NEW Dickens readalong Dombey and Son - the 2025 Dombeyalong!

[Piggywaspushed]

Join me in the next Dickens readalong, Dombeyalongadingdong! This is probably the last big Dickens we haven't done.
The novel was originally published by Dickens in 19 instalments, all exactly 32 pages long (I do find this obsession with 32 pages intriguing- writing to such an exact brief must have involved quite a lot of editing and , as I recall from Nickleby, much padding at times!) and then published in full in 1848. I know nothing of this one really - except the name Paul Dombey sticks in my head. Apparently , this one is more focused on marriage and is read as marking a change in Dickens' presentation of women. Seafaring is involved but this is also his first book about the arrival of railways which Dickens was not altogether sold on. This period was referred to as 'railway mania'. It's really quite hard to conceptualise the rapid progress and change surrounding Dickens.

This one has not been on TV for a long time. Andrew Davies had been working on a version - but it was ditched because it was felt we had had too many 'bonnet dramas'. I swear we have still had many since but rather heavily 'adapted' and maybe Sarah Phelps hasn't read Dombey...

I propose condensing this to an eight month read, using Dickens' shorter sections as a guide . We begin in May, as follows:
May - Chapters 1 - 7
June- Chapters 8-13
July- Chapters 14-22
August - Chapters 23-31
September - Chapters 32-38
October - Chapters 39-45
November - Chapters 46-51
and finishing for Christmas in
December - Chapters 52 - end

Considerably more chapters in this one, so I am guessing some must be quite short.

I'll link Katie's intro in my next post.

Anyone and everyone welcome!

I haven't finished it yet, but I did finish the November section and was all keen to post about it, because it was such a great section! And then I became insanely overwhelmed with work (as I usually do at this time of year to be honest) and completely failed to post. I can be hopeless sometimes...

Anyway I loved this section too. Great comments @Piggywaspushed and thanks so much for linking John Mullan's article, which I really enjoyed.

I didn't see the Carker/Edith abscondment coming either! I agree that it seems a little underexplained, but the two seem to be united less by mutual attraction or desire than by their shared loathing of Mr Dombey. Interesting.

And I'm very relieved to see Florence finally break free of her father (or rather of the psychological hold her father had over her). In real-life cases of abuse, I think it's all too common for the victim to stay with the perpetrator, even when the emotional abuse turns physical, but in Florence's case, I found it plausible enough that her father striking her after Edith's departure was a watershed moment, and permanently shattered the image of him she had clung onto throughout her whole life.

I also appreciated the fact that Florence was the one to propose to Walter!

The theme of patrilineage (and Marx!) is fascinating and not one that I had thought about.

Dombey's obsession with his reputation and how much he is haunted by the loss of it is very well done. In a patriarchy, women are objectified and deprived of agency, but they still have the power to destroy male reputations. The paragraph that begins The world in Chapter 51 is virtuosic; I won't bore everyone by quoting it, but it's classic Dickens (and even ends with a reference to railroads and ships). And the ending sentences of that chapter, which pick up the theme of the world again, are brilliant as well: Everything that is said and done about it except by Mr Dombey, is done in chorus. Mr Dombey and the world are alone together.

My New Year's resolution is to post about the final section of this book in a timely fashion 😂

I think that Dombey's obsession with himself and his own status, to the exclusion of everything else, is what makes the novel so dark and sad, as you said @FuzzyCaoraDhubh .

Susan Nipper has been my favourite character from the start! I love the idea of her getting together with Tonks, but I hope he's worthy of her!

Oh he is!

I have just finished and will be watching Katie videos and ponder my reactions:

A different one, I believe.

When Blimber started on about Cincinnatus , it occurred to me how very like the bluster of Boris Johnson that was.

In fact, I now think Johnson stole his whole Cincinnatus thing from Dickens.

I'll have a quick reread of this section and watch Katie's videos before our discussion.

Happy Hogmanay all!

Hope we are all up for a chat tomorrow!

Yes looking forward to it. Thanks for leading this group btw, it’s been really fun xx

Happy New Year 🎉

Morning!

