Scan barcode
A review by hadeanstars
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
5.0
I cannot even begin to convey with enough enthusiasm, how sincerely I enjoyed this novel. Even by Dickens' peerless standards, this was a transport and a delight. I think it is my fifth Dickens this year and I am not sure if it is just an encroaching and warm familiarity, or perhaps this really is another level of literary greatness, but I enjoyed and marvelled at this work even more than my former favourite, David Copperfield.
I suspect that the reason is that this, like David Copperfield, is one of his longer works. Odd thought his might seem, it occurs to me that Dickens does not write for plot. There is plot, and usually a very compelling one, but the book does not work to the plot's rhythm, rather it marches at the timing of the major characters. For example, on of the major issues for me in The Old Curiosity Shop was the seemingly long-winded closing stages where Sally Brass took up a vast tract of the latter chapters. I really feel now, after Dombey, that this is all part of the design. Dickens writes to explore the richness of people, and sometimes it is a journey in itself. The reward lies in just relaxing into it, and appreciating the foibles and quirks of these people even if they do not advance the plot very much, because in a sense, they supersede such devices and carry them along in their wake.
In any case, Dombey was a beautiful, rewarding and magnificent journey through the humanising process of a very proud man who - as Oscar Wilder said it - knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Some of the characters were sublime. Old Major Bagstock, (in truth a personage I'm sure only the English could really get), the formidable and tragic Edith, her hilarious mother 'Cleopatra', and of course young Waller, and the darling Florence. They will all stay with me for years to come.
Is this Dickens' most under-appreciated and underrated novel? I still have a few to read, but so far, I would say without a doubt! Wonderful.
I suspect that the reason is that this, like David Copperfield, is one of his longer works. Odd thought his might seem, it occurs to me that Dickens does not write for plot. There is plot, and usually a very compelling one, but the book does not work to the plot's rhythm, rather it marches at the timing of the major characters. For example, on of the major issues for me in The Old Curiosity Shop was the seemingly long-winded closing stages where Sally Brass took up a vast tract of the latter chapters. I really feel now, after Dombey, that this is all part of the design. Dickens writes to explore the richness of people, and sometimes it is a journey in itself. The reward lies in just relaxing into it, and appreciating the foibles and quirks of these people even if they do not advance the plot very much, because in a sense, they supersede such devices and carry them along in their wake.
In any case, Dombey was a beautiful, rewarding and magnificent journey through the humanising process of a very proud man who - as Oscar Wilder said it - knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Some of the characters were sublime. Old Major Bagstock, (in truth a personage I'm sure only the English could really get), the formidable and tragic Edith, her hilarious mother 'Cleopatra', and of course young Waller, and the darling Florence. They will all stay with me for years to come.
Is this Dickens' most under-appreciated and underrated novel? I still have a few to read, but so far, I would say without a doubt! Wonderful.