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ritawilbur 's review for:
Dombey and Son
by Charles Dickens
I decided to give Dickens another try because Katie Lumsden is so adorable in her passionate joy over him. She highly recommended this book, which is the only Dickens novel I had never heard of. I can't say I love it as much as she does, but I did finish it - which is more than I can say for "Middlemarch"! It didn't really seem to have much of a plot until maybe 4/5 of the way through. Basically, it is about the daily comings and goings of hundreds of Dickensian characters. But...it wasn't bad. And it does have some interesting things to say about women - or rather, it depicts an assortment of very interesting women and their various circumstances.
I did have some questions though: what exactly was Alice's past relationship with Mr Carker? And what horrible "crime" did John Carker commit so long ago that earned not only James' permanent scorn but also John's permanent humility? For that matter, what was Edith's past with Mr Carker? Sometimes I listened to the audiobook rather than read with my eyes, and I may have missed these points?
The book does suffer from many of Dickens' flaws: the writing is hard to understand, characters will have a verbal tick that they repeat ad nauseum, caricature substitutes for character. It's also ridiculously long. But I can see how when it was serialized in the 19th century, and all the family gathered around of an evening to have it read aloud, it must have been like receiving a long, chatty letter from distant relatives.
This novel is usually seen as a turning point in Dickens' career, when he began planning and plotting his novels, really developing and perfecting his craft. I do have copies of Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House, and I think I will like both of them more than this. I've read the first few chapters of OMF and already it has more plot than D&S did in the entire book.
I am sure that Dickens will not replace Wilkie Collins as my favorite. But given how much I do enjoy Victorian literature, I won't mind adding Dickens back into the pot. In short, I wouldn't recommend this book to any except hardcore Victorian/Dickens fans. But stay tuned for more....
I did have some questions though: what exactly was Alice's past relationship with Mr Carker? And what horrible "crime" did John Carker commit so long ago that earned not only James' permanent scorn but also John's permanent humility? For that matter, what was Edith's past with Mr Carker? Sometimes I listened to the audiobook rather than read with my eyes, and I may have missed these points?
The book does suffer from many of Dickens' flaws: the writing is hard to understand, characters will have a verbal tick that they repeat ad nauseum, caricature substitutes for character. It's also ridiculously long. But I can see how when it was serialized in the 19th century, and all the family gathered around of an evening to have it read aloud, it must have been like receiving a long, chatty letter from distant relatives.
This novel is usually seen as a turning point in Dickens' career, when he began planning and plotting his novels, really developing and perfecting his craft. I do have copies of Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House, and I think I will like both of them more than this. I've read the first few chapters of OMF and already it has more plot than D&S did in the entire book.
I am sure that Dickens will not replace Wilkie Collins as my favorite. But given how much I do enjoy Victorian literature, I won't mind adding Dickens back into the pot. In short, I wouldn't recommend this book to any except hardcore Victorian/Dickens fans. But stay tuned for more....