This was not my favorite Dickens novel. It seemed a bit too long for the actual material, and pretty negative in outlook overall until right at the end. I had trouble believing that Edith and Carker would actually plot together, even if their relationship was never anything but platonic; the animosity between those two seemed too strong. Worth reading all the same.

The last time I ready this was in 1991. Returning to a book I had loved is always risky - will I love it just as much the second time around? Happily, it was a delight to read it again. I have taken so much more from the book, the complexity of the characters and their relationships, the detail that Dickens dwells on as he takes us into the heart of Dombey and Son, house, firm and fractured family. The impossibly innocent and virtuous Florence is without doubt my favourite of all of Dickens's child characters with the death of her little brother Paul, a wave of sentimentalism in all its Dickensian splendour. The book is an interesting reflection of Dickens's view of the ideology of Victorian domesticity, and how his innate cynicism competes with this ideology, particularly when it comes to the relationship between husband and wife, and the constraints that the marital contract imposes on individual self-determination and happiness. A social commentary on industrialisation and the contamination of the home and hearth by capitalist concerns, Dombey and Son is one of Dickens's best works, and certainly retains its status as my favourite of all his novels.

Sentimental and laboured ...

although Captain Cuttle has a nice nautical turn of phrase "There ain't no bis'ness done, you see. He don't know anything about it—the Cap'en don't. There was a man come into the shop this very day, and says, "I want a so-and-so," he says—some hard name or another. "A which?" says the Cap'en. "A so-and-so," says the man. "Brother," says the Cap'en, "will you take a observation round the shop." "Well," says the man, "I've done it." "Do you see wot you want?" says the Cap'en "No, I don't," says the man. "Do you know it wen you do see it?" says the Cap'en. "No, I don't," says the man. "Why, then I tell you wot, my lad," says the Cap'en, "you'd better go back and ask wot it's like, outside, for no more don't I!"'That ain't the way to make money, though, is it?' said Polly.

Dickens, Charles Dombey and Son: Premium Edition (Unabridged, Illustrated) (Kindle Locations 11141-11142).

Although the title of this novel is also that of a business, of which Dombey is the proud owner, one learns little about what actually goes on there. The focus is on Dombey himself and his family. The first part of this novel, until the death of the ailing son, is absorbing but the promise is not kept. Florence, the neglected daughter of Dombey, is too good to be true. It is scarcely credible that she maintains her affection for her father through all his slights until he finally strikes her after his desertion by Edith. The story of Dombey’s courting and marriage to Edith and his manager Carker’s role in her leaving him is overly melodramatic. Yet it does provide Dickens with an opportunity for some wonderful purple prose describing Carker’s flight back to England:

“Of rolling on and on, always postponing thought, and always racked with thinking; of being unable to reckon up the hours he had been upon the road, or to comprehend the points of time and place in his journey. Of being parched and giddy, and half mad. Of pressing on, in spite of all, as if he could not stop, and coming into Paris, where the turbid river held its swift course undisturbed, between two brawling streams of life and motion.”

The “of’s” continue and provide a pounding rhythm which completely conveys the atmosphere of the desperate flight. It made me think that Dickens would have reveled in cinema and probably become a marvelous director.

The novel is redeemed by some of the minor characters, of which my favourite is Cap’n Cuttle, who lives in terror of the wily Mrs MacStinger, but has a heart of gold. Then there is Edith’s mother – definitely mutton (or old goat) dressed as lamb, Mr. Toots and his eventual bride the sharp-eyed Susan, previously Nipper, and the redoubtable Major Bagstock – J.B. or Joey B., as he refers to himself.

Dickens is almost too careful to provide a tidy ending with marriages all round and even Edith dying with the comfort of Florence beside her and Dombey an unexpectedly fond grandparent. Happy but contrived!

FINALLY FINISHED! It was good, though.

I think I'm giving up on this. The narration is too weird and I'm just SO BORED and I don't pay attention to it at all. I tried to listen to too many classics in a row and I am all classic'ed out.

Merged review:

I think I'm giving up on this. The narration is too weird and I'm just SO BORED and I don't pay attention to it at all. I tried to listen to too many classics in a row and I am all classic'ed out.

“Dombey and Son” isn’t the first book that comes to mind when you hear Charles Dickens mentioned - indeed, I would bet it would only come in at the very end of a list for most people. I didn’t know anything about it when I started reading, and so found myself pleasantly surprised.

It definitely has a very strong beginning - it has a great first sentence, which Dickens tends to be extremely good at, but even more than that. I found myself pulled into the story immediately, and that isn’t something I could say for all his books, or even most of them.

It does focus more on family dynamics rather than on societal issues, although they do come up (the railway and the changes it brings with it are one of the topics he deals with here). I suspect whether you enjoy it depends on how well you can tolerate his go-to tropes - dying children and self-sacrificing women, for example. What reading this taught me is that I can roll my eyes even when I am crying.

For the most parts, though, I enjoyed it, the way you enjoy a soap-y drama. And I loved everything involving Captain Cuttle, Sol Gills and Walter. And I loved Mr. Toots and was very pleased he got his HEA, too. Actually, and I realize this is saying much because Dickens is great at creating memorable characters, there are plenty of lovable characters in here.

As an aside, though, I am *shocked* that there is no fanfic about Captain Cuttle and Sol Gills.

It’s not the book I’d recommend if you just want to read *one* book by Dickens, but I had a really good time reading it. (I probably will never be able to rank them all properly, but it’s in the upper half of what I’ve read so far.)

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This...this wonderful book has to be my favourite Dickens....it seems to be less talked about than many of Dickens books and I have no idea why, it is marvellous. I was persuaded to read it by Katie, of the Books and Things YouTube channel. I am so glad I did.
I love that Edith was so strong and managed to do what she did...I relished in the evilness of Carker, the manager, Toots was a delight, captain Cutter was fantastic....such brilliant characters! If I had to say a less positive thing it would be that Florence, the main character was a trifle flimsy and ummm annoying..and the end was a trifle too well tied up ( I like a bit left unknown and not everyone needs to get married) but it is of no consequence.... all in all a really good read! Excellent.
I love Dickens for the slow and even rambling nature of his stories...it is something that we seem to have lost the time for in this faster paced world. But that slowness gives scope for such understanding of character and place.
Just as an aside...after reading Dickens I do find myself seeing his characterisation in people I see out and about...and it makes me smile.