Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son
-
Dombey and Son: Prefaces
PREFACE OF 1848 I cannot forego my usual opportunity of saying farewell to my readers in this greeting-place, though I have only to acknowledge the unbounded warmth and earnestness of their sympathy in every stage of the journey we have just concluded. If any of them have felt a sorrow in one of the principal
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LXII
CHAPTER LXII.Final Abottle that has been long excluded from the light of day, and is hoary with dust and cobwebs, has been brought into the sunshine; and the golden wine within it sheds a lustre on the table. It is the last bottle of the old Madiera. “You are quite right, Mr Gills,” says Mr
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LXI
CHAPTER LXI.Relenting Florence had need of help. Her father’s need of it was sore, and made the aid of her old friend invaluable. Death stood at his pillow. A shade, already, of what he had been, shattered in mind, and perilously sick in body, he laid his weary head down on the bed his daughter’s
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LX
CHAPTER LX.Chiefly Matrimonial The grand half-yearly festival holden by Doctor and Mrs Blimber, on which occasion they requested the pleasure of the company of every young gentleman pursuing his studies in that genteel establishment, at an early party, when the hour was half-past seven o’clock, and when the object was quadrilles, had duly taken place,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LIX
CHAPTER LIX.Retribution Changes have come again upon the great house in the long dull street, once the scene of Florence’s childhood and loneliness. It is a great house still, proof against wind and weather, without breaches in the roof, or shattered windows, or dilapidated walls; but it is a ruin none the less, and the
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LVIII
CHAPTER LVIII.After a Lapse The sea had ebbed and flowed, through a whole year. Through a whole year, the winds and clouds had come and gone; the ceaseless work of Time had been performed, in storm and sunshine. Through a whole year, the tides of human chance and change had set in their allotted courses.
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LVII
CHAPTER LVII.Another Wedding Mr Sownds the beadle, and Mrs Miff the pew-opener, are early at their posts in the fine church where Mr Dombey was married. A yellow-faced old gentleman from India, is going to take unto himself a young wife this morning, and six carriages full of company are expected, and Mrs Miff has
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LVI
CHAPTER LVI.Several People delighted, and the Game Chicken disgusted The Midshipman was all alive. Mr Toots and Susan had arrived at last. Susan had run upstairs like a young woman bereft of her senses, and Mr Toots and the Chicken had gone into the Parlour. “Oh my own pretty darling sweet Miss Floy!” cried the
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LV
CHAPTER LV.Rob the Grinder loses his Place The Porter at the iron gate which shut the court-yard from the street, had left the little wicket of his house open, and was gone away; no doubt to mingle in the distant noise at the door of the great staircase. Lifting the latch softly, Carker crept out,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LIV
CHAPTER LIV.The Fugitives Tea-time, an hour short of midnight; the place, a French apartment, comprising some half-dozen rooms;—a dull cold hall or corridor, a dining-room, a drawing-room, a bed-room, and an inner drawingroom, or boudoir, smaller and more retired than the rest. All these shut in by one large pair of doors on the main
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LIII
CHAPTER LIII.More Intelligence There were two of the traitor’s own blood—his renounced brother and sister—on whom the weight of his guilt rested almost more heavily, at this time, than on the man whom he had so deeply injured. Prying and tormenting as the world was, it did Mr Dombey the service of nerving him to
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LII
CHAPTER LII.Secret Intelligence Good Mrs Brown and her daughter Alice kept silent company together, in their own dwelling. It was early in the evening, and late in the spring. But a few days had elapsed since Mr Dombey had told Major Bagstock of his singular intelligence, singularly obtained, which might turn out to be valueless,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter LI
CHAPTER LI.Mr Dombey and the World What is the proud man doing, while the days go by? Does he ever think of his daughter, or wonder where she is gone? Does he suppose she has come home, and is leading her old life in the weary house? No one can answer for him. He has
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter L
CHAPTER L.Mr Toots’s Complaint There was an empty room above-stairs at the wooden Midshipman’s, which, in days of yore, had been Walter’s bedroom. Walter, rousing up the Captain betimes in the morning, proposed that they should carry thither such furniture out of the little parlour as would grace it best, so that Florence might take
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLIX
CHAPTER XLIX.The Midshipman makes a Discovery It was long before Florence awoke. The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on; unconscious of her strange bed, of the noise and turmoil in the street, and of the light that shone outside the
