ABSTRACT
Introduction In a letter to his publisherJohn Forster dated 11 October 1846, Charles Dickens gives an unrestrained response to the news of the sales of the first instalment of Dombey and Son, which contained the first four chapters. 'The Dombey success is brilliant! I had put before me thirty thousand as the limit of the most extreme success, saying that if we should reach that, I should be more than satisfied, and more than happy; you will judge how happy I am!' (Dickens, 1977, p.63l). Dickens's euphoria can be explained by a literary success after what had been a relatively frustrating period. He regarded his previous novel, The Life and Adventures ofMartin Chuzzlewit(1843-4), as one of his best, but it sold about twenty thousand copies per month, fewer than any of his other works (Patten, 1978, p.133). His exuberant response to the news of the success of Dombey and Son no doubt contains an element of relief at the recovery of his reputation as the most popular and celebrated writer of prose fiction of his day, but it also perhaps acknowledges that this novel would be a turning point in his literary career. Dickens had planned the novel in more detail than his previous works. Much of the plot had been determined before he began writing. It is also the first of his major works which is set in the present rather than in the recent past, and comments critically on the prevailing social condition of England. As such, the novel can be seen as a bridging work between the more exuberant, farcical works of Dickens's early career, such as Pickwick Papers (1836-7), and the more sombre, socially concerned works of his late career, such as Little Dorrit (18SS-7) and Great Expectations (186D-n.
