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Dombey and Son, Volume I
Dombey and Son is a novel by the Victorian author Charles Dickens. It was first published in monthly parts between October 1846 and April 1848 with the full title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. Dickens started writing the book in Lausanne, Switzerland, but travelled extensively during the course of its writing, returning to England to begin another work before completing Dombey and Son. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870), also known as "Boz", was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime. The popularity of his novels and short stories has meant that not one has ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories was eagerly anticipated by the reading public. Among his best-known works are Sketches by Boz (1836), The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Barnaby Rudge (1841), A Christmas Carol (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1865).
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1846
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About the author
Charles Dickens
12.9k books31.5k 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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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 2, 2016
He was not a man of whom it could properly be said that he was ever startled or shocked; but he certainly had a sense within him, that if his wife should sicken and decay, he would be very sorry, and that he would find a something gone from among his plate and furniture, and other household possessions, which was well worth the having, and could not be lost without sincere regret. Though it would be a cool, business-like, gentlemanly, self-possessed regret, no doubt.
Oh, Mr. Dombey. Such a cool, calm, considerate man. Cold as ice to his wife and his daughter, he lives only for his newborn son, dreaming of his future empire. His daughter gets by without parental love, while peripheral characters roam about the edges of their lives. Small suns looking through fog.
Dickens always has a spot in my library...actually, he has his own shelf, period. While this is not one of his later masterpieces, it's a humdinger by itself. The usual hard look at society and the common man is there along with the usual slings and shots leveled at certain characters.
None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. They must be dead - stone dead - and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a ghoul.
Written as his usual serial, then published as one volume in 1848, this portion is the first part of the tale, which means it takes the reader to the next wedding and leaves the reader hoping the daughter will finally start to have some love in her life. Knowing Dickens, Volume II will tear everything apart, but hands over eyes and ears, I only know the current characters and their actions. That said, this isn't my top Dickens read thus far, as I started losing interest (only briefly) after a main character dies. Didn't expect that, so it shot my morning cappuccino drill to hell. But I recovered and ate up the last pages of Volume I so quickly, I ran out of pages to read with still a train and bus to catch (not happy, Mr. Dickens, not happy).
Thoughts on some of the characters
Mr. Dombey: Ice runs through his veins. He also has terrible understanding of others, as they twirl around him in order to take advantage of his money. You're gonna fall, dude!
Florence: Not sure yet. Either she's a brave insipid feminine heroine or she's...I don't know. Need Volume II!
Paul: Little dude, I was rooting for you. I don't care if others felt you were an old man in a little boy's body. ...Paul sat as if he had taken life unfurnished, and the upholsterer was never coming. We all feel like that, little dude.
Lucretia Tox: At first I thought her name was to denote evil, as in "toxic". But her tear-down by Mrs. Chick brought me over to her side. Simple, yet generous, and unable to see the envy lurking in others. On your side, Tox!
Mr. James Carker: Boo, hiss. I would not want to shake his hand. His feline-ish smile, full of white teeth, reminded me of what the Cheshire Cat would have been as a human.
Diogenes The Dog: Right up there with Bullseye, the other great Dickens' dog.
Captain Cuttles: Gotta love the names. Warm. One of the warmest characters from the pen of Dickens.
Bring on the next volume.
Book Season = Summer (because twenty Romuluses don't make one Remus)
February 12, 2021
Volume I: chapters 1-30
To read my full review of this novel, please LINK HERE.
To read my full review of this novel, please LINK HERE.
July 19, 2007
Not the best of Dickens' books, but to be honest I like him so much that I'm willing to forgive him quite a lot. Like, for instance, the truly sickening Florence. And the ending, which was a bit of a cop-out (melodramatic and tearful reconciliation, and lots of kids who get named after their poor dead relatives). Edith was fairly interesting, though.
February 12, 2022
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. A grand theme of pride and it's utterly destructive power in the lives of several characters. If course because it's Dickens it has a wonderful happy ending.
