Dombey and Son Author:Charles Dickens Mr Dombey is a proud, unkind and rich merchant in London. His only concern is the continuation of the family name in the context of his firm. For this reason, Dombey cruelly neglects his devoted daughter Florence for the young Paul who he values solely for his potential as a successor in the firm and not as a human being. Further he sends her lo... more »ver from his firm off on business to the West Indies to prevent their marriage since he is merely a clerk. We watch as Dombey’s pride allows him to fall prey to flatterers: the villainous manager Carker and Major Joe Bagstock particularly. The former destroys his marriage to Edith Granger and as the plot pans out Dombey is left without his fortune, son or wife and lives in solitude and misery.
Set in an England caught in the throes of industrial revolution and commercial expansion, this tale of a proud, ambitious, and morally blind businessman, and of his pernicious effect upon the multitude of lives around him, stands as a memorable indictment of a corrosive economic system, and as a profound plea for human values. Written with immense vitality, abounding in characters of extraordinary vividness, and superb in total design, Dombey and Son is, as Edgar Johnson has written, "one of Dickens' greatest books- the first great masterpiece of Dickens' maturity."« less