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Page 13
Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son appeared in seventeen monthly numbers from January, 1847, through April 1848, the last being a double number. In this work Dickens is able to integrate his criticism of the social philosophy dominating nineteenth-century England into the structure of the novel itself, as he will continue to do in Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend. Dombey and Son investigates the callous indifference of an economic system that places the cash nexus before human relations.
Mr. Dombey, who represents the enterprising nineteenth century businessman, rejects the love of his daughter in favor of the son who will become heir to the firm. Dombey's universe collapses around him as his son dies, he drives his daughter away, his second wife leaves him, his business goes bankrupt, and he loses his fortune. Like Scrooge, though, Dombey is redeemed by memory and remorse--and the loving forgiveness of his daughter.
The importance of memory once again becomes central to Dickens's next Christmas book, The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848), the tale of a man who gets his wish to lose all memory of sorrow at the expense of losing the attendant sensibility that comes with the loss of memory. This Wordsworthian concern for the importance of recollection of the past and the healing influence of memory--even the memory of sorrow and grief--comes to be central for Dickens, as he has his story conclude with the prayer, "Lord, Keep my Memory Green."
