Paul Dombey is a heartless London merchant who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business. In the tight orbit of his daily life there is no room for dealing with emotions because emotion has no market value. In his son he sees the future of his firm and the continuation of his name, while he neglects his affectionate daughter, until he decides to get rid of her beloved, a lowly clerk. But Dombey's weakness is his pride, and he falls prey to the treacherous flattery of others. Combining an intricate plot, vivid language, and Dickens's customary social commentary, Dombey and Son , explores the possibility of moral and emotional redemption through familial love.
Publishers Weekly This dark study of pride is a pivotal—if unappreciated—work in Dickens's oeuvre. Dickens focuses on the Dombey family, eschewing his idiosyncratic panoramic scope and ensemble casts. David Timson is a dream casting; he endows each character with depth, personality and pathos, again displaying why he is a perennial favorite in audio narration. This abridgment offers about one-third of the full text, which will serve the casual listener well without burdening their wallet or commandeering the listening schedule. (Sept.)

Charles Dickens, Ian Perkin, A. Willis, Forster, John, Jason Lee

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870; Sanders, Andrew, 1946-

London ; New York: Penguin Books

Ladybird Books Ltd

Penguin Books Ltd

Dodd, Mead

Great illustrated classics, New York, 1950

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

International Edition, 2002

Includes bibliographical references (p. xxix-xxx).

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 frail son, grooming him for entry into the family business; his daughter Florence, abandoned and ignored, craves affection from her unloving father, who sees her only as 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. Can this heartless businessman be redeemed? A compelling depiction of a man imprisoned by his own pride, Dombey and Son 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's own childhood. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, notes and the original illustrations by 'Phiz'

Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family and the ambiguous connection between public and private life lies at the heart of Dickens' novel. Paul Dombey is a man who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business: calculatingly, callously, coldly and commercially. Through his dysfunctional relationships with his son, his two wives, and his neglected daughter Florence, Dickens paints a vivid picture of the limitations of a society dominated by commercial values and the drive for profit andexplores the possibility of moral and emotional redemption through familial love.

The tale of a selfish, hard-hearted man, the son he favored, and the daughter he slighted, in an England almost prostrate before the storms of change we now call the Industrial Revolution.

xxxii, 996, [1] p. : 20 cm
Includes bibliographical references (p. xxix-xxx)

A rich and pompous merchant is plagued by loneliness and misfortune

2023-06-28