I've been looking forward to reading Dombey and Son for a very long time...ever since I first read a short excerpt from it in the AP Test Taking Guide which I used with my students, which was a couple of decades ago. It's a bit bittersweet, though, as I had actually read the first volume (or maybe just part of it, I'm not sure now) "with" a friend who was making his way through the novels of Dickens. Turned out that he wasn't actually interested in exchanging any thoughts about the reading, so that ground to a halt for me, and not too long after that the friendship, which had been ongoing for a very long time, also ground to a halt when I finally realized (im slow about such things) that he had a cruel streak that was too much for me to endure any longer. But I've missed him ever since, and taking up Dombey and Son makes me think of him...and will continue to make me think of him. So yes, bittersweet is the word. But if you allow toxic people to remain in your life, at some point that becomes your problem, not theirs, doesn't it?
So onward.
Oh. Actually, the title of this book is Dealings With the Firm Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and For Exportation. And it is XXIV + 528 = 552 + 537 = 1,089 pages long. There's a notation on page i that indicates that someone read this (or began it, perhaps) in May 1971. Yowza. That's over 51 1/2 years ago.
Now onward.
Day 1 (DDRD 1,882) December 26, 2022
Read to page 6 of the text...after suffering through the INTRODUCTION.
In said INTRODUCTION, H. W. Garrod writes, "Of the death of CENSORED, Anna Marsh-Caldwell (but who now remembers her novels?) said...." Well. First off, thanks for spoiling that. But second and most important off...why go so far out of your way to be shitty? What possible reason is there to identify Anna Marsh-Caldwell in this way? I hate shit like that.
And then on the very next page, Harris refers to Joseph Edwards Carpenter as "Not a great poet, or a good one, but one of those honest, bad poets whom the world can never do without." Then he has the nerve to quote one of Carpenter's poems for a page and a half...and then he has the nerve to say, "Plainly, it is not a good poem." What an asshole.
Day 2 (DDRD 1,883) December 27, 2022
Read to page 40. Dombey is one cold hearted motherfucker. And the last sentence in Chapter 1...referring to a child clinging to her dying mother...is pretty stunning:
"Thus, clinging fast to that slight spar within her arms, the mother drifted out upon the dark and unknown sea that rolls round all the world."
Day 3 (DDRD 1,884) December 28, 2022
Read to page 70. Also started peeking at Tristram Shandy since The Annotated Christmas Carol revealed that Laurence Sterne was a favorite of Dickens.
Day 4 (DDRD 1,885) December 29, 2022
Read to page 100. After reading the bit about Florence's kidnapping, I began to wonder if there was a movie version of this book. Well...there was. But it was made in 1919 and was silent. There were a few tv versions, though, and the 1983 one is available at the library. Woot! Woot!
Day 5 (DDRD 1,886) December 30, 2022
Read to page 130. Some funny stuff today. Such as this:
"This celebrated Mrs Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured, ill-conditioned old lady, of a stooping figure, with a mottled face, like bad marble, a hook nose, and a hard grey eye, that looked as if it might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury."
Dickens was a very strange man.
Day 6 (DDRD 1,887) 👴December 31, 2022👵
Read to page 166...A bit extra, as I wanted to see how Walter and Captain Cuttle's visit to Dombey came out. I've enjoyed this book from the get-go, but this is the first time I was anxious to keep reading past my daily goal...and the first time I'm thing that I might want to read a bit more later today (NFL games permitting). News as it happens.
Day 7 (DDRD 1,888) 👶🍼January 1, 2023🍼👶
Read to page 213.
"This grocer being a bachelor, and not a man who looked upon the surface for beauty...." (168) Would that we all were people who did not look upon the surface for beauty, eh?
Of the school Paul Dombey is sent to, Dickens says, "Under the forcing system, a young gentleman usually took leave of his spirits in three weeks. He had all the cares of the world on his head in three months. He conceived bitter sentiments against his parents or guardians in four; he was an old misanthrope, in five; envied Curtius that blessed refuge in the earth, in six; and at the end of the first twelvemonth had arrived at the conclusion, from which he never afterwards departed, that all the fancies of the poets, and lessons of the sages, were a mere collection of words and grammar, and had no other meaning in the world.Under the forcing system, a young gentleman usually took leave of his spirits in three months." 😗
Florence, on the other hand, finds out that Paul is struggling with his studies, and purchases her own copies of her textbooks so that she can help him when she visits on the weekends. Of this, Dickens tells us, "being possessed of a naturally quick and sound capacity, and taught by the most wonderful of masters, love, it was not long before she gained upon Paul's heels, and caught and passed him." (202)
Well. There's a lesson for teachers in that, isn't there?
Day 8 (DDRD 1,889) January 2, 2023
Read to page 251. The descriptions of Florence's beauty are so vivid that I begin to picture her...mostly as girls I knew way back when, like the amazingly beautiful Amie, one of the many girls who broke my heart back in the day. Or like June, my first girlfriend, whose long blonde hair still shimmers in my mind's eye.
