“Trading house Dombey and Son. Charles Dickens. Dombey and son Dombey and son

The book, whose full title is “The Dombey and Son Trading House.” Wholesale, retail and export trade" was written in 1848. According to critics, this work is considered one of the writer's most mature novels, despite the fact that his most mature works were written in a later period of creativity. In general, both critics and readers received the novel favorably, finding it quite witty and at the same time exposing many of the vices and injustices of Dickens’s contemporary English society.

The action takes place in the capital of Great Britain in the mid-19th century. The most joyful and significant event happened in Mr. Dombey's life: he had an heir. Mr Dombey is the owner of a large firm, which should now be called Dombey and Son. The happy father already has a child, daughter Florence, but to continue the family line and transfer the family business, he needed a son.

The joyful occasion was overshadowed by the death of Mrs Dombey, who died from post-natal complications. A widower takes a wet nurse, Paulie Toodle, into his home. The woman believes that the father is acting unfairly by paying attention to the newborn heir and forgetting about his daughter. The nurse persuades the owner to allow the girl to spend as much time as possible with her brother. As a sign of his special affection, Dombey invites Paulie to take care of her son and educate him.

One day, the nurse, along with the governess Susie, Florence and Paul (as Mr. Dombey named his son) went to the city slums, where Paulie was from. The nurse was homesick and decided to visit her family. While walking, Florence got lost. It was difficult to find her. Mr Dombey is furious that the servants have taken his children to inappropriate places and fires Paulie.

The heir is growing sickly, which raises concerns for his health. Florence and Paul are sent to the seaside to Mrs. Pipchin's boarding school for children. A few years later, the sister is left in the boarding school, and the brother is sent to Mr. Blimber's school. The boy cannot cope with the workload at school and becomes even weaker and sicker. Paul has practically no friends. He doesn't see his sister very often, which greatly upsets him. After the end of the semester, Paul goes home, where he gets even worse. In the end, the boy dies.

The Misadventures of Mr Dombey
Mr Dombey has found himself a new wife. The woman's name is Edith. A trusting and warm relationship is established between the stepmother and stepdaughter. The new owner behaves arrogantly with almost everyone in the house, which her husband really does not like. Gradually, hostility arises between the spouses. Edith leaves home with another man. Florence tries to console her father. Mr Dombey hit his daughter, suspecting her of being an accomplice with her stepmother. The girl also leaves home.

Walter returned, despite the fact that everyone thought he was dead. Florence becomes his bride. Soon a modest wedding took place, attended by a few close relatives of the bride and groom. Mr Dombey is ruined. Sitting alone in an empty house, the former rich man remembers his daughter. All these years Florence was with him, looking for his love, and he turned out to be so ungrateful towards her. Mr Dombey is planning to commit suicide. Shortly before he tried to commit suicide, Florence entered the room, which saved the unfortunate man. Mr Dombey faces his old age with his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren at his side.

Characteristics

A wealthy English entrepreneur lives by convenience. Business is one of the few pleasures in his life. The family business should not disappear after his death or pass to someone else's family. That is why the rich man dreams of an heir, turning a blind eye to his daughter.

Money and position in society prevent Mr. Dombey from seeing people and soberly assessing reality. The birth of his son cost him the loss of his wife. However, this does not bother the millionaire. He got what he wanted. Little Paul shows no hope; he is growing too weak. It is unlikely that he can be trusted with the family business. But we won’t beg father. He waited too long for an heir to give up his plans.

After the boy's death, Mr. Dombey realizes that his project has collapsed overnight. He grieves not so much for his son as for his unfulfilled hopes. Paul's death did not help the millionaire understand that not everything in this world is within his control. Only the loss of property and position in society makes Mr. Dombey rethink his life. He will have to spend the remaining time near his daughter, whom he never cared about.

At the age of six, Florence lost her mother, leaving behind a child. The girl loves her little brother. There is never any rivalry between Mr Dombey's children. The obvious preference that a father gives to his son does not cause jealousy in the heart of a girl.

Despite the fact that Florence still has people in her life who love her, she is very lonely and rarely feels truly happy. When Paul dies and Walter leaves, Florence becomes even more unhappy. She wants with all her might to attract her father's attention. But Mr. Dombey is too upset by his frustrated plans to pay attention to his daughter, who was indifferent to him before.