February 4, 2017
Ploughed through only to discover the book in my possession was merely volume 1!
Oh Dickens, you make it worth my while at the end of your books, but man do you make me fight to get there...
Oh Dickens, you make it worth my while at the end of your books, but man do you make me fight to get there...
December 21, 2022
This review covers both volumes of Dombey and Son. Another of Dickens' very long novels, with some great elements and poor elements to it. The first part of the book (leading up to the main event around which the narrative unfolds) is a tour de force in which Dickens establishes the main characters and an engaging story. After the main event, the reader is left with very high expectations, guessing and trying to work out what is likely to follow. And there are several variants in terms of probability. But Dickens tends to deceive us all by going off in unexpected and improbable directions, while at the same time, not exploring what the reader would expect to be explored. So, the second part of the book is a pluralistic miasma of stories that doesn't hold together that well. And the closer we get to the end, the bigger the jumps that take place and the gaps in the story, and with some characters given full development while others (more important to the story) are left to wither. But this is not to take away from a very enjoyable read and some brilliant characters. Dombey in particular is, in the first part, brilliantly portrayed, as is Florence, even if we have seen these type of characters before in Dickens. The pity is that if Dombey is the anti-hero in the first part, the change in him and his circumstances in the second part is not really explored in any depth. The novel is almost left without a central character. And it meanders to its close, leaving us frustratingly unwise about various things in the book. The short section of text on the arrival of the railways is brilliant.
April 11, 2021
"Dombey and Son" was very well received when it was first published, and for my money, it is amongst the best of his works.
Whereas several of his later works and a few of his earlier focused on specific societal issues (schooling, the law, conditions of the poor, industrialisation, and reforming society's ills), "Dombey and Son" is really entirely focused on personal characteristics and flaws.
The plot is reasonably straight-forward, unencumbered by the complex twists and turns of some of the other works; and there are fewer digressions into peripheral episodes, and fewer instances of sustained sentimentality over deaths.
The principal themes are examination of pride, of ambition and of familial ties, and revenge. While these are interesting enough as vehicles for the plot, they would probably not, of themselves, send anyone rushing to read the next instalment.
What makes the novel so fine is the combination of Dickensian humour, and his characteristically perceptive descriptions, and beautifully turned language; so many examples are on offer, it is difficult to choose some for quotation:
A nurse is asked her name by Dombey: “‘Blockitt, Sir?’ Suggested the nurse, a simpering piece of faded gentility, who did not presume to state her name as a fact, but merely offered it as a mild suggestion.”
Solomon Gills, owner of the failing instrument-maker premises laments:
“ ‘As I said just now, the world has gone past me. I don’t blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my stock is old fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen behind the time, and am too old to catch it again. Even the noise it makes a long way ahead, confuses me.’”
Dombey is very pleased to have a son who is to carry on the family name in future years, but nothing will melt his deliberately frigid demeanour:
“Mr Dombey had truly revealed the secret feelings of his breast. An indescribable distrust of anybody stepping in between himself and his son; a haughty dread of having any rival or partner in the boy’s respect and deference; a sharp misgiving, recently acquired, that he was not infallible in his power of bending and binding human wills; as sharp a jealousy of any second check or cross; these were, at that time, the master keys of his soul. In all his life, he had never made a friend. His cold and distant nature had neither sought one, nor found one. Now when that nature concentrated its whole force so strongly on a partial scheme of parental interest and ambition, it seemed as if its icy current, instead of being released by this influence, and running clear and free, had thawed for but an instant to admit its burden, and then frozen with it into one unyielding block.”
Dombey explains to his wet-nurse his provision of a place at the Charitable Grinders school for her son:
“ ‘the melancholy fact that your family, himself at the head, were sunk and steeped in ignorance.… I am far from being friendly,’ pursued Mr Dombey, ‘to what is called by persons of levelling sentiments, general education. But it is necessary that the inferior classes should continue to be taught to know their position, and to conduct themselves properly. So far I approve of schools.’”
