Dombey and Son (Penguin Classics)

From AudioFile
Frederick Davidson gives such a splendid dramatization of this family saga, set in London in the 1840's, that 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 more than 40 hours of sustained drama. J.H.L. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
?There?s no writing against such power as this?one has no chance.??William Makepeace Thackeray


Book Description
Paul Dombey is a heartless London merchant who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business. In the tight orbit of his daily life there is no room for dealing with emotions because emotion has no market value. In his son he sees the future of his firm and the continuation of his name, while he neglects his affectionate daughter, until he decides to get rid of her beloved, a lowly clerk. But Dombey's weakness is his pride, and he falls prey to the treacherous flattery of others. Combining an intricate plot, vivid language, and

Dickens's customary social commentary, Dombey and Son, explores the possibility of moral and emotional redemption through familial love.


Download Description
The bustling, teeming streets of mid-Victorian London with their age-old vistas and traditions come vividly alive in this novel. But year by year the new railway technology is remaking London in its own image. Dickens responds to the real contradictions of Britain's new industrial power: its potential for creation and destruction, for life and death.


The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
(in full Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation) Novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly installments during 1846-48 and in book form in 1848. It was a crucial novel in his development, a product of more thorough planning and maturer thought than his earlier serialized books. The title character, Mr. Dombey, is a wealthy shipping merchant whose wife dies giving birth to their second child, a long-hoped-for son and heir, Paul. The elder child, Florence, being female, is neglected by her father. When Paul's health is broken by the rigors of boarding school and he dies, Dombey's hopes are dashed. In her grief, Florence draws emotional support from her father's employee Walter Gay. Resentful of their relationship, Dombey sends Gay to the West Indies, where he is shipwrecked and presumed lost. Dombey then takes a new wife--the poor but proud widow Edith Granger--who eventually runs off with Dombey's trusted assistant. After his ultimately empty pursuit of the pair, Dombey returns bereft and bankrupt. Walter Gay, meanwhile, has returned with the story of his rescue by a China clipper and asked Florence to marry him. They set sail for the East, returning a few years later with a baby son--named Paul--to find Mr. Dombey on the brink of suicide. The family's reconciliation concludes the book in a typically Dickensian glow.


From the Publisher
Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards.


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Dombey and Son, Charles Dicken's story of a powerful man whose callous neglect of his family triggers his professional and personal downfall, showcases the author's gift for vivid characterization and unfailingly realistic description. As Jonathan Lethem contends in his Introduction, Dicken's "genius...is at one with the genius of the form of the novel itself: 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 planning to give, and then more."


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