Florence is alien to the whims and selfishness characteristic of children of rich parents. She does not need expensive toys and beautiful clothes, and she is not arrogant towards the servants. All Florence wants is a little love and attention, which she has been deprived of since childhood. A generous girl forgives her father when he lost everything he had and was left alone with his conscience. In a way, Florence is even glad that she will no longer share her father with his business.

Analysis of the work

Dickens would return to the theme of poverty and luxury more than once in his works. The author is not indifferent to the fact that some people live in comfort and prosperity, can afford to teach their children and give them the best. Others are forced to leave their family to work to create someone else's comfort. This unjustified injustice seems disgusting to Dickens.

However, you should not envy wealth. The author invites the reader to look into a rich house. The life of a millionaire and his family looks prosperous only at first glance. Both the wife and children of a rich man most often do not have something that cannot be bought for any money. The cold atmosphere of indifference and calculation makes the existence of the inhabitants of the “golden cage” unbearable and meaningless.

Charles Dickens

TRADING HOUSE DOMBY AND SON

Wholesale, retail and export trade

Preface to the first edition

I cannot miss the opportunity of bidding farewell to my readers in this place reserved for various kinds of greetings, although I want only one thing - to witness the boundless warmth and sincerity of their feelings at all stages of the journey we have just completed.

If any of them have experienced grief in encountering some of the major incidents of this fictional story, I hope that such grief will bring those who share it closer together. This is not selfless on my part. I claim that I have experienced it, at least as much as anyone else, and I would like to be remembered favorably for my participation in this experience.

Devonshire. March 24, 1848

Preface to the second edition

I take the liberty of believing that the ability (or habit) to observe human characters closely and carefully is a rare ability. Experience has even convinced me that the ability (or habit) to observe at least human faces is by no means universal. Two common errors in judgment that arise, in my opinion, from this deficiency are the confusion of two concepts - unsociability and arrogance, as well as a failure to understand that nature stubbornly wages an eternal struggle with itself.

There is no drastic change in Mr Dombey, either in this book or in life. The feeling of his own injustice lives in him all the time. The more he suppresses it, the more unfair it inevitably becomes. Buried shame and external circumstances can cause the struggle to come to light within a week or a day; but this struggle lasted for years, and victory was not won easily.

Years have passed since I parted with Mr Dombey. I was in no hurry to publish this critical note about him, but now I offer it with more confidence.

I began this book on the shores of Lake Geneva and worked on it for several months in France. The connection between the novel and the place where it was written is so engraved in my memory that even now, although I know every step in the Little Midshipman's house and could remember every pew in the church where Florence was married, and the bed of every young gentleman in the establishment of Dr. Blimber, but I vaguely imagine that Captain Cuttle is hiding from Mrs. McStinger in the mountains of Switzerland. In the same way, when sometimes something happens to remind me of what the waves were talking about, I imagine that I am wandering all winter night through the streets of Paris, as I actually wandered, with a heavy heart, that night when my little friend and I parted forever.

Dombey and son

Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room in a large chair by the bed, and the Son lay warmly wrapped up in a wicker cradle, carefully placed on a low couch in front of the fireplace and close to it, as if by nature he was similar to a bun and needed to be thoroughly browned. as long as it's just baked.

Dombey was about forty-eight years old. My son is about forty-eight minutes old. Dombey was bald and reddish, and although he was a handsome, well-built man, he had too stern and pompous an appearance to be endearing. The son was very bald and very red and, although he was (of course) a lovely baby, he seemed slightly wrinkled and spotted. Time and his sister Care had left some traces on Dombey's brow, as on a tree that must be cut down in due time - these twins are merciless, walking through their forests among mortals, making notches in passing - while the face of the Son was carved up and down a thousand wrinkles, which the same treacherous Time will happily erase and smooth with the blunt edge of its scythe, preparing the surface for its deeper operations.

Dombey, rejoicing at the long-awaited event, jingled his massive gold watch chain, visible from under his immaculate blue frock coat, on which the buttons glittered phosphorescently in the dim rays falling from the distance from the fireplace. The son clenched his fists, as if he was threatening life with his weak strength for overtaking him so unexpectedly.

Mrs Dombey, said Mr Dombey, the firm will again be not only in name, but in fact Dombey and Son. Dombey and Son!

These words had such a pacifying effect that he added an endearing epithet to Mrs. Dombey's name (not without hesitation, however, for he was not accustomed to this form of address) and said: "Mrs. Dombey, my... my dear."

A momentary blush, caused by slight surprise, flooded the sick lady's face as she raised her eyes to him.