Mrs Pipchin is chosen by Dombey to look after his son's early learning:
“This celebrated Mrs Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured, ill-conditioned old lady, of a stooping figure, with a mottled face, like bad marble, a hook nose, and a hard grey eye, that looked as if it might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury. Forty years at least had elapsed since the Peruvian mines had been the death of Mr Pipchin; but his relict still wore black bombazeen, of such a lustreless, deep, dead, sombre shade, that gas itself couldn’t light her up after dark.”
and Dickens returns to one of his favourite themes:
“it being a part of Mrs Pipchin’s system not to encourage a child’s mind to develop and expand itself like young flower, but to open it by force like an oyster”
Major Bagstock has a "complexion like stilton cheese, and his eyes like a prawn's."
Doctor Blimber, the owner of Paul Bombey's next school, "...was a portly gentleman in a suit of black, with strings at his knees and stockings below them. He had a bald head, highly polished; a deep voice and a chin so very double, that it was a wonder how we ever managed to shave into the creases. He had likewise a pair of little eyes that were always half shut up, and the mouth that was always half expanded into a grin, as if he had, that moment, posed a boy, and were waiting to convict him from his own lips.” and Miss Blimber "...was dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages."
There are many more wonderfully arcane characters than these, the simpering Biler, the terrifying man-trapping Mrs MacStinger, the self-consciously intellectually slow Mr Toots, Dombey's vicariously proud sister Mrs Chick, and the toothily repellent Carker. And others.
For so much of the novel, Dickens's writing is beautiful, with regular flourishes that are a joy to read. If I were to be unreasonably picky, I could suggest that Dombey's ultimate conversion into a loving human being is too much to believe. However, all the other baddies are suitably punished by their cosmos and the goodies are rewarded with loving, happy lives.
I must conclude with my favourite line from Dombey and Son; Mr Tozer, one of Dr Blimber's teachers, was "so extremely full of antiquity" that his "learning, like ill-arranged luggage, was so tightly packed that he couldn't get at anything he wanted." What a magnificently evocative description!
Whereas several of his later works and a few of his earlier focused on specific societal issues (schooling, the law, conditions of the poor, industrialisation, and reforming society's ills), "Dombey and Son" is really entirely focused on personal characteristics and flaws.
The plot is reasonably straight-forward, unencumbered by the complex twists and turns of some of the other works; and there are fewer digressions into peripheral episodes, and fewer instances of sustained sentimentality over deaths.
The principal themes are examination of pride, of ambition and of familial ties, and revenge. While these are interesting enough as vehicles for the plot, they would probably not, of themselves, send anyone rushing to read the next instalment.
What makes the novel so fine is the combination of Dickensian humour, and his characteristically perceptive descriptions, and beautifully turned language; so many examples are on offer, it is difficult to choose some for quotation:
A nurse is asked her name by Dombey: “‘Blockitt, Sir?’ Suggested the nurse, a simpering piece of faded gentility, who did not presume to state her name as a fact, but merely offered it as a mild suggestion.”
Solomon Gills, owner of the failing instrument-maker premises laments:
“ ‘As I said just now, the world has gone past me. I don’t blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my stock is old fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen behind the time, and am too old to catch it again. Even the noise it makes a long way ahead, confuses me.’”
Dombey is very pleased to have a son who is to carry on the family name in future years, but nothing will melt his deliberately frigid demeanour:
“Mr Dombey had truly revealed the secret feelings of his breast. An indescribable distrust of anybody stepping in between himself and his son; a haughty dread of having any rival or partner in the boy’s respect and deference; a sharp misgiving, recently acquired, that he was not infallible in his power of bending and binding human wills; as sharp a jealousy of any second check or cross; these were, at that time, the master keys of his soul. In all his life, he had never made a friend. His cold and distant nature had neither sought one, nor found one. Now when that nature concentrated its whole force so strongly on a partial scheme of parental interest and ambition, it seemed as if its icy current, instead of being released by this influence, and running clear and free, had thawed for but an instant to admit its burden, and then frozen with it into one unyielding block.”