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLVIII
CHAPTER XLVIII.The Flight of Florence In the wildness of her sorrow, shame, and terror, the forlorn girl hurried through the sunshine of a bright morning, as if it were the darkness of a winter night. Wringing her hands and weeping bitterly, insensible to everything but the deep wound in her breast, stunned by the loss
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLVII
CHAPTER XLVII.The Thunderbolt The barrier between Mr Dombey and his wife was not weakened by time. Ill-assorted couple, unhappy in themselves and in each other, bound together by no tie but the manacle that joined their fettered hands, and straining that so harshly, in their shrinking asunder, that it wore and chafed to the bone,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLVI
CHAPTER XLVI.Recognizant and Reflective Among sundry minor alterations in Mr Carker’s life and habits that began to take place at this time, none was more remarkable than the extraordinary diligence with which he applied himself to business, and the closeness with which he investigated every detail that the affairs of the House laid open to
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLV
CHAPTER XLV.The Trusty Agent Edith went out alone that day, and returned home early. It was but a few minutes after ten o’clock, when her carriage rolled along the street in which she lived. There was the same enforced composure on her face, that there had been when she was dressing; and the wreath upon
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLIV
CHAPTER XLIV.A Separation With the day, though not so early as the sun, uprose Miss Susan Nipper. There was a heaviness in this young maiden’s exceedingly sharp black eyes, that abated somewhat of their sparkling, and suggested—which was not their usual character—the possibility of their being sometimes shut. There was likewise a swollen look about
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLIII
CHAPTER XLIII.The Watches of the Night Florence, long since awakened from her dream, mournfully observed the estrangement between her father and Edith, and saw it widen more and more, and knew that there was greater bitterness between them every day. Each day’s added knowledge deepened the shade upon her love and hope, roused up the
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLII
CHAPTER XLII.Confidential and Accidental Attired no more in Captain Cuttle’s sable slops and sou’-wester hat, but dressed in a substantial suit of brown livery, which, while it affected to be a very sober and demure livery indeed, was really as self-satisfied and confident a one as tailor need desire to make, Rob the Grinder, thus
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XLI
CHAPTER XLI.New Voices in the Waves All is going on as it was wont. The waves are hoarse with repetition of their mystery; the dust lies piled upon the shore; the sea-birds soar and hover; the winds and clouds go forth upon their trackless flight; the white arms beckon, in the moonlight, to the invisible
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XL
CHAPTER XL.Domestic Relations It was not in the nature of things that a man of Mr Dombey’s mood, opposed to such a spirit as he had raised against himself, should be softened in the imperious asperity of his temper; or that the cold hard armour of pride in which he lived encased, should be made
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXIX
CHAPTER XXXIX.Further Adventures of Captain Edward Cuttle, Mariner Time, sure of foot and strong of will, had so pressed onward, that the year enjoined by the old Instrument-maker, as the term during which his friend should refrain from opening the sealed packet accompanying the letter he had left for him, was now nearly expired, and
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXVIII.Miss Tox improves an Old Acquaintance The forlorn Miss Tox, abandoned by her friend Louisa Chick, and bereft of Mr Dombey’s countenance—for no delicate pair of wedding cards, united by a silver thread, graced the chimney-glass in Princess’s Place, or the harpsichord, or any of those little posts of display which Lucretia reserved for
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVII.More Warnings than One Florence, Edith, and Mrs Skewton were together next day, and the carriage was waiting at the door to take them out. For Cleopatra had her galley again now, and Withers, no longer the wan, stood upright in a pigeon-breasted jacket and military trousers, behind her wheel-less chair at dinner-time and
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVI.Housewarming Many succeeding days passed in like manner; except that there were numerous visits received and paid, and that Mrs Skewton held little levees in her own apartments, at which Major Bagstock was a frequent attendant, and that Florence encountered no second look from her father, although she saw him every day. Nor had
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXV
CHAPTER XXXV.The Happy Pair The dark blot on the street is gone. Mr Dombey’s mansion, if it be a gap among the other houses any longer, is only so because it is not to be vied with in its brightness, and haughtily casts them off. The saying is, that home is home, be it never