At his baptism, of course, he will be given the name Paul, my... Mrs. Dombey.

She faintly responded, “Of course,” or rather, she whispered the word, barely moving her lips, and closed her eyes again.

His father's name was Mrs Dombey, and his grandfather's! I wish his grandfather had lived to see this day!

And again he repeated “Dombey and Son” in exactly the same tone as before.

These three words contained the meaning of Mr Dombey's whole life. The earth was created for Dombey and the Son, so that they could conduct trade on it, and the sun and moon were created to illuminate them with their light... Rivers and seas were created for the navigation of their ships; the rainbow promised them good weather; the wind favored or opposed their enterprises; stars and planets moved in their orbits in order to preserve the indestructible system, in the center of which they were. The usual abbreviations took on a new meaning and applied only to them: A. D. did not at all mean anno Domini, but symbolized anno Dombei and the Son.

He rose, as his father had risen before him, by the law of life and death, from Son to Dombey, and for nearly twenty years was the sole representative of the firm. Of these twenty years he was married for ten—married, as some said, to a lady who had not given her heart to him, to a lady whose happiness was a thing of the past, and who was content to force her broken spirit to be reconciled, respectfully and submissively, with the present. Such idle rumors could hardly have reached Mr. Dombey, whom they closely concerned, and, perhaps, no one in the world would have treated them with more mistrust than he, if they had reached him. Dombey and Son often dealt with the skin, but never with the heart. They provided this fashionable product to boys and girls, boarding houses and books. Mr Dombey would have judged that a marriage with him must, in the nature of things, be agreeable and honorable to any woman of common sense; that the hope of giving birth to a new partner in such a firm cannot fail to awaken a sweet and exciting ambition in the breast of the least ambitious representative of the fairer sex; that Mrs Dombey signed the marriage contract - an act almost inevitable in families of the noble and wealthy, not to mention the need to preserve the name of the company - without turning a blind eye to these advantages; that Mrs. Dombey learned daily by experience what position he occupied in society; that Mrs. Dombey always sat at the head of his table, and performed the duties of a hostess in his house with great propriety and decorum; that Mrs Dombey should be happy; that it cannot be otherwise.

However, with one caveat. Yes. He was ready to accept it. With just one; but it undoubtedly contained a lot. They had been married for ten years, and up to this day, when Mr Dombey sat jingling his massive gold watch chain in the big chair by the bed, they had no issue... worth talking about, no one worth mentioning. About six years ago, their daughter was born, and now the girl, having sneaked into the bedroom unnoticed, timidly huddled in the corner, from where she could see her mother’s face. But what is a girl to Dombey and Son? In the capital that was the name and honor of the company, this child was a counterfeit coin that could not be invested in business - a boy good for nothing - and that’s all.

The action takes place in the middle of the 19th century. On one ordinary London evening, the greatest event occurs in the life of Mr. Dombey - his son is born. From now on, his company (one of the largest in the City!), in the management of which he sees the meaning of his life, will again be not only in name, but in fact “Dombey and Son”. After all, before this Mr. Dombey had no offspring, except for his six-year-old daughter Florence. Mr Dombey is happy. He accepts congratulations from his sister, Mrs. Chick, and her friend, Miss Tox. But along with joy, grief also came to the house - Mrs. Dombey could not bear the birth and died hugging Florence. On the recommendation of Miss Tox, a wet nurse, Paulie Toodle, is taken into the house. She sincerely sympathizes with Florence, forgotten by her father, and in order to spend more time with the girl, she strikes up a friendship with her governess Susan Nipper, and also convinces Mr. Dombey that it is good for the baby to spend more time with his sister. Meanwhile, the old ship's instrument maker Solomon Giles and his friend Captain Cuttle are celebrating the start of work for Giles' nephew Walter Gay at Dombey and Son. They joke that someday he will marry the owner's daughter.

After the baptism of Dombey's son (he was given the name Paul), the father, as a sign of gratitude to Paulie Toodle, announces his decision to educate her eldest son Rob. This news causes Paulie to experience an attack of homesickness and, despite Mr. Dombey’s prohibition, Paulie and Susan, during their next walk with the children, go to the slums where the Toodleys live. On the way back, in the bustle of the street, Florence fell behind and got lost. The old woman, calling herself Mrs. Brown, lures her to her place, takes her clothes and lets her go, somehow covering her with rags. Florence, looking for the way home, meets Walter Gay, who takes her to his uncle's house and tells Mr. Dombey that his daughter has been found. Florence has returned home, but Mr Dombey fires Paulie Toodle for taking his son to an inappropriate place for him.

