POOR MISS FINCH by Wilkie Collins

POOR MISS FINCH by Wilkie Collins

08 September 2008

Dombey #16 (chaps 49-51) January 1848

Dear Serial Readers,

Happy New Year! I mean, of course, January 1848, when the sixteenth installment first appeared, but for many