Welcome to our monthly meetings for 104 years and going strong: Saturdays 1 – 4 PM at the 67^th Street Library - 328 E. 67 St. (between 1st & 2nd Aves.) for 2009/2010.

It is the Dickens Fellowship policy (worldwide) to select a Dickens work for the year to read/discuss. Our latest choice is Dombey and Son, his 7th novel- written in 1844-6. Each meeting also has readings, films, special events: all relevant to the life and times (Victorian) of Dickens.

Dombey and Son was first published in monthly parts between October 1846 and April 1848 with the full title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. Dickens started writing the book in Lausanne, Switzerland, but travelled extensively during the course of its writing, returning to England to begin another work before completing Dombey and Son. The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream is to have a son to continue his business.

As with most of Dickens' work, a number of socially significant themes are to be found in this book. In particular the book deals with the then-prevalent common practice of arranged marriages for financial gain. Other themes to be detected within this work include child cruelty (particularly in Dombey's treatment of Florence), familial relationships, and as ever in Dickens, betrayal and deceit and the consequences thereof. Another strong central theme is that of pride and arrogance, of which Paul Dombey senior is the extreme exemplification in Dickens' work.

Try to read the assigned chapters in advance of the meeting. You can also read, share, discuss, passages you found very interesting.