Don't forget to bookmark this web site !! Used & Out of Print Books | Contact us | Home

Browse and Compare Price at 40+ Sites and 20,000+ Stores!!

 

Muze Annotation: The full title of Dickens's novel is DEALINGS WITH THE FIRM OF DOMBEY AND SON, RETAIL, WHOLESALE, AND FOR EXPORTATION--which clearly establishes it as a novel about business. The widowed Mr. Dombey, obsessed with his firm and its future, dotes on his son, who will become his partner, and neglects his daughter, Florence. Young Paul Dombey, however, is sickly, and dies pathetically in his youth; after this, Dombey is crueler than ever to Florence, and his remarriage to a woman who cannot love him only intensifies his loveless personality. When his wife leaves him and his business fails, Dombey does manage to change--one of the many Dickens characters who is ennobled by the love of a virtuous woman, in this case his neglected daughter. This novel is the first of Dickens's mature, serious works, but it has many high-spirited moments in the midst of its sad story. The pathetic death of saintly little Paul Dombey was a popular favorite for Dickens's public readings.