Dombey and Son

Dombey and Son

I make so bold as to believe that the faculty (or the habit) of correctly observing the characters of men, is a rare one. I have not even found, within my experience, that the faculty (or the habit) of correctly observing so much as the faces of men, is a general one by any means. The two commonest mistakes in judgement that I suppose to arise from the former default, are, the confounding of shyness with arrogancea very common mistake indeedand the not understanding that an obstinate nature exists in a perpetual struggle with itself. Mr Dombey undergoes no violent change, either in this book, or in real life. A sense of his injustice is within him, all along. The more he represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is. Internal shame and external circumstances may bring the contest to a close in a week, or a day; but, it has been a contest for years, and is only fought out after a long balance of victory. I began this book by the Lake of Geneva, and went on with it for some months in France, before pursuing it in England. The association between the writing and the place of writing is so curiously strong in my mind, that at this day, although I know, in my fancy, every stair in the little midshipmans house, and could swear to every pew in the church in which Florence was married, or to every young gentlemans bedstead in Doctor Blimbers establishment, I yet confusedly imagine Captain Cuttle as secluding himself from Mrs MacStinger among the mountains of Switzerland. Similarly, when I am reminded by any chance of what it was that the waves were always saying, my remembrance wanders for a whole winter night about the streets of Parisas I restlessly did with a heavy heart, on the night when I had written the chapter in which my little friend and I parted company. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 821
Author: Dickens, Charles
Release Date: Feb 1, 1997
Format: eBook
Language: English