Dombey explains to his wet-nurse his provision of a place at the Charitable Grinders school for her son:
“ ‘the melancholy fact that your family, himself at the head, were sunk and steeped in ignorance.… I am far from being friendly,’ pursued Mr Dombey, ‘to what is called by persons of levelling sentiments, general education. But it is necessary that the inferior classes should continue to be taught to know their position, and to conduct themselves properly. So far I approve of schools.’”
Mrs Pipchin is chosen by Dombey to look after his son's early learning:
“This celebrated Mrs Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured, ill-conditioned old lady, of a stooping figure, with a mottled face, like bad marble, a hook nose, and a hard grey eye, that looked as if it might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury. Forty years at least had elapsed since the Peruvian mines had been the death of Mr Pipchin; but his relict still wore black bombazeen, of such a lustreless, deep, dead, sombre shade, that gas itself couldn’t light her up after dark.”
and Dickens returns to one of his favourite themes:
“it being a part of Mrs Pipchin’s system not to encourage a child’s mind to develop and expand itself like young flower, but to open it by force like an oyster”
Major Bagstock has a "complexion like stilton cheese, and his eyes like a prawn's."
Doctor Blimber, the owner of Paul Bombey's next school, "...was a portly gentleman in a suit of black, with strings at his knees and stockings below them. He had a bald head, highly polished; a deep voice and a chin so very double, that it was a wonder how we ever managed to shave into the creases. He had likewise a pair of little eyes that were always half shut up, and the mouth that was always half expanded into a grin, as if he had, that moment, posed a boy, and were waiting to convict him from his own lips.” and Miss Blimber "...was dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages."
There are many more wonderfully arcane characters than these, the simpering Biler, the terrifying man-trapping Mrs MacStinger, the self-consciously intellectually slow Mr Toots, Dombey's vicariously proud sister Mrs Chick, and the toothily repellent Carker. And others.
For so much of the novel, Dickens's writing is beautiful, with regular flourishes that are a joy to read. If I were to be unreasonably picky, I could suggest that Dombey's ultimate conversion into a loving human being is too much to believe. However, all the other baddies are suitably punished by their cosmos and the goodies are rewarded with loving, happy lives.
I must conclude with my favourite line from Dombey and Son; Mr Tozer, one of Dr Blimber's teachers, was "so extremely full of antiquity" that his "learning, like ill-arranged luggage, was so tightly packed that he couldn't get at anything he wanted." What a magnificently evocative description!
December 19, 2019
Even better the second time around. Despite the depressing themes, one of Dickens's funniest books. Stand by !
September 2, 2021
Seems more thickly plotted than some of the earlier books but a lot of the plot is very familiar and not a lot happens in a very long time.
Read
September 7, 2024Glad that's finished! What an ordeal.
January 3, 2016
Like another reviewer, I'm a diehard Dickens fan. This is a slip up to me. It's got the classic realism, societal zeitgeists cleverly reduced into minor characters, twists of plot, and clear good and evils. But it definitely lacks the craftsmanship of classic Dickens. Too many minor and not so minor characters (are they really integral to the story?); abruptness of plot (dead son so early?); etc.
But it's of no consequence, on to another one.
But it's of no consequence, on to another one.
January 11, 2016
I had not heard of this book, but I liked it. Dombey is a hard-assed business man who completely ignores his first born girl-child, Florence. His wife dies during the birth of his son, but the son is sickly and dies in a few years. He takes a gold-digger second wife, who eventually leaves him, as does his daughter. Much happens to finally bring Florence to marry and have the son that Dombey wanted and all is reconciled in the end.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews