Begun whilst in Lausanne, away from home, London and favourite walks,

is about failed communities and aloneness, “dreary” homes and travel, unwelcome reunions and partings, in a world rather like our own, where finance, goods, commerce and people circulate in an increasingly globalised way. If, as is often supposed, later novels like

are “about” the often-hidden links between people,

is particularly concerned with the disconnections, discontinuities and gaps between people in a world of economic, social and colonial flux. Indeed, the two approaches are not as dissimilar as they may first seem: a book about hidden links may actually be the same thing as a book about the gaps between people – both are comments on a modernity in which…

2072 words

Citation: Taylor, Jonathan. "Dombey and Son". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5550, accessed 27 November 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article