Dombey and Son

Előszó

Dombey and Son was originally published in serial form in twenty monthly parts from October 1846 to April 1848 and first appeared in book form during the latter year. It is a work of Dickens's maturity as a novelist, the fali title being: Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, Retail, Wholesale and for Exportation. Mr Dombey is a proud, stern, unfeeling man whose dominant ambition is to have a son so that the family shipping firm may continue to be entitled 'Dombey and Son', and with the birth of a son, Paul, Mr Dombey's wish is granted. However, Mrs Dombey dies following childbirth and Paul, although acutely perceptive, proves to be a delicate boy with a weak constitution and quite unable to fulfil his father's ambitions for him. Nevertheless, in his short life Paul attracts the love and affection of all who get to know him and is universally mourned when, after a disastrous spell at Dr Blimber's school, he dies, partly as a result of that establishment's harsh disciplinary regime. After his beloved son's death Mr Dombey's grief and bitterness know few bounds and he lives in a state of perpetual resentment of his elder child, his daughter Florence, who seeks his love in vain. In time, Mr Dombey marries a widow, Edith Granger, but this proves to be a short-lived, loveless and childless unión and she decamps to Francé with his business manager, the predatory villáin Mr Carker. Despite Mr Dombey's best endeavours, Florence marries a kind and considerate young man, Walter Gay, while the business of Dombey and Son founders leaving Mr Dombey in abject desolation, in search of forgiveness from those he has ignored and wronged. Other notable characters include the retired Major Joe Bagstock, the kindly old sea-captain Cuttle, Florence's faithful servant Susan Nipper and the agreeable aristocrat 'Cousin Feenix'. Dombey and Son is a complex növel which contrasts the dismally obsessed and loveless household of Mr Dombey with the happiness and cheer of the Toodle family home and the shambolic establishment of Walter Gay's uncle, Solomon Gills. Like so much of Dickens's writing, Dombey and Son is alsó concerned with the theme Vissza