too one-dimensional as sole female lead, Dickens introduces a more complex and chiaroscuro figure in the form of Edith, her stepmother. Shortly after Edith and Paul Dombey contract their ill-fated marriage, the two of them begin to wind themselves into a very warped kind of domestic triangle with Dombey’s right-hand man, the villainous James Carker. I thought this scenario had real potential while it lasted, and it was already beginning to offer some interesting insights about the ways human beings find to harm themselves and others. Dickens bills it as a battle of pride against pride—Dombey’s monstrous and chilly self-importance against Edith’s self-loathing fury—but there’s more to it than that. The Iago-like Carker (thrown away as a character, I felt, after a promising build-up) also has an interestingly ambiguous role to play.
This being Dickens, the central plot of the novel is fleshed out with a madly maximalist sugar-rush of minor characters, variously comic or grotesque or would-be lovable. OK, I’ll take off my Scrooge hat for a moment—some of them were reasonably lovable, I suppose. Susan Nipper had her moments, as did Captain Cuttle and Sol Gills. I just could have done without the endless, one-joke Toodles and Toots and Chicks and Chickens and Blimpers and Pipchins. Enough already! (As this reaction will suggest, it may be that I’m just not a natural Dickens fan.)
As for settings, mainly London, the complete stand-out for me was the dystopian vision of Camden Town near the beginning, mercilessly hacked through by the new-build railway.
The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the whole neighbourhood to its centre. Traces of its course were visible on every side …Here, a chaos of carts, overthrown and jumbled together, lay topsy-turvy at the bottom of a steep unnatural hill; there, confused treasures of iron soaked and rusted in something that had accidentally become a pond.
I felt Dickens rather over-egged trains as symbols later in the novel, but his descriptive powers in this passage are remarkable. His vividness and fluency, in passages like this, gave me a glimpse of why so many people see him as a great writer, maybe even the greatest Victorian novelist. My personal jury, for the moment, remains out.
I was drawn to the novel—Dickens’s seventh (1846-48), often seen as marking the beginning of his “late, great” phase—by the theme of a father over-investing in his son and underinvesting in his daughter. That worked enough well for me as a thread, although Florence Dombey’s unfailingly humble love and duty towards the father who spurns her does grate a little on modern sensibilities. I had to play around with theories of her as a Christian allegory—a modern Job, or Griselda—to make anything very satisfying out of her. Dickens evokes all kinds of fairy tale imagery for her, and maybe that’s another way to read her: a princess under some very perverse kind of spell.
The passage in the novel where I felt most engaged was when I thought it might be heading into deeper and darker fairy-tale territory. As if fearing that the lovely Florence might be a little too one-dimensional as sole female lead, Dickens introduces a more complex and chiaroscuro figure in the form of Edith, her stepmother. Shortly after Edith and Paul Dombey contract their ill-fated marriage, the two of them begin to wind themselves into a very warped kind of domestic triangle with Dombey’s right-hand man, the villainous James Carker. I thought this scenario had real potential while it lasted, and it was already beginning to offer some interesting insights about the ways human beings find to harm themselves and others. Dickens bills it as a battle of pride against pride—Dombey’s monstrous and chilly self-importance against Edith’s self-loathing fury—but there’s more to it than that. The Iago-like Carker (thrown away as a character, I felt, after a promising build-up) also has an interestingly ambiguous role to play.
This being Dickens, the central plot of the novel is fleshed out with a madly maximalist sugar-rush of minor characters, variously comic or grotesque or would-be lovable. OK, I’ll take off my Scrooge hat for a moment—some of them were reasonably lovable, I suppose. Susan Nipper had her moments, as did Captain Cuttle and Sol Gills. I just could have done without the endless, one-joke Toodles and Toots and Chicks and Chickens and Blimpers and Pipchins. Enough already! (As this reaction will suggest, it may be that I’m just not a natural Dickens fan.)
As for settings, mainly London, the complete stand-out for me was the dystopian vision of Camden Town near the beginning, mercilessly hacked through by the new-build railway.
The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the whole neighbourhood to its centre. Traces of its course were visible on every side …Here, a chaos of carts, overthrown and jumbled together, lay topsy-turvy at the bottom of a steep unnatural hill; there, confused treasures of iron soaked and rusted in something that had accidentally become a pond.
I felt Dickens rather over-egged trains as symbols later in the novel, but his descriptive powers in this passage are remarkable. His vividness and fluency, in passages like this, gave me a glimpse of why so many people see him as a great writer, maybe even the greatest Victorian novelist. My personal jury, for the moment, remains out.
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