Dombey and Son

"Jo, I won't be taking all of Dickens with me to college."

For those of you who have watched Little Women, with Winona Ryder as Jo and Kristen Dunst as the young Amy, you will recognise this line. You may also have caught Jo mentioning Dombey and Son as one of Dicken's novels. The movie was for a long time the only place I had ever heard of this particular novel.

A few years back Jaired and I found The Complete Works of Dickens in Twenty Volumes at a library book sale. We got it for $20. This set was from a private library so does not have any library stickers, and though I did not see any publication date, the name plates inside have dates on them going back to 1938. The set naturally includes Dombey and Son. After looking at these books on my shelf for several months I finally decided it was time to read another Dickens and picked up Dombey and Son, simply because it was mentioned in Little Women. It has become a new favorite. Dickens tends to be dark; he writes about a lot of ugly characters, and though this book has it share of interesting characters: repulsive, silly, hangers-on, and the like, the main story line is about a sweet, innocent girl who wants nothing more than to be loved by her father. Try it and you might find that you like Dickens after all.

Here, on the right, is Dombey and Son; its neighbor is Bleak House, another wonderful story, which Jaired just finished reading. (I have not read this one, only watched the BBC production.)