Title: Dombey and Son
Author: Charles Dickens
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 880
Rating: 3.5/5
With this book, which I listened to in the form of a free audio book from Librivox, we’re back to some of Dickens’ longer form stuff, and that’s just fine with me. I mean, sure, Dombey and Son could have been a couple hundred pages shorter and it wouldn’t be worse off for it, but it also didn’t feel too bloated, which is sometimes a risk when you’re reading Dickens.
It also does what Dickens does best, in that it focusses more on the characters and the relationships between them than it does on the plot, although there’s plenty there to enjoy, too. And let’s not forget the socioeconomic commentary that shows what Dickens’ London was like.
As for the plot, well. There’s a lot to summarise.
Basically, we’re following the fortunes of a chap called Paul Dombey, a guy who owns a shipping company and who’s determined to have a son to continue the family name. Right at the beginning of the book, a son is born, but Mrs Dombey dies due to complications from the childbirth, leaving Dombey to raise the child alone, albeit with the help of a wet nurse.
Dombey’s heir is also called Paul, just to make things more confusing, and he’s not exactly a paradigm of health and heartiness. He’s a poorly kid who doesn’t get along too well with other kids, except for his older sister Florence, who’s been neglected since birth by their father because she doesn’t have a penis. The two kids are shipped off to Brighton, where Paul eventually passes away as a result of his illness. Bummer.
To be fair, it really is a bummer, because the young Paul was one of my favourite characters. On the plus side, it’s not as though his absence leaves a huge gap in the story because of how many other excellent characters there are, and it was also necessary for the plot to move forwards.
That brings us to the second act of the story, in which Dombey starts to treat his daughter like crap because she doesn’t have a penis and then sets out to find a new wife so that he can try and have another son. It’s a shame, because Dombey’s daughter is a nice lass, and one of my favourite characters, but as with everything Dickens does, there’s a purpose to all of this. He’s highlighting how mean societal expectations can make us.
Next up, old man Dombey goes off to Leamington Spa, which I enjoyed because I’ve been to Leamington Spa a bunch of times and even ran in their parkrun. I’m always a fan of reading about places that I’ve been to in literature, and it’s even more fun when it happens with Dickens because I get to compare the past to the present. Leamington Spa has definitely changed since Dickens’ day, and I can’t imagine many people go there to improve their health in the 21st century.
More stuff happens, as you might expect, but I’m not going to give you a play-by-play account of it because even with 880 words to play with for my review, I’d never squeeze it all in. Suffice to say that we see Dombey growing older and a little bit wiser, and while he never quite lets go of his earlier prejudices, he does at least soften in ways that we might not earlier have expected.
Dombey and Son is one of those novels where there’s a ton of stuff to deconstruct and some interesting themes that range from the growth of the railways to patriarchal society and the pressure for people to have a son to continue the family name. As far as I could tell, each of the themes that Dickens wrote about is still relevant today, often in unusual ways.
For example, Dickens used the rise of the railways in Victorian England to write about how places were being changed, often for the worst, because of it. Places are destroyed and cultures are lost, and that’s just as true today as it was in Dickens’ time. I wonder what he would have made of HS2.
No, on second thoughts, I don’t. I already know.
So, to wrap things up and to summarise, Dombey and Son is an interesting beast that does what Dickens does best, taking a closer look at some of the more forgotten sides of society while simultaneously showcasing what makes people tick. His plotting and social commentary is as good as it always is, but it’s his characterisation that really makes Dombey and Son sing, just like it is with all of his other books.
Now, I wouldn’t say that this is a book that you should pick up first if you’re new to Dickens, even though it’s pretty typical of what he does. Instead, it’s one of those books that’s perfect for a die-hard Dickens fan who’s read a good chunk of Dickens’ stuff but hasn’t got to this one yet. They’re going to love it.
As for me, I fall into that camp and had a lot of fun with it, although it could have been a little shorter.
