During the time Dombey and Son was being serialized London was buzzing
with the development of the railroad and this theme looms large throughout
the novel. Read this excerpt from from chapter 6 of Dombey and Son where Dickens describes the coming of the railroad to Camden Town, a suburb in the north of London.
The Toodles represent a Cratchit-like poor, loving family. Polly is hired by Paul Dombey to nurse his newborn son, Paul Jr after his wife dies in childbirth. Her husband, a stoker and later an engine-driver on the railroad, echos Dickens sentiments in this exchange with the proud Mr Dombey:
'You have a son, I believe?' said Mr Dombey.
'Four on 'em, Sir. Four hims and a her. All alive!'
'Why, it's as much as you can afford to keep them!' said Mr Dombey.
'I could hardly afford but one thing in the world less, Sir.'
'What is that?'
'To lose 'em, Sir.'
Leamington Spa
After the death of his son, Paul Dombey goes to recuperate at Leamington Spa with his friend Joe Bagstock. The Royal Pump Room and Baths, where Dombey and Bagstock would have visited, opened in 1814 and were available to the well-to-do, the restorative waters were said to cure a variety of afflictions.
While in the area Dombey and Bagstock meet Edith Granger and her mother and the group visits Warwick castle and "the haunted ruins of Kenilworth".
| Dombey and Son - Published in monthly parts Oct 1846 - Apr
1848 Read it online | Buy it at Amazon.com 
Dickens' seventh novel, illustrated
by Phiz, was the first with
his new publishers, Bradbury
and Evans. Dickens worried
about his new publisher's abilities to sell his work but the new novel's
monthly installments were soon selling at up to 40,000 copies a month.
William Thackeray, whose
monthly installments of Vanity Fair were being sold by Bradbury
and Evans during this same
time, was selling at best only 5000 copies a month. In Dombey and Son, considered Dickens first artistically mature work, he began using notes he called "mems" to outline how the novel would progress. It was after Dombey and Son was published that Dickens' reputation as a world class author was established.
Mini Plot: The novel tells the story of Paul Dombey, powerful head of the House of Dombey. He wants a son and when a daughter (Florence) is born he despises her. His second child, a son (Paul), is weak and sickly and dies a child. Paul's first wife dies with the birth of Paul Jr and he remarries. His second wife, Edith, does not love him and eventually runs away with Carker, a manager at the firm. With Carker gone, Paul is incapable of managing the business and it fails. In the end Paul is reconciled with his daughter, living with her family, and doting on his grandchildren. Mingled with this central thread is the story of Walter Gay and his uncle Solomon Gills, owner of the Wooden Midshipman, a nautical instruments shop. Walter Gay goes to work for the firm of Dombey and Son.  When
Florence is lost in the London streets and captured by Good Mrs Brown,
who steals her clothes, she is rescued by Walter. Walter and Florence
become friends, which causes Mr Dombey uneasiness, as he loathes his
daughter. When a position in the firm opens in Barbados, Dombey sees
an opportunity to get rid of Walter and sends him. Walter's ship is
lost and all hands are feared drowned. Solomon Gills goes in search of Walter, leaving the Wooden Midshipman to his friend Captain Ned Cuttle. After the breakup of her home, Florence leaves and is taken in by Captain Cuttle. Walter has survived the shipwreck and returns home. Walter and Florence are to be married, on the eve of their wedding day Solomon Gills returns home after wandering the earth looking for Walter. After the wedding Walter and Florence go to sea for a year. On the day of their return Florence is reconciled to her father. Solomon Gills produces the last bottle of the old Madeira he has been saving for just such an occasion, and all drink to Walter and Florence. |
 October 1846 December 1846 The Battle of Life, his Christmas book for 1846, published. April 1847 Son Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens born July 1847 Directing and acting in amateur theatricals throughout England and Scotland with a group of friends including George Cruikshank, John Leech, Mark Lemon, Augustus Egg, and George Henry Lewes. The group continued the theatricals through the publication of Dombey and Son and beyond. November 1847 Working with friend and philanthropist Angela Burdette Coutts opens Urania Cottage, a home for 'fallen' women. December 1847 Wife Catherine, six months pregnant, suffers a miscarriage in a railway car between Edinburgh and Glasgow. April 1848 |
