Product Description

This novel comes with an introduction and notes by Karl Ashley Smith, University of St Andrews and illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Mr Dombey is a man obsessed with his firm. His son is groomed from birth to take his place within it, despite his visionary eccentricity and declining health. But Dombey also has a daughter, whose unfailing love for her father goes unreturned. 'Girls' said Mr Dombey, 'have nothing to do with Dombey and Son'. When Walter Gay, a young clerk in her father's office, rescues her from a bewildering experience in the streets of London, his unforgettable friends believe he is well on his way to receiving her hand in marriage and inheriting the company. It is to be a very different type of story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8494 in Books
• Published on: 1995-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

About the Author
Dennis Walder is the editor of the three OPB editions of the plays of Athol Fugard, as well as the book listed below

Customer Reviews

Worthwhile for Dickens fans
It's difficult to rate a book like "Dombey and Son". At its best, it's brilliant, and at its worst it can be rather dull.

The first part of the book focuses on Mr Dombey's beloved and fragile son, little Paul, of whom great things are expected. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of plot. Little Paul's visit to Brighton and his schooling seem to go on forever. Mr Dombey is a potentially interesting character, but Dickens - or rather the narrator - is so busy berating him for his self-importance and belittling even his more laudable feelings, like the love for his son, that he never gets a fair hearing. Dombey's household, including his son and his daughter Florence, the book's heroine, fails to really grip you, and so do Florence's later love interest Walter Gay and his set. Still, there is the odd amusing scene, the chapter set in Dombey's office promises well - although it doesn't fulfil its promise until much later - and even the dullish patches are well-written (not like the awful America chapters in "Martin Chuzzlewit").

However, it isn't until about three hundred pages into the book that the novel really gets going, with Mr Dombey's courtship of and later marriage to the scornful Edith Granger. The marital battle that ensues is engrossing, not least because of the part that Dombey's business manager James Carker, the splendid villain of the piece, plays in it. After this drama seems to have reached its logical conclusion, the plot loses momentum for a while. Then a grotesque plot twist makes a nonsense of some of the strongest previous scenes. Still fuming over this, I was nevertheless touched by the truly moving ending.

There are some minor gripes. The relationship between Mr Dombey and his daughter Florence would have been more fascinating if Dickens hadn't taken such pains to steer our sympathies towards Florence and away from her father. A reader tends to rebel when the author's intentions are made too clear. After all, Dombey has a case: his daughter does, albeit unwittingly, cause him a great deal of misery, so perhaps it isn't that strange that he finds it difficult to warm to her. We don't see any of her much-vaunted filial love during the first part of the book, and it isn't until the end that it leads her to actually do her dad some good. The secondary characters have their moments, but they have a tendency to outstay their welcome. Taken altogether, though, this book is worth the effort: you have to eat a lot of greens to get to the dessert, but the dessert is delicious. If you're unfamiliar with Dickens, this is not the novel to start with: try "Great Expectations", "Bleak House" and/or "David Copperfield" first, and then when you're hooked you can proceed with this one.

Dombey and Daughter?
This is probably the least filmed Dickens novel, but don't be put off by that. Dickens gave us a book which really showed the nineteenth century attitude to women. Mr Dombey has a daughter but it is the birth of his son that is all he is concerned about, after all it will mean the continuation if his business. This story is a very good read and definitely one of Dickens' best, a must for anyone who loves a good read. Thackery himself despaired over the death scenes and said was there any point in ever writing again. Through deaths Dickens shows us the delicacy of his writing and through remarriage and peoples scrapes he shows us yet again how brilliant he is at comedy. Dickens also shows that he wasn't adverse to Women's Lib in this book, which was written about a decade before such other novels were being regularly written.

Don't doubt Dombey
I must disagree with comments made previously here about this being a dull book, for I found it enthralling and perfectly of its time. As has been said, the book is not so much about a man named Dombey and his son as it is about his daughter and her step-mother. The plot is quintessentially Dickensian. He is relentless in never letting relief come for more than a moment, and it is thrilling. His characters are never less than intriguing--from the small and waning Dombey clan to minor characters named wonderful things like Captain Cuttle, Miss Tox, Mr. Toots, and Mrs. Nipper. Within the tragic circumstances of a loveless but wealthy family, Dickens injects comical moments in which social climbers or other irritating company invade Dombey's inner sanctum. The emotional core consists not only of one's sympathy for Florence and Edith, but for the awful state of Paul Dombey, cold-man extraordinaire. It's just under 1,000 pages, and while I agree somewhat with the other reviewers in finding the first 100 or so not the most fluid of Dickens' prose, I was drawn in by practically every last page.