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXIV.Another Mother and Daughter In an ugly and dark room, an old woman, ugly and dark too, sat listening to the wind and rain, and crouching over a meagre fire. More constant to the last-named occupation than the first, she never changed her attitude, unless, when any stray drops of rain fell hissing on
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIII.Contrasts Turn we our eyes upon two homes; not lying side by side, but wide apart, though both within easy range and reach of the great city of London. The first is situated in the green and wooded country near Norwood. It is not a mansion; it is of no pretensions as to size;
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXII
CHAPTER XXXII.The Wooden Midshipman goes to Pieces Honest Captain Cuttle, as the weeks flew over him in his fortified retreat, by no means abated any of his prudent provisions against surprise, because of the non-appearance of the enemy. The Captain argued that his present security was too profound and wonderful to endure much longer; he
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXXI
CHAPTER XXXI.The Wedding Dawn with its passionless blank face, steals shivering to the church beneath which lies the dust of little Paul and his mother, and looks in at the windows. It is cold and dark. Night crouches yet, upon the pavement, and broods, sombre and heavy, in nooks and corners of the building. The
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXX
CHAPTER XXX.The interval before the Marriage Although the enchanted house was no more, and the working world had broken into it, and was hammering and crashing and tramping up and down stairs all day long keeping Diogenes in an incessant paroxysm of barking, from sunrise to sunset—evidently convinced that his enemy had got the better
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXIX
CHAPTER XXIX.The Opening of the Eyes of Mrs Chick Miss Tox, all unconscious of any such rare appearances in connexion with Mr Dombey’s house, as scaffoldings and ladders, and men with their heads tied up in pocket-handkerchiefs, glaring in at the windows like flying genii or strange birds,—having breakfasted one morning at about this eventful
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXVIII
CHAPTER XXVIII.Alterations So the day has come at length, Susan,” said Florence to the excellent Nipper, “when we are going back to our quiet home!” Susan drew in her breath with an amount of expression not easily described, further relieving her feelings with a smart cough, answered, “Very quiet indeed, Miss Floy, no doubt. Excessive
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXVII
CHAPTER XXVII.Deeper Shadows Mr Carker the Manager rose with the lark, and went out, walking in the summer day. His meditations—and he meditated with contracted brows while he strolled along—hardly seemed to soar as high as the lark, or to mount in that direction; rather they kept close to their nest upon the earth, and
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI.Shadows of the Past and Future Your most obedient, Sir,” said the Major. “Damme, Sir, a friend of my friend Dombey’s is a friend of mine, and I’m glad to see you!” “I am infinitely obliged, Carker,” explained Mr Dombey, “to Major Bagstock, for his company and conversation. Major Bagstock has rendered me great
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXV
CHAPTER XXV.Strange News of Uncle Sol Captain Cuttle, though no sluggard, did not turn out so early on the morning after he had seen Sol Gills, through the shop-window, writing in the parlour, with the Midshipman upon the counter, and Rob the Grinder making up his bed below it, but that the clocks struck six
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV.The Study of a Loving Heart Sir Barnet and Lady Skettles, very good people, resided in a pretty villa at Fulham, on the banks of the Thames; which was one of the most desirable residences in the world when a rowing-match happened to be going past, but had its little inconveniences at other times,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII.Florence solitary, and the Midshipman mysterious Florence lived alone in the great dreary house, and day succeeded day, and still she lived alone; and the blank walls looked down upon her with a vacant stare, as if they had a Gorgon-like mind to stare her youth and beauty into stone. No magic dwelling-place in
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXII
CHAPTER XXII.A Trifle of Management by Mr Carker the Manager Mr Carker the Manager sat at his desk, smooth and soft as usual, reading those letters which were reserved for him to open, backing them occasionally with such memoranda and references as their business purport required, and parcelling them out into little heaps for distribution
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XXI
CHAPTER XXI.New Faces The MAJOR, more blue-faced and staring—more over-ripe, as it were, than ever—and giving vent, every now and then, to one of the horse’s coughs, not so much of necessity as in a spontaneous explosion of importance, walked arm-in-arm with Mr Dombey up the sunny side of the way, with his cheeks swelling
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XX
CHAPTER XX.Mr Dombey goes upon a Journey Mr Dombey, Sir,” said Major Bagstock, “Joey” B. is not in general a man of sentiment, for Joseph is tough. But Joe has his feelings, Sir, and when they are awakened—Damme, Mr Dombey,” cried the Major with sudden ferocity, “this is weakness, and I won’t submit to it!”