I found this a very satisfying ending. Some other readers have said they found this book bleak which made me expect Dombey and/or Florence would die.

I am quite a soppy person so loved the restorative ending which I thought was really tender. It wasn't until I watched Katie that I got the point of 'What is money?'. Not many books lately have made me cry (and I like a good cry) but this did.

I am sad for the shell that is Edith but can't see what else Dickens could have done. The demise of Carker is brilliant. I enjoyed the way that, even after his death, people think of him as the man with the teeth. It's interesting to compare this novel with Tess in lots of ways in terms of 'fallen women' and differing social class structures. The fact that Edith rejects Carker is a counterpoint to Tess who has no agency.

And , yes , to Toots and Susan who we all shipped! I was also delighted that Miss Tox removed herself form the toxic (pun intended) Mrs Chick (still banging on about effort) and had a good ending and enjoyed the little entertaining diversion to Feeders BA and MA and their classical digressions. And hoorah and huzzah for Cousin Feenix with his deus ex machina plot resolution appearance. The Shakespeare allusions continued , I noticed, with lots of Macbeth references (a hag 'munching', blood being waded through)

I was interested that Katie found out this was the first novel Dickens properly planned. It did seem to hang together better than many books we have read (I haven't checked the dates) and seemed devoid of some of the panic padding that was definitely present in Martin Chuzzlewit.

I really liked this. She loves OMF but I find much of that quite hard to remember. I think I will always remember poor Paul, Diogenes the dog and Edith's awful awful mother.

I really enjoyed the ending. Dombey’s miraculous change after losing his fortune and his new relationship with Florence is so heartwarming. Was also pleased that Captain Cuttle had a happy ending (as he was my favourite character). Happy New Year everyone xx

I really liked this too - possibly my joint favourite Dickens so far alongside Little Dorrit (although I haven’t read DC as an adult and need to revisit).

On the planning point, there was much more of a sense of unity about the whole thing, alongside clever parallels and doublings. I particularly liked the way Edith had two great confrontation scenes clarifying her motivation - one with her mother the night before her marriage, the other with Mr Carker after she has ‘eloped’ with him. I was very relieved that Edith managed to survive and live relatively well due to the kindness of Cousin Feenix. Lucky she didn’t actually do the deed with Carker - for all this is a protofeminist novel in Katie’s terms, Dickens is still quite clear that the fallen woman can’t be suffered to live, as shown by the fate of Edith’s underworld double, Alice.

It was also satisfyingly less predictable than Dickens other novels - for a long time I didn’t know what the resolution of Dombey and Edith’s marriage could possibly be, other than the death of one of them. I also expected Mr Dombey to be reconciled with Florence only on his deathbed, so it was beautiful to see him get a second chance with his grandchildren.

I really enjoyed this and I thought the characters were great. I particularly liked Walter and his uncle and Edith. I was unsure about wanting to see Dombey given a second chance though. Maybe I am just a meanie.

Yes, you are !

It reminded me of Oliver Twist and , of course, A Christmas Carol in terms of redemption.

Really enjoyed this readalong, thanks so much.

A very different book to the one I was expecting, in a good way. Just wish so many spoilers weren't everywhere, even the paragraph on the back cover is riddled with them. I will know better than to glance at anything next time.

Thanks again Piggy and all

Good morning and Happy New Year!
I thought this section was excellent. I wasn't sure either how it would end, but I was so glad when Dombey found redemption and lived to see his grandchildren. Florence is an amazing character as is Edith. I think one of us had wondered if 'Dombey and Son' might become 'Dombey and Daughter' early on. They were right!

I was so sad thinking of the wasted years and ruined lives at the close of the book. All so unnecessary. It was a bittersweet ending.

Carker's demise was excellent. It was a brilliant chapter. There was one line that was like a refrain throughout. I can't remember what it was now, but it was good.

I agree that the structure of the book was better than previous books and it was cohesive. See what a little bit of planning can do for the plot, Mr. Dickens!

I've forgotten some of the detail, so will look over the section again. This book will definitely rank as one of my favourite Dickenses.