Day 9 (DDRD 1,890) January 3, 2023
Read to page 280.
Day 10 (DDRD 1,891) January 4, 2023
Read to page 310. Lots of sadness in today's thirty, and I thought that Dickens handled it superbly.* So much so, in fact, that I found myself leaving the text to think about some of the saddest moments of my life, especially the end of my second marriage.
Also, this: Mrs. Chick's "make an effort" admonitions have primarily been played up for humor...essentially showing her as a bit of a dullard who can only confront difficulties in life with this trite phrase. But on page 296, when she says, "I say, if any misanthrope were to put, in my presence, the question 'Why were we born?' I should reply, 'To make an effort.'" it hit me in a different way. In fact, it hit me in the same way that Gerard Manley Hopkins'
does. Love and faith and courage and allofthat are wonderful, but when it comes down to it, getting out of bed and forcing yourself to take some steps is what really matters. Isn't that really what Waiting for Godot is all about when it comes down to it?
So...yeah. Good talk.
* "The overcharged and heavy-laden breast must some times have that vent, or the poor wounded solitary heart within it would have fluttered like a bird with broken wings, and sunk down in the dust."
Day 11 (DDRD 1,892) January 5, 2023
Read to page 340.
Major Bagstock ("Old Joey B") is an interesting and fun character, so full of bluster that he can't even see himself. And Dickens has great fun with him, such as in this bit from early on in Chapter XX:
"The Major’s purple visage deepened in its hue, and the Major’s lobster eyes stood out in bolder relief, as he shook Mr Dombey by the hand, imparting to that peaceful action as defiant a character as if it had been the prelude to his immediately boxing Mr Dombey for a thousand pounds a side and the championship of England. With a rotatory motion of his head, and a wheeze very like the cough of a horse, the Major then conducted his visitor to the sitting-room, and there welcomed him (having now composed his feelings) with the freedom and frankness of a travelling companion."
Meanwhile...said Dombey continues to be a gigantic pain in the ass, and I begin to wonder if it's even possible for this character to experience any kind of spiritual advancement. Time (and Dickens) will tell.
Day 12 (DDRD 1,893) January 6, 2023
Read to page 370.
"Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for, has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows - and china." (351)
You can't get that just anywhere.
Day 13 (DDRD 1,894) January 7, 2023
Read to page 400.
Day 14 (DDRD 1,895) January 8, 2023
Read to page 430.
This bit struck me as particularly exemplary of Dickens style & sense of humor:
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, among which may be enumerated the occasional appearance of the river in the drawing-room, and the contemporaneous disappearance of the lawn and shrubbery.
The use of understatement and the formal tone are pretty perfect for this description, I think.
Day 15 (DDRD 1,896) January 9, 2023
Read to page 460.
Day 16 (DDRD 1,897) January 10, 2023
Read to page 490.
There was a description of The Undressing of Mrs. Skewton (aka Cleopatra) which I found particularly striking:
"Thus they remained for a long hour, without a word, until Mrs Skewton’s maid appeared, according to custom, to prepare her gradually for night. At night, she should have been a skeleton, with dart and hour-glass, rather than a woman, this attendant; for her touch was as the touch of Death. The painted object shrivelled underneath her hand; the form collapsed, the hair dropped off, the arched dark eyebrows changed to scanty tufts of grey; the pale lips shrunk, the skin became cadaverous and loose; an old, worn, yellow, nodding woman, with red eyes, alone remained in Cleopatra’s place, huddled up, like a slovenly bundle, in a greasy flannel gown."
Day 17 (DDRD 1,898) January 11, 2023
Read to page 520. There were only a few pages left in this volume, but I'm sick and reading makes my eyes water, so I didn't push any farther.
Day 18 (DDRD 1,899) January 12, 2023
Read to page 528 of Volume I, then to page 22 in Volume II.
Day 19 (DDRD 1,900) January 13, 2023
Read to page 50.
Day 20 (DDRD 1,901) January 14, 2023
Read to page 80. It occurred to me that I would love to see illustrations by Bill Sienkiewicz accompanying this text. It would be perfect. Just imagine Mr. Carker's teeth.
Day 21 (DDRD 1,902) January 15, 2023
Read to page 110.
Day 22 (DDRD 1,903) January 16, 2023
Read to page 140. Been a very rough couple of days...covid (me), autistic meltdowns, more covid (taking out a whole branch of the local family)...so nothing to say. But still reading. Whatever gets you through the night, right?
Day 23 (DDRD 1,904) January 17, 2023
Read to page 170. Two things: (1) Dombey is a right bastard and (2) Dickens seems to have great understanding of and sympathy for abused women.
Also, I picked up the BBC mini-series version of Dombey and Son from the library today.
