Product Description

'"Dom-bey and Son"...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.' The hopes of Mr Dombey for the future of his shipping firm are centred on his delicate son Paul, and Florence, his devoted daughter, is unloved and neglected. When the firm faces ruin, and Dombey's second marriage ends in disaster, only Florence has the strength and humanity to save her father from desolate solitude. This new edition contains Dickens's prefaces, his working plans, and all the original illustrations by 'Phiz'. The text is that of the definitive Clarendon edition. It has been supplemented by a wide-ranging Introduction, highlighting Dickens's engagement with his times, and the touching exploration of family relationships which give the novel added depth and relevance. The Notes and Bibliography have been substantially revised, extended, and updated.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252463 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1024 pages

About the Author
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. In 1824, his father was imprisoned for debt, so Charles was sent to work in a shoe-dye factory. He later became a clerk in a law firm, a shorthand reporter in the courts, and a parliamentary and newspaper reporter. In 1833, Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to periodicals, heralding the start of a glittering and prolific literary career. He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, with whom he had nine surviving children before they separated in 1858. Dickens died suddenly at home on June 9, 1870, leaving behind an internationally acclaimed canon of work, including Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838), David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Little Dorrit (1855-57), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-61) and Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has published many books and articles on Dickens.

Customer Reviews

Underappreciated
Of the 14 novels Dickens completed in his lifetime, Dombey and Son is undoubtedly one of the least known; only Barnaby Rudge provides serious competition in this regard, it appears to me. It was popular with audiences of Dickens' own day, though. It was published in monthly instalments in 1846-1848, when Dickens popularity was very great, immediately following the success of the earlier Christmas books, including "A Christmas Carol".

Dombey and Son is more tightly plotted than its predecessors, for that reason it is often considered to mark the beginning of "late" Dickens, where thematic concerns became paramount. The Dombey of the title is a man of business, a very successful one, and the father of two children. One is a daughter, who is irrelevant to the business of Dombey and Son and thus irrelevant to Mr. Dombey, and the other is a son, Little Paul, who is expected to give material existence to the "Son" specified in the name of Mr. Dombey's business. However, Little Paul proves to be less of a chip off the old block than might have been hoped for, and baffles his father exceedingly when he asks him "What is money?" and follows his father's reply with "Yes, but what does it do?".

Further characters include the malevolent Mr. Carker, a consummate hypocrite who also displays some of the threatening sexuality of later Dickens characters like Bradley Headstone and John Jasper; Edith, a prototype for Lady Dedlock, and equally exaggerated; and Mr. Toots, who is madly, hopelessly and hilariously in love with Dombey's daughter Florence("'sof no consequence").
Ultimately, this book becomes more about Dombey's relationship with his daughter, whom he has continually neglected and spurned. Predictably for Dickens, Florence is of an improbably passive and meek disposition, literally unable to think badly of others, and quick to assume the blame in any given situation. Her insistence on blaming herself for her father's ill-treatment of her seems to me somewhat pathological but Dickens presents it merely as proof of her good nature.
This novel has most of the flaws and also the virtues that are typical of Dickens. It is not his best book, but the greater degree of planning that went into it compared to earlier novels means it never loses interest throughout the 800-odd pages. Those familiar with Dickens will be able to forgive the frequent sentimentalism and will enjoy the humour and pathos of the better passages. Dombey and Son is not the first Dickens book anyone should read, but it is a solid addition to his canon nonetheless.

Emerging genius
A lengthy novel which is often tiresome, there are however wonderful snippets of the emerging Dickens genius. It is both simple and complex in its construction - one can easily guess quite early as to the eventual conclusion. There are the usual flamboyant characters that you can love or hate or love to hate. Sol, Cuttle, Bagstock and Toots provide the laughs. For comic value this falls far short of `Pickwick' and `Chuzzlewit'. Mr Dombey and Mr Carker are not pleasant fellows and their behaviour impacts profoundly on Edith and Florence. Another consequence of Dickens advance are better drawn female characters than his earlier books.

Less is more
One of Dicken's lesser known novels, it shares with many of the later works a tendecy to verbosity and prolixity. Read 'Oliver Twist', 'A Tale of Two Cities' or even 'Hard Times' and compare the prose style. These novels are shorter, the prose is stylish but to the point. Why use sixty words to describe something when it could be equally effective in twenty-five?