Dombey and Son

By: Charles Dickens

Libby audiobook 37 hours

Read by: Frederick Davidson

Published: 1846-48 (serialized) (This version  2006.)

Genre: historical fiction

 

It's kind of funny to call this historical fiction . . . at the time it was originally published, it would have been realistic fiction!

I have so many notes from this book! But because I listened to it as an audiobook, there's so much that I missed. These are just some random jottings.

 

• Mr. Dombey / sister Louisa Chick (?) vs. daughter Florence. He's such a jerk!
• Lucretia Tox (?) - yuk. (I liked her better toward the end of the book.)
  
• Jim Carker "the manager" - what an awful human! 
• Poor John Carker and his sister . . . so different from their brother
• Solomon Gills (makes and sells ship tools) / nephew Walter - works @ Dombey and Son
• What is Paul Dombey's illness??? 
• Poor Mrs. Toodles! I want to know what happens with her . . . Polly was the best! (Though how she could take a job that requires her to leave her own children . . .
  
• Edith - "show pony" - "bought" by Mr. Dombey
• Dick Wittington - I've heard reference to this before, but finally got a book from the library with the folktale so I can better understand when I hear it.
• the chicken . . . an actual bird or a human? A human. Mr. Toots' not-really-a-friend. Weird. Just weird.
• excellent vocal work - so many characters!
• shipwreck news - Walter. I immediately thought, "He didn't die. He'll come back for Florence!"
• It sounded as though some characters referred to her as "Floy." I may need to read this again in print. (or not)
  
• Ick! Mr. Dombey having Mr. Carker talk to Mrs. Dombey (Edith) about obeying. Just ick!
• Susan Nipper confronting Mr. Dombey - I didn't think I would get to like her as a character, but I did.
• Mrs. Pipchin (?) - another ick.
• I *almost* felt sorry for Mr. Dombey when Major Bagstock and Edith's cousin Phoenix were questioning him about the rumors of his wife leaving him with Carker. But he's so incredibly arrogant! 
• Mr. Dombey going to "Good Widow Brown" and her daughter to get info . . . how low he's fallen!
• Rob the Grinder - interesting kid, born loser?
• Though it was gruesome, I'm glad that Jim Carker didn't win in the end. (A train? His fear reminded me of Poe's A Telltale Heart.)
  

 

This 37 hours of listening felt like an eternity . . . as much as I like Dickens, this will not be a re-read for me.The main takeaway for me (in regards to why this title was so favored by the main characters in The British Booksellers) is that the rich girl (Florence) ends up with the poor working class boy (Walter). It just took a LOT of other characters and conversation to get there. I wonder how much of the overlong meandering nature of this story is due to the way it was published. Dickens probably just kept adding characters and plot points as he went along each week.