I've watched the first two episodes already (about 28 minutes apiece), and thus far it's stuck close to the story...and the fellow who plays Mr. Dombey is an even more gigantic bastard than I thought the Book Dombey was, so good job on that. I'm going to try to pace myself so that I don't finish the mini-series before I finish the book, but I'm already seeing that that might prove to be a difficult challenge.
News as it happens.
Day 24 (DDRD 1,905) January 18, 2023
Read to page 202. And finished Episode 5 of the BBC miniseries this morning.
Later: watched Episodes 6, 7, and 8 of the miniseries. And STILL not up to where I am in the reading, so looks like they're going to be in quite a rush in the last two episodes.
Day 25 (DDRD 1,906) January 19, 2023
Read to page 230.
I've been thinking a lot about the plight of women in this society...which extends into contemporary society as well in some ways. Unless they inherited wealth or were one of the few with an income, they were wholly dependent upon men: first their fathers, then their husbands. And some of those men were exceedingly cruel. It chills my blood to think about it.
Got a little caught up in it and went back and read another dozen pages, to 242.
Day 26 (DDRD 1,907) January 20, 2023
Got really caught up in it today and read to page 300. This story is making me VERY ANXIOUS right now.
Day 27 (DDRD 1,908) January 21, 2023
Read to page 350...still ANXIOUS. Also occurs to me how many truly memorable characters Dickens has created in this novel: the despicable Mr. Dombey...the comic Mr. Toots...the stereotypical but still delightful Captain Cuttle...the delightfully pugnacious Susan Nipper...the classic villain (with huge white teeth) Mr. Carker. And other lesser ones as well. It's quite an accomplishment, really.
I also watched the 9th episode of the BBC mini-series, and since it still was not up to the events of the book (in which I still had almost 200 pages to read), I started the 10th episode. And was immediately sorry I had, as the story skipped ahead a huge amount and spoiled several significant plot turns in the first 7 minutes. And then it shifted to another scene, and was at least sixty pages beHIND where I was in the book. As I settled in to watch a bit more, it again shifted scenes and jumped way ahead again, so at 15 minutes I stopped watching. Strange in that for the first 9 episodes the script stuck very close to the book, and now in the final episode they seem to be in a great frenzy to finish everything up. It's like they entered the Horse Lattitudes in bad weather. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the miniseries thus far and have every expectation of saying the same 14 minutes of viewing time from now, but it certainly is not faithful to the novel in its final act. Maybe they ran out of money.
So...looks like less than a week to this most excellent novel now, and maybe significantly less if I keep getting sucked into the story. Speaking of which, I've enjoyed most of the Dickens I've read previous to this, but this is the first novel that really pulled me in to such an extent that I kept turning pages even after I'd met my pretty substantial daily goal of thirty pages. Depends on how things come out in the end, of course, but I suspect that this might supplant Barnaby Rudge as my favorite Dickens novel.
Day 28 (DDRD 1,909) January 22, 2023
Read to page 420. Not so much Anxious today as Interested. For one thing because we finally got to the part which Episode 10 of the BBC series jumped ahead to (aka spoiled), and I wanted to see how that played out on the page. And big surprise, the book version was much, much better.
On a personal note, Captain Cuttle's oft repeated (dozens of times) "Walter was drowned!" ejaculations very much made me think of my Joe, and Cuttle's calling Florence by the "name" Pretty matches one of my many apellations for Jacqueline.
And hey...only 115 pages to go now. 3 days max, I'm thinking.
Day 29 (DDRD 1,910) January 23, 2023
Read to page 471. Sixty-four bottles of beer on the wall.
Later: Well, less. Read to page 505. Only thirty bottles of beer on the wall now, so looks like tomorrow is going to do it.
Speaking of which...David Copperfield is up next as far as The Novels go. I've read it before, and am looking forward to reading it again...especially knowing (as I now do) that it was Dickens' personal favorite...but I'm also thinking, You know, I don't want to get to the end of the novels and then be stuck with the lesser works. That'd be too anticlimactic for such a climatic project. So I'm thinking that I might take a little off road trip and do Sketches by Boz next. It'd take a bit of time, as it's a two volume work, and I'm a little worried that it won't be very interesting, given that (1) these are sketches, so not really stories and (2) it was Dickens' first published book, so I'm wondering if it will be anywhere close to the quality of the stuff I've been reading lately. Decisions, decisions.
Day 30 (DDRD 1,911) January 24, 2023
Read to page 537...The End. Onward to Boz.
Oh, also finished the BBC series. They sure compressed the bell out of the last couple if hundred pages of the book. Still, I think it's worth the 5 hours (or so) of run time.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day
+
DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
2nd 1K Total: 21,353 (to BR) Average Pages Per Day: 27.38
Grand Total: 34,802. Average Pages Per Day: 19.55
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
2nd 1K Total: 24,006 pages (to CSII) = 27.98 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 37,455 pages, 20.16 Average Pages Per Day
(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages
(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol 7 days, 380 pages
(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages
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