Charles Dickens — Dombey And Son

Penguin Publishing Group 2002 Paperback, 1004pp. To Paul Dombey, business is all and money can do anything. He runs his family life as he runs his firm: coldly, calculatingly and commercially. The only person he cares for is his frail son, grooming him for entry into the family business; his daughter Florence, abandoned and ignored, craves affection from her unloving father, who sees her only as a \'base coin that couldn\'t be invested\'. As Dombey\'s callousness extends to others - from his defiant second wife Edith, to Florence\'s admirer Walter Gay - he sows the seeds of his own destruction. Can this heartless businessman be redeemed? A compelling depiction of a man imprisoned by his own pride, Dombey and Son explores the devastating effects of emotional deprivation on a dysfunctional family and on society as a whole. (ISBN: 9780140435467). Good.