Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
Dombey and Son - cover

Dombey and Son

Charles Dickens

Publisher: Open Road Media

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

A rich man’s obsessive search for an heir blinds him to his own child in this classic Victorian novel of greed, pride, and family ties.  For shipping magnate Paul Dombey, business is the essence of life. He runs his firm and his family with the same calculating efficiency. Showering attention on his sickly son, who is destined to take over the family business, Mr. Dombey diligently ignores his daughter, Florence. In his unloving eyes, she is nothing more than a “base coin that couldn’t be invested.”  In time, despite her father’s neglect, Florence grows into a capable and strong-willed woman. Dombey’s callousness, meanwhile, sets in motion his own eventual downfall. In this classic tale of ambition, pride, and redemption, Charles Dickens presents a rich and sprawling portrait of a man, his dysfunctional family, and the complex times in which they lived.
Available since: 11/29/2022.
Print length: 1745 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Head & Shoulders - A coming of age classic showing the power of love - cover

    Head & Shoulders - A coming of...

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24th September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota into an upper-middle class family. Whilst his mother was pregnant with him, his two young sisters tragically died.  Fitzgerald once said this was when his destiny as a writer was ordained. 
     
    His intelligence and talent was recognised from an early age, with his first story, about a detective being published in the school magazine when he was just 13.   
     
    In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton but his devotion to his own literary pursuits resulted in him leaving and, rather bizarrely, joining the Army.  In 1918, stationed at Fort Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama he met and became infatuated and then inseparable from Zelda Sayre.  Initially though she refused to marry him but with the success of ‘This Side of Paradise’, the fame and the flow of money enabled them both to begin a gilded life.  For them this was The Jazz Age.  For Fitzgerald he was already an alcoholic. 
     
    He continued to write with great mastery and the titles of his novels and many of his 164 short stories are household names.  The Great Gatsby, often cited as The Great American Novel was published to mixed reviews.  As America moved from the Great Depression to the slaughter of the Second World War his works and himself were seen as far too entwined with the decadent twenties. The world had moved on and he hadn’t.   
     
    Further tragedy was never far from his life. Zelda after years of erratic and now intolerable behaviour was committed to an institution in 1936.  His own sales began to decline and he became a hack for hire in Hollywood, dependent on increasing amounts of booze and the weekly pay check.  His drunken state had often resulted in arrest or hospitalisation, further imperiling his talents.   Despite his contribution to many MGM films he received only one credit. 
     
    The end came all too soon for one of America’s greatest ever writers.  On 21st December 1940, at only 44 years of age in Hollywood, F Scott Fitzgerald succumbed to a heart attack.
    Show book
  • The Mayor of Casterbridge - cover

    The Mayor of Casterbridge

    Thomas Hardy

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In a fit of drunken bitterness a young hay trusser, Michael Henchard, sells his wife Susan to Mr Newson, a sailor, at a country fair. The transaction also includes their daughter Elizabeth Jane. When sober the next day, he regrets his action but looks for them in vain and is eventually told they may have emigrated. Eighteen years later Henchard is the Mayor of Casterbridge and the people of the town believe him to be a widower. In recent times he has had an affair with a young woman in Jersey, Lucetta, while travelling there on business. She inherits a fortune and comes to Casterbridge to persuade Henchard to make ‘an honest woman’ of her. However, Susan, having lost her husband at sea, returns with the now grown Elizabeth Jane. The Mayor, wishing to atone for his crime of years before, remarries her. To complicate matters further a young ambitious Scot, Donald Farfrae, has settled in the town at Henchards instigation. Despite their rapidly worsening business relationship Donald initially casts a glad eye at Elizabeth Jane but then falls in love with Lucetta. What follows will destroy Henchard and cause all the main protagonists an immeasurable amount of emotional pain as betrayal, death and fate play their part in a tale full of suspense.
    Show book
  • The Cask Of Amontillado - cover

    The Cask Of Amontillado

    Edgar Allan Poe

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The story is set in an unnamed Italian city (perhaps Venice) at carnival time in an unspecified year, and is about a man taking fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive—in this case, by immurement. As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys the story from the murderer's perspective.
    Show book
  • Second Treatise of Government (Unabridged) - cover

    Second Treatise of Government...

    John Locke

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The central principles of what today is broadly known as political liberalism were made current in large part by Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1690). The principles of individual liberty, the rule of law, government by consent of the people, and the right to private property are taken for granted as fundamental to the human condition now. Most liberal theorists writing today look back to Locke as the source of their ideas. Some maintain that religious fundamentalism, "post-modernism," and socialism are today the only remaining ideological threats to liberalism. To the extent that this is true, these ideologies are ultimately attacks on the ideas that Locke, arguably more than any other, helped to make the universal vocabulary of political discourse.
    Show book
  • Betty Zane - cover

    Betty Zane

    Zane Grey

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    A pioneer woman and her fellow settlers take a stand against a vicious attack in this classic Western adventure by a celebrate American author. 
     
    Fort Henry’s besieged by British rangers and Shawnee Indians . . . 
     
     . . . and now this small group of settlers must make their valiant stand in one of the last battles of the American Revolution. Their only hope now is heroic Betty Zane, who must run the gauntlet to retrieve the last keg of gun powder—and save the fort. 
     
    Inspired by the life and adventures of his own great-great grandmother, Betty Zane was Zane Grey’s first novel and launched his career as a master writer of rousing frontier and Western adventures.
    Show book
  • Prince The - Audiobook - cover

    Prince The - Audiobook

    Niccolo Macchiavelli, English...

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is a pioneering political treatise that delves into the nature of power, leadership, and strategy. Written in the early 16th century during a turbulent time in Italy, the book provides practical, often ruthless advice for rulers on how to gain, secure, and wield power. Machiavelli categorizes various types of principalities, discusses the traits of effective and ineffective leaders, and explores how political challenges can be navigated with adaptability and pragmatism. He draws on historical examples, such as the actions of Cesare Borgia and other influential figures, to illustrate the complex realities of political life. Unconventional for its time, The Prince shifts away from the idealistic views of governance, advocating instead for a realistic approach that acknowledges human nature and the necessity of strong, sometimes severe, decisions. This work continues to provoke thought and debate, as it lays bare the unvarnished truths about politics, ambition, and human behavior. The Prince remains essential reading for those interested in the art of leadership, the psychology of influence, and the timeless strategies required to navigate political power and maintain control.
    Show book