Dombey and Son (version 3)
Paul Dombey is a man of business. His heart, if he has one, belongs to the firm of Dombey and Son, and to the son who will inherit it. When his sickly boy is born, Dombey sees his legacy secured. When his daughter Florence arrives first, she sees only rejection. So begins one of Dickens' most cutting examinations of Victorian pride: a father so intoxicated by commerce and masculine lineage that he cannot see the human beings orbiting his ego. Florence, cast aside for failing to be a boy, becomes the novel's beating heart - patient, loyal, desperate for a love that never comes. Around them swirls a cast of villains and saviors: the predatory James Carker, the blustering Captain Cuttle, the razor-sharp Susan Nipper. As young Paul fades, the novel builds toward a reckoning that will expose what happens when a man mistakes his balance sheet for his soul.
X-Ray