Paul grows up frail and sickly. To improve his health, he and Florence (for he loves her and cannot live without her) are sent to the sea, to Brighton, to Mrs. Pipchin's children's boarding school. His father, Mrs Chick and Miss Tox visit him once a week. These trips of Miss Tox are not ignored by Major Bagstock, who has certain plans for her, and, noticing that Mr. Dombey has clearly eclipsed him, the major finds a way to make an acquaintance with Mr. Dombey. They got along surprisingly well and got along quickly.

When Paul turns six years old, he is placed in Dr. Blimber's school there, in Brighton. Florence is left with Mrs. Pipchin so that her brother can see her on Sundays. Since Dr. Blimber has a habit of overloading his students, Paul, despite Florence's help, becomes increasingly sickly and eccentric. He is friends with only one student, Toots, ten years older than him; As a result of intensive training with Dr. Blimber, Toots became somewhat weak in mind.

A junior agent dies at the firm's sales agency in Barbados, and Mr. Dombey sends Walter to fill the vacant position. This news coincides with another for Walter: he finally finds out why, while James Carker occupies a high official position, his older brother John, sympathetic to Walter, is forced to occupy the lowest - it turns out that in his youth John Carker robbed the company and since then redeems himself.

Shortly before the holidays, Paul becomes so ill that he is excused from classes; he wanders around the house alone, dreaming that everyone will love him. At the end-of-term party, Paul is very weak, but is happy to see how well everyone treats him and Florence. He is taken home, where he languishes day by day and dies with his arms wrapped around his sister.

Florence takes his death hard. The girl grieves alone - she has not a single close soul left, except for Susan and Toots, who sometimes visits her. She passionately wants to achieve the love of her father, who since the day of Paul’s funeral has withdrawn into himself and does not communicate with anyone. One day, plucking up courage, she comes to him, but his face expresses only indifference.

Meanwhile, Walter leaves. Florence comes to say goodbye to him. Young people express their feelings of friendship and are persuaded to call each other brother and sister.

Captain Cuttle comes to James Carker to find out what the young man's prospects are. From the captain, Carker learns about the mutual inclination of Walter and Florence and becomes so interested that he places his spy (this is the wayward Rob Toodle) in Mr. Giles's house.

Mr. Giles (as well as Captain Cuttle and Florence) is very worried that there is no news of Walter's ship. Finally, the toolmaker leaves in an unknown direction, leaving the keys to his shop to Captain Cuttle with the order to “keep the fire burning for Walter.”

To unwind, Mr. Dombey takes a trip to Demington in the company of Major Bagstock. The Major meets his old friend Mrs. Skewton there with her daughter Edith Granger, and introduces them to Mr. Dombey.

James Carker goes to Demington to see his patron. Mr Dombey introduces Carker to his new acquaintances. Soon Mr. Dombey proposes to Edith, and she indifferently agrees; this engagement feels a lot like a deal. However, the bride's indifference disappears when she meets Florence. A warm, trusting relationship is established between Florence and Edith.

When Mrs Chick tells Miss Tox about her brother's upcoming wedding, the latter faints. Having guessed about her friend's unfulfilled matrimonial plans, Mrs. Chick indignantly breaks off relations with her. And since Major Bagstock had long ago turned Mr. Dombey against Miss Tox, she is now forever excommunicated from the Dombey house.

So Edith Granger becomes Mrs Dombey.

One day, after Toots’s next visit, Susan asks him to go to the toolmaker’s shop and ask Mr. Giles’ opinion about an article in the newspaper that she had been hiding from Florence all day. This article says that the ship Walter was sailing on sank. In the shop, Toots finds only Captain Cuttle, who does not question the article and mourns Walter.

John Carker also mourns Walter. He is very poor, but his sister Heriet chooses to share the shame of living with him in the luxurious house of James Carker. One day, Herriet helped a woman in rags walking past her house. This is Alice Marwood, a fallen woman who served time at hard labor, and James Carker is to blame for her downfall. Upon learning that the woman who took pity on her is James' sister, she curses Herriet.

