Chapter XVI: 1846-1848

Pages 337-367.

DOMBEY AND SON. AET. 34-36.

Drift of the tale 337
Why undervalued 338
Mistakes of critics 338
Adherence to first design 338
Plan for Paul and his sister 339
For Dombey and his daughter 339
Proposed course of the story 340
"The stock of the soup" 340
Walter Gay and his fate 341
Decided favourably 341
Six pages too much 342
Omissions objected to 342
New chapter written 343
Portions sacrificed 343
Anxiety for the face of his hero 344
A suggested type of city-gentleman 344
Artist-fancies for Mr. Dombey 345-6
Dickens and his illustrators 347
A silly story repeated 347
Why noticed again 348
Facsimile of letter to Cruikshank 349-50
Dickens's words at the time 349
Cruikshank's thirty-four years after 350
A masterpiece of Dickens's writing 351
Picture of him at work 352
An experience of Ben Jonson's 352
How objections are taken 352
Shall Paul's life be prolonged? 353
A Reading of the second number 353
A number to be added to Paul's life 354
Failure of an illustration 354
What it should have been 355
The Mrs. Pipchin of his childhood 355
First thought of his Autobiography 356
Opening his fourth number 356
At Doctor Blimber's 357
Paul's school life 357
Paul and Florence 357
Jeffrey's forecast of the tale 358
Beginning his fifth number 359
What he will do with it 359
A damper to the spirits 359
Close of Paul's life 360
Jeffrey on Paul's death 361
Thoughts for Edith 362
Florence and Little Nell 362
Judgments and comparisons 363
Edith's first destiny 363
Doubts suggested 364
An important change 364
Diogenes remembered 365
Other characters 365
Blimber establishment 366
Supposed originals 366
Surmises entirely wrong 367