Dombey and Son: Unabridged edition (Immortal Classics) - Softcover

Dickens, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1517452449 ISBN 13: 9781517452445

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Dombey and Son is the seventh novel by Charles Dickens. It tells the story of Paul Dombey, powerful head of the House of Dombey. He wants a son and when a daughter (Florence) is born he despises her. His second child, a son (Paul), is weak and sickly and dies a child. Paul's first wife dies with the birth of Paul Jr and he remarries. His second wife, Edith, does not love him and eventually runs away with Mr. Carker, a manager at the firm. With Carker gone, Paul is incapable of managing the business and it fails. In the end Paul is reconciled with his daughter, living with her family, and doting on his grandchildren. As with most of Dickens' work, a number of socially significant themes are to be found in this book. In particular the book deals with the then-prevalent common practice of arranged marriages for financial gain. Other themes to be detected within this work include child cruelty, familial relationships, and as ever in Dickens, betrayal and deceit and the consequences thereof. Another strong central theme is that of pride and arrogance, of which Paul Dombey senior is the extreme exemplification in Dickens' work.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity. Growing up in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms. A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, The Old Curiosity Shop and Bleak House are among his most famous and popular works.

Review:

''Dombey and Son, the hidden gem even Dickens fans may have missed, combines a rollicking, biting sense of humor with nuanced psychological insights that feel surprisingly modern in their attitudes toward women . . . As usual in Dickens's work, much of the reading pleasure resides in the supporting cast and subplots, and the men here are endearing . . . But it is the wives, sisters, mothers, and discarded mistresses who control the plot and break your heart.'' --O, the Oprah Magazine

''(Audiobook Narrator)Frederick Davidson gives such a splendid dramatization of this family saga . . . it's almost like watching theater. Davidson matches his versatile voice to each one of the principals. He also manages to distinguish with equal elasticity among a host of vivid and disparate supporting characters. Thanks to Davidson's seamless delivery, the narrative sweeps the listener through [nearly] 40 hours of sustained drama.'' --AudioFile

''There's no writing against such power as this-one has no chance.'' --William Makepeace Thackeray - 19th century English novelist, author of Vanity Fair.

''Dickens willed into existence the most capacious and elastic and versatile kind of novel that could be, one big enough for his vast sentimental yearnings and for every impulse and fear and hesitation in him that countervailed those yearnings too. Never parsimonious and frequently contradictory, he always gives us everything he can, everything he's planned to give, and then more.'' --Jonathan Lethem - American novelist, essayist and short story writer.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1517452449
• ISBN 13: 9781517452445
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 568