Mr and Mrs Dombey return home after their honeymoon. Edith is cold and arrogant to everyone except Florence. Mr Dombey notices this and is very unhappy. Meanwhile, James Carker seeks meetings with Edith, threatening that he will tell Mr. Dombey about Florence's friendship with Walter and his uncle, and Mr. Dombey will distance himself even more from his daughter. So he gains some power over her. Mr Dombey tries to bend Edith to his will; she is ready to reconcile with him, but in his pride he does not consider it necessary to take even a step towards her. In order to further humiliate his wife, he refuses to deal with her except through an intermediary - Mr. Carker.

Helen's mother, Mrs. Skewton, became seriously ill and was sent to Brighton, accompanied by Edith and Florence, where she soon died. Toots, who came to Brighton after Florence, plucked up courage and confesses his love to her, but Florence, alas, sees him only as a friend. Her second friend, Susan, unable to see her master’s disdain for his daughter, tries to “open his eyes,” and for this insolence Mr. Dombey fires her.

The gap between Dombey and his wife grows (Carker takes advantage of this to increase his power over Edith). She proposes a divorce, Mr. Dombey does not agree, and then Edith runs away from her husband with Carker. Florence rushes to console her father, but Mr. Dombey, suspecting her of being an accomplice with Edith, hits his daughter, and she runs away in tears from the house to the tool maker’s shop to Captain Cuttle.

And soon Walter arrives there! He did not drown, he was lucky enough to escape and return home. Young people become the bride and groom. Solomon Giles, wandering around the world in search of his nephew, returns just in time to attend the modest wedding with Captain Cuttle, Susan and Toots, who is upset but consoled by the thought that Florence will be happy. After the wedding, Walter and Florence go to sea again. Meanwhile, Alice Marwood, wanting to take revenge on Carker, blackmails him out of his servant Rob Toodle, where Carker and Mrs. Dombey will go, and then passes this information to Mr. Dombey. Then her conscience torments her, she begs Herriet Karker to warn her criminal brother and save him. But it's too late. At that moment, when Edith tells Carker that it was only out of hatred for her husband that she decided to run away with him, but that she hates him even more, Mr. Dombey’s voice is heard outside the door. Edith leaves through the back door, locking it behind her and leaving Carker to Mr. Dombey. Karker manages to escape. He wants to go as far as possible, but on the plank platform of the remote village where he was hiding, he suddenly sees Mr. Dombey again, bounces off him and gets hit by a train.

Despite Herriet's care, Alice soon dies (before her death, she admits that she was Edith Dombey's cousin). Herriet cares not only about her: after the death of James Carker, she and her brother inherited a large inheritance, and with the help of Mr. Morfin, who is in love with her, she arranges an annuity for Mr. Dombey - he is ruined due to the revealed abuses of James Carker.

Mr Dombey is devastated. Having at once lost his position in society and his favorite business, abandoned by everyone except the faithful Miss Tox and Paulie Toodle, he locks himself alone in an empty house - and only now remembers that all these years there was a daughter next to him who loved him and whom he rejected; and he bitterly repents. But just as he is about to commit suicide, Florence appears in front of him!

Mr Dombey's old age is warmed by the love of his daughter and her family. Captain Cuttle, Miss Tox, and the married Toots and Susan often appear in their friendly family circle. Cured of his ambitious dreams, Mr. Dombey found happiness in giving his love to his grandchildren, Paul and little Florence.

The book, whose full title is “The Dombey and Son Trading House.” Wholesale, retail and export trade" was written in 1848. According to critics, this work is considered one of the writer's most mature novels, despite the fact that his most mature works were written in a later period of creativity. In general, both critics and readers received the novel favorably, finding it quite witty and at the same time exposing many of the vices and injustices of Dickens’s contemporary English society.

The action takes place in the capital of Great Britain in the mid-19th century. The most joyful and significant event happened in Mr. Dombey's life: he had an heir. Mr Dombey is the owner of a large firm, which should now be called Dombey and Son. The happy father already has a child, daughter Florence, but to continue the family line and transfer the family business, he needed a son.

The joyful occasion was overshadowed by the death of Mrs Dombey, who died from post-natal complications. A widower takes a wet nurse, Paulie Toodle, into his home. The woman believes that the father is acting unfairly by paying attention to the newborn heir and forgetting about his daughter. The nurse persuades the owner to allow the girl to spend as much time as possible with her brother. As a sign of his special affection, Dombey invites Paulie to take care of her son and educate him.