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XIX
CHAPTER XIX.Walter goes away The wooden Midshipman at the Instrument-maker’s door, like the hard-hearted little Midshipman he was, remained supremely indifferent to Walter’s going away, even when the very last day of his sojourn in the back parlour was on the decline. With his quadrant at his round black knob of an eye, and his
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII.Father and Daughter There is a hush through Mr Dombey’s house. Servants gliding up and down stairs rustle, but make no sound of footsteps. They talk together constantly, and sit long at meals, making much of their meat and drink, and enjoying themselves after a grim unholy fashion. Mrs Wickam, with her eyes suffused
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XVII
CHAPTER XVII.Captain Cuttle does a little Business for the Young People Captain Cuttle, in the exercise of that surprising talent for deep-laid and unfathomable scheming, with which (as is not unusual in men of transparent simplicity) he sincerely believed himself to be endowed by nature, had gone to Mr Dombey’s house on the eventful Sunday,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XVI
CHAPTER XVI.What the Waves were always saying Paul had never risen from his little bed. He lay there, listening to the noises in the street, quite tranquilly; not caring much how the time went, but watching it and watching everything about him with observing eyes. When the sunbeams struck into his room through the rustling
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XV
CHAPTER XV.Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit for Walter Gay Walter could not, for several days, decide what to do in the Barbados business; and even cherished some faint hope that Mr Dombey might not have meant what he had said, or that he might change his mind, and tell him he
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XIV
CHAPTER XIV.Paul grows more and more Old-fashioned, and goes Home for the Holidays When the Midsummer vacation approached, no indecent manifestations of joy were exhibited by the leaden-eyed young gentlemen assembled at Doctor Blimber’s. Any such violent expression as “breaking up,” would have been quite inapplicable to that polite establishment. The young gentlemen oozed away,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XIII
CHAPTER XIII.Shipping Intelligence and Office Business Mr Dombey’s offices were in a court where there was an old-established stall of choice fruit at the corner: where perambulating merchants, of both sexes, offered for sale at any time between the hours of ten and five, slippers, pocket-books, sponges, dogs’ collars, and Windsor soap; and sometimes a
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XII
CHAPTER XII.Paul’s Education After the lapse of some minutes, which appeared an immense time to little Paul Dombey on the table, Doctor Blimber came back. The Doctor’s walk was stately, and calculated to impress the juvenile mind with solemn feelings. It was a sort of march; but when the Doctor put out his right foot,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter XI
CHAPTER XI.Paul’s Introduction to a New Scene Mrs Pipchin’s constitution was made of such hard metal, in spite of its liability to the fleshly weaknesses of standing in need of repose after chops, and of requiring to be coaxed to sleep by the soporific agency of sweet-breads, that it utterly set at naught the predictions
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter X
CHAPTER X.Containing the Sequel of the Midshipman’s Disaster Major Bagstock, after long and frequent observation of Paul, across Princess’s Place, through his double-barrelled opera-glass; and after receiving many minute reports, daily, weekly, and monthly, on that subject, from the native who kept himself in constant communication with Miss Tox’s maid for that purpose; came to
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX.In which the Wooden Midshipman gets into Trouble That spice of romance and love of the marvellous, of which there was a pretty strong infusion in the nature of young Walter Gay, and which the guardianship of his Uncle, old Solomon Gills, had not very much weakened by the waters of stern practical experience,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter VIII
CHAPTER VIII.Paul’s Further Progress, Growth and Character Beneath the watching and attentive eyes of Time—so far another Major—Paul’s slumbers gradually changed. More and more light broke in upon them; distincter and distincter dreams disturbed them; an accumulating crowd of objects and impressions swarmed about his rest; and so he passed from babyhood to childhood, and
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter VII
CHAPTER VII.A Bird’s-eye Glimpse of Miss Tox’s Dwelling-place: also of the State of Miss Tox’s Affections Miss Tox inhabited a dark little house that had been squeezed, at some remote period of English History, into a fashionable neighbourhood at the west end of the town, where it stood in the shade like a poor relation
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter VI
CHAPTER VI.Paul’s Second Deprivation Polly was beset by so many misgivings in the morning, that but for the incessant promptings of her black-eyed companion, she would have abandoned all thoughts of the expedition, and formally petitioned for leave to see number one hundred and forty-seven, under the awful shadow of Mr Dombey’s roof. But Susan
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter V
CHAPTER V.Paul’s Progress and Christening Little Paul, suffering no contamination from the blood of the Toodles, grew stouter and stronger every day. Every day, too, he was more and more ardently cherished by Miss Tox, whose devotion was so far appreciated by Mr Dombey that he began to regard her as a woman of great
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter IV
CHAPTER IV.In which some more First Appearances are made on the Stage of these Adventures Though the offices of Dombey and Son were within the liberties of the City of London, and within hearing of Bow Bells, when their clashing voices were not drowned by the uproar in the streets, yet were there hints of
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter III
CHAPTER III.In which Mr Dombey, as a Man and a Father, is seen at the Head of the Home-Department The funeral of the deceased lady having been “performed” to the entire satisfaction of the undertaker, as well as of the neighbourhood at large, which is generally disposed to be captious on such a point, and
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter II
CHAPTER II.In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that will sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families. Ishall never cease to congratulate myself,” said Mrs Chick,” on having said, when I little thought what was in store for us,—really as if I was inspired by something,—that I forgave poor dear Fanny everything. Whatever happens,
-
Dombey and Son: Chapter I
CHAPTER I.Dombey and Son Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room in the great arm-chair by the bedside, and Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that