jennifer2008 's review for:

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

3.0

---

I wish I had enjoyed my first book of the year more. I think most of the reason for my frustration with it was because, for the most part, the protagonists did not seem to act like human beings and seemed somewhat one-note, and this made the novel seem even longer than it already was. Yes, I know Dickens was paid by the word, but still. I suppose I have been spoiled by Trollope, whose characters seem more well-rounded and to actually have good reasons for what they do.

Spoiler

I also would have liked to see the collapse of the firm more closely related to Mr. Dombey's treatment of Florence than to Mr. Carker's breaches of fiduciary duty and reckless self-dealing. If, for example, Florence had known of the problems, and could have told Mr. Dombey about them in time to save the firm if only he had only interacted with her instead of wanting nothing to do with her, then I would have liked it a lot more. Then the collapse of his firm would have been a reasonable consequence of his behavior toward Florence, as opposed to something that ultimately seemed unrelated.

And I'm still unclear as to the motives of Mr. Carker. If the story had included some clear depiction of the wrongs done to him, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. This is especially true because the book occasionally hinted that he had had something to do with encouraging the estrangement between father and daughter. But it was never more than hinted, and no reason for any such behavior seemed apparent. Again, if Florence had somehow been more connected with the firm, or had the potential to be, this would have actually made sense, but she wasn't.

It's also unclear what actually motivated the marriage between Mr. Dombey and Edith. There didn't seem to be much affection between the two when they met or at any point during their "courtship," and there was certainly no love lost between the two after the marriage, even before Mr. Carker got involved. There was no discussion whatsoever about another possible motive, which would have been to obtain another heir for Mr. Dombey. However, given the couple's interactions before and even during the marriage ceremony (not to mention afterwards), I can't imagine they would have ever had a sex life sufficient for such a purpose. And the marriage occurred way too late after Fanny's death for it to be explained by the desire to provide a new mother for the children (and Paul had died by this point anyway). Even if Mr. Carker ultimately manipulated them into it for his own purposes, I can't see what desires he would have been playing off, given that there was no romantic love and the possibility of obtaining a new heir was never brought up. And what would Mr. Dombey be doing taking marriage advice from his business subordinates anyway?

Make no mistake, Dickens is an excellent writer as shown in his depictions of a town torn apart by the construction of a railroad and his almost poetic exploration of the relationship between a speeding train and death, but I just couldn't get past the apparent lack of any reasonable motives for so many of the characters' actions, or how the fate of the firm did not seem related to Florence or anything she did, and for a book named for the firm instead of for the main character, this seemed especially unreasonable.