One day, the nurse, along with the governess Susie, Florence and Paul (as Mr. Dombey named his son) went to the city slums, where Paulie was from. The nurse was homesick and decided to visit her family. While walking, Florence got lost. It was difficult to find her. Mr Dombey is furious that the servants have taken his children to inappropriate places and fires Paulie.

The heir is growing sickly, which raises concerns for his health. Florence and Paul are sent to the seaside to Mrs. Pipchin's boarding school for children. A few years later, the sister is left in the boarding school, and the brother is sent to Mr. Blimber's school. The boy cannot cope with the workload at school and becomes even weaker and sicker. Paul has practically no friends. He doesn't see his sister very often, which greatly upsets him. After the end of the semester, Paul goes home, where he gets even worse. In the end, the boy dies.

The Misadventures of Mr Dombey
Mr Dombey has found himself a new wife. The woman's name is Edith. A trusting and warm relationship is established between the stepmother and stepdaughter. The new owner behaves arrogantly with almost everyone in the house, which her husband really does not like. Gradually, hostility arises between the spouses. Edith leaves home with another man. Florence tries to console her father. Mr Dombey hit his daughter, suspecting her of being an accomplice with her stepmother. The girl also leaves home.

Walter returned, despite the fact that everyone thought he was dead. Florence becomes his bride. Soon a modest wedding took place, attended by a few close relatives of the bride and groom. Mr Dombey is ruined. Sitting alone in an empty house, the former rich man remembers his daughter. All these years Florence was with him, looking for his love, and he turned out to be so ungrateful towards her. Mr Dombey is planning to commit suicide. Shortly before he tried to commit suicide, Florence entered the room, which saved the unfortunate man. Mr Dombey faces his old age with his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren at his side.

Characteristics

A wealthy English entrepreneur lives by convenience. Business is one of the few pleasures in his life. The family business should not disappear after his death or pass to someone else's family. That is why the rich man dreams of an heir, turning a blind eye to his daughter.

Money and position in society prevent Mr. Dombey from seeing people and soberly assessing reality. The birth of his son cost him the loss of his wife. However, this does not bother the millionaire. He got what he wanted. Little Paul shows no hope; he is growing too weak. It is unlikely that he can be trusted with the family business. But we won’t beg father. He waited too long for an heir to give up his plans.

After the boy's death, Mr. Dombey realizes that his project has collapsed overnight. He grieves not so much for his son as for his unfulfilled hopes. Paul's death did not help the millionaire understand that not everything in this world is within his control. Only the loss of property and position in society makes Mr. Dombey rethink his life. He will have to spend the remaining time near his daughter, whom he never cared about.

At the age of six, Florence lost her mother, leaving behind a child. The girl loves her little brother. There is never any rivalry between Mr Dombey's children. The obvious preference that a father gives to his son does not cause jealousy in the heart of a girl.

Despite the fact that Florence still has people in her life who love her, she is very lonely and rarely feels truly happy. When Paul dies and Walter leaves, Florence becomes even more unhappy. She wants with all her might to attract her father's attention. But Mr. Dombey is too upset by his frustrated plans to pay attention to his daughter, who was indifferent to him before.

Florence is alien to the whims and selfishness characteristic of children of rich parents. She does not need expensive toys and beautiful clothes, and she is not arrogant towards the servants. All Florence wants is a little love and attention, which she has been deprived of since childhood. A generous girl forgives her father when he lost everything he had and was left alone with his conscience. In a way, Florence is even glad that she will no longer share her father with his business.

Analysis of the work

Dickens would return to the theme of poverty and luxury more than once in his works. The author is not indifferent to the fact that some people live in comfort and prosperity, can afford to teach their children and give them the best. Others are forced to leave their family to work to create someone else's comfort. This unjustified injustice seems disgusting to Dickens.

However, you should not envy wealth. The author invites the reader to look into a rich house. The life of a millionaire and his family looks prosperous only at first glance. Both the wife and children of a rich man most often do not have something that cannot be bought for any money. The cold atmosphere of indifference and calculation makes the existence of the inhabitants of the “golden cage” unbearable and meaningless.