Definitely. I thought of Ebenezer Scrooge. I was afraid that Dombey was going to become like Miss Havisham!
He did become like her for a while until Florence rescued him.

Nothing much to add to the comments. I have enjoyed this but it’s not one of my favourite Dickens books. I am glad I have read it though. Thanks to @Piggywaspushed for keeping us all organised and thanks to everyone on the thread for your insightful comments. These readalongs are so helpful as I’m not sure I would keep going without them.

I loved this book too!

I really wasn't expecting Carker to die being hit by a railway train. Crikey. That was an interesting evolution of the railway theme.

The Toots/Nipper matrimonial resolution was very satisfying. I'm glad to see Toots' (justified!) admiration of his wife's intelligence. And Dombey remembers the speech where she told him off for his mistreatment of Florence - good for her I say! Someone needed to speak truth to power, and who was bold enough to do so apart from Susan Nipper?!

I was a little puzzled by Toots constantly telling Susan to take it easy and remember medical advice, but I presume this was a clue to the reader that she's pregnant (even though I don't think the pregnancy was actually mentioned until after the birth).

In a sense I'm glad that Edith didn't reunite with Dombey. That would have been too fairytale-like. She survives and presumably can now live her life on her own terms.

I was also pleased to see the link between Edith and Alice clarified; they're first cousins. There was so much heavy hinting about a link between them, which was puzzling to me.

Mr Dombey's transformation/redemption is very sentimental, but I loved it nonetheless. It's true that people can change.

Good point about the Shakespeare references, Piggy! I noticed the one in Ch 57 (not very difficult to notice as it's pointed out to us!): 'The amens of the dusty clerk appear, like Macbeth's, to stick in his throat a little; but Captain Cuttle helps him out, and does with so much good-will that he interpolates three entirely new responses of that word, never introduced into the service before.' There were also quite a few humorous instances near the end of the novel of famous quotes being mangled and mashed together.

I haven't watched Katie's video yet. However, to me this is a standout Dickens because of the strong feminist themes.

Major thematic strands (among others) are money/capitalism/industrialism, motherhood, the sea. I do think Dickens is a bit hard on mothers. There's a bit of a binary opposition between good mothers and bad (the bad ones are very bad!). And while the bad father gets a chance to redeem himself, the bad mothers never do.

The sea figures in the plot both literally (thanks to the theme of seafaring and colonialism) and figuratively (it figures death and the afterlife and lost loved ones).

Thank you so much again Piggy for hosting this brilliant read.

I also like your point Piggy about how Edith's story is a more proto-feminist variation on the fallen women theme.

That said I was NOt happy to see Bunsby at the end portrayed as the hapless prey of Mrs Mac Stinger. Oh dear. Nice bit of antifeminist stereotyping there!

The name Mac Stinger is comically unsubtle. Speaking of names, Andrew Sanders points out in the intro to my Penguin edition that Florence Dombey and her children now have the surname Gay, which augurs well in terms of their future happiness.

Prof Sanders remains anathema to me though for telling me in his second footnote that little Paul was going to die. (Yes, I bear a grudge.) I hear you @Scatterbugg about the goddamn spoilers!

This has been a wonderful read but have mixed feelings about Dombeys redemptive arc, im not sure if it was 100% deserved. Favourite characters were Susan and Cuttle, with an honourable mention to Miss Tox, I'm glad she popped back up again. Thanks for hosting @Piggywaspushed it's been enjoyable!

Oh, I forgot about the Bunsby bit. In for unnecessary light relief, I presume.

I am always surprised Walter is called Gay so taken up was I with Tonks calling him Lieutenant Walters!

I have really enjoyed this readalong - it's been jolly good fun and everyone's different thoughts are so enlightening.

I am hopping over to Les Mis now. I feel we have done all the big Dickenses over the last 5 years or so. Toodle pip!

I have loved all our Dickens readalongs.

I'm going to read 'David Copperfield' this year. Thank you, Piggy and everyone who contributed to the discussions.

You will love DC, I think.