ABSTRACT
Diogenes, the celebrated dog in Dombey and Son with whom little Paul Dombey makes friends before leaving Dr Blimber’s Academy, is central to the development of Florence Dombey’s story after her brother’s death; he also brings the vitality that the narrative will require. Lion, the faultlessly portrayed Newfoundland dog belonging to Henry Gowan in Little Dorrit, is crucial to Dickens’s characterization of the dog’s master.