The action takes place in the middle of the 19th century. On one ordinary London evening, the greatest event occurs in the life of Mr. Dombey - his son is born. From now on, his company (one of the largest in the City!), in the management of which he sees the meaning of his life, will again be not only in name, but in fact “Dombey and Son”. After all, before this Mr. Dombey had no offspring, except for his six-year-old daughter Florence. Mr Dombey is happy. He accepts congratulations from his sister, Mrs. Chick, and her friend, Miss Tox. But along with joy, grief also came to the house - Mrs. Dombey could not bear the birth and died hugging Florence. On the recommendation of Miss Tox, a wet nurse, Paulie Toodle, is taken into the house. She sincerely sympathizes with Florence, forgotten by her father, and in order to spend more time with the girl, she strikes up a friendship with her governess Susan Nipper, and also convinces Mr. Dombey that it is good for the baby to spend more time with his sister. Meanwhile, the old ship's instrument maker Solomon Giles and his friend Captain Cuttle are celebrating the start of work for Giles' nephew Walter Gay at Dombey and Son. They joke that someday he will marry the owner's daughter.

After the baptism of Dombey's son (he was given the name Paul), the father, as a sign of gratitude to Paulie Toodle, announces his decision to educate her eldest son Rob. This news causes Paulie to experience an attack of homesickness and, despite Mr. Dombey’s prohibition, Paulie and Susan, during their next walk with the children, go to the slums where the Toodleys live. On the way back, in the bustle of the street, Florence fell behind and got lost. The old woman, calling herself Mrs. Brown, lures her to her place, takes her clothes and lets her go, somehow covering her with rags. Florence, looking for the way home, meets Walter Gay, who takes her to his uncle's house and tells Mr. Dombey that his daughter has been found. Florence has returned home, but Mr Dombey fires Paulie Toodle for taking his son to an inappropriate place for him.

Paul grows up frail and sickly. To improve his health, he and Florence (for he loves her and cannot live without her) are sent to the sea, to Brighton, to Mrs. Pipchin's children's boarding school. His father, Mrs Chick and Miss Tox visit him once a week. These trips of Miss Tox are not ignored by Major Bagstock, who has certain plans for her, and, noticing that Mr. Dombey has clearly eclipsed him, the major finds a way to make an acquaintance with Mr. Dombey. They got along surprisingly well and got along quickly.

When Paul turns six years old, he is placed in Dr. Blimber's school there, in Brighton. Florence is left with Mrs. Pipchin so that her brother can see her on Sundays. Since Dr. Blimber has a habit of overloading his students, Paul, despite Florence's help, becomes increasingly sickly and eccentric. He is friends with only one student, Toots, ten years older than him; As a result of intensive training with Dr. Blimber, Tute became somewhat weak in mind.

A junior agent dies at the firm's sales agency in Barbados, and Mr. Dombey sends Walter to fill the vacant position. This news coincides with another for Walter: he finally finds out why, while James Carker occupies a high official position, his older brother John, sympathetic to Walter, is forced to occupy the lowest - it turns out that in his youth John Carker robbed the company and since then redeems himself.

Shortly before the holidays, Paul becomes so ill that he is excused from classes; he wanders around the house alone, dreaming that everyone will love him. At the end-of-term party, Paul is very weak, but is happy to see how well everyone treats him and Florence. He is taken home, where he languishes day by day and dies with his arms wrapped around his sister.

Florence takes his death hard. The girl grieves alone - she has not a single close soul left, except for Susan and Toots, who sometimes visits her. She passionately wants to achieve the love of her father, who since the day of Paul’s funeral has withdrawn into himself and does not communicate with anyone. One day, plucking up courage, she comes to him, but his face expresses only indifference.

Meanwhile, Walter leaves. Florence comes to say goodbye to him. Young people express their feelings of friendship and are persuaded to call each other brother and sister.

Captain Cuttle comes to James Carker to find out what the young man's prospects are. From the captain, Carker learns about the mutual inclination of Walter and Florence and becomes so interested that he places his spy (this is the wayward Rob Toodle) in Mr. Giles's house.

Mr. Giles (as well as Captain Cuttle and Florence) is very worried that there is no news of Walter's ship. Finally, the toolmaker leaves in an unknown direction, leaving the keys to his shop to Captain Cuttle with the order to “keep the fire burning for Walter.”

To unwind, Mr. Dombey takes a trip to Demington in the company of Major Bagstock. The Major meets his old friend Mrs. Skewton there with her daughter Edith Granger, and introduces them to Mr. Dombey.

James Carker goes to Demington to see his patron. Mr Dombey introduces Carker to his new acquaintances. Soon Mr. Dombey proposes to Edith, and she indifferently agrees; this engagement feels a lot like a deal. However, the bride's indifference disappears when she meets Florence. A warm, trusting relationship is established between Florence and Edith.

When Mrs Chick tells Miss Tox about her brother's upcoming wedding, the latter faints. Having guessed about her friend's unfulfilled matrimonial plans, Mrs. Chick indignantly breaks off relations with her. And since Major Bagstock had long ago turned Mr. Dombey against Miss Tox, she is now forever excommunicated from the Dombey house.

So Edith Granger becomes Mrs Dombey.

One day, after Toots’s next visit, Susan asks him to go to the toolmaker’s shop and ask Mr. Giles’ opinion about an article in the newspaper that she had been hiding from Florence all day. This article says that the ship Walter was sailing on sank. In the shop, Toots finds only Captain Cuttle, who does not question the article and mourns Walter.

John Carker also mourns Walter. He is very poor, but his sister Heriet chooses to share the shame of living with him in the luxurious house of James Carker. One day, Herriet helped a woman in rags walking past her house. This is Alice Marwood, a fallen woman who served time at hard labor, and James Carker is to blame for her downfall. Upon learning that the woman who took pity on her is James' sister, she curses Herriet.

Mr and Mrs Dombey return home after their honeymoon. Edith is cold and arrogant to everyone except Florence. Mr Dombey notices this and is very unhappy. Meanwhile, James Carker seeks meetings with Edith, threatening that he will tell Mr. Dombey about Florence's friendship with Walter and his uncle, and Mr. Dombey will distance himself even more from his daughter. So he gains some power over her. Mr Dombey tries to bend Edith to his will; she is ready to reconcile with him, but in his pride he does not consider it necessary to take even a step towards her. In order to further humiliate his wife, he refuses to deal with her except through an intermediary - Mr. Carker.

Helen's mother, Mrs. Skewton, became seriously ill and was sent to Brighton, accompanied by Edith and Florence, where she soon died. Toot, who came to Brighton after Florence, plucked up courage and confesses his love to her, but Florence, alas, sees him only as a friend. Her second friend, Susan, unable to see her master’s disdain for his daughter, tries to “open his eyes,” and for this insolence Mr. Dombey fires her.

The gap between Dombey and his wife grows (Carker takes advantage of this to increase his power over Edith). She proposes a divorce, Mr. Dombey does not agree, and then Edith runs away from her husband with Carker. Florence rushes to console her father, but Mr. Dombey, suspecting her of being an accomplice with Edith, hits his daughter, and she runs away in tears from the house to the tool maker’s shop to Captain Cuttle.

And soon Walter arrives there! He did not drown, he was lucky enough to escape and return home. Young people become the bride and groom. Solomon Giles, wandering around the world in search of his nephew, returns just in time to attend the modest wedding with Captain Cuttle, Susan and Toots, who is upset but consoled by the thought that Florence will be happy. After the wedding, Walter and Florence go to sea again. Meanwhile, Alice Marwood, wanting to take revenge on Carker, blackmails him out of his servant Rob Toodle, where Carker and Mrs. Dombey will go, and then transfers this information to Mr. Dombey. Then her conscience torments her, she begs Herriet Karker to warn her criminal brother and save him. But it's too late. At that moment, when Edith tells Carker that it was only out of hatred for her husband that she decided to run away with him, but that she hates him even more, Mr. Dombey’s voice is heard outside the door. Edith leaves through the back door, locking it behind her and leaving Carker to Mr. Dombey. Karker manages to escape. He wants to go as far as possible, but on the plank platform of the remote village where he was hiding, he suddenly sees Mr. Dombey again, bounces off him and gets hit by a train.

Despite Herriet's care, Alice soon dies (before her death, she admits that she was Edith Dombey's cousin). Herriet cares not only about her: after the death of James Carker, she and her brother received a large inheritance, and with the help of Mr. Morfin, who is in love with her, she arranges an annuity for Mr. Dombey - he is ruined due to the revealed abuses of James Carker.

Mr Dombey is devastated. Having at once lost his position in society and his favorite business, abandoned by everyone except the faithful Miss Tox and Paulie Toodle, he locks himself alone in an empty house - and only now remembers that all these years there was a daughter next to him who loved her and whom he rejected; and he bitterly repents. But just as he is about to commit suicide, Florence appears in front of him!

Mr Dombey's old age is warmed by the love of his daughter and her family. Captain Cuttle, Miss Tox, and the married Toots and Susan often appear in their friendly family circle. Cured of his ambitious dreams, Mr. Dombey found happiness in giving his love to his grandchildren, Paul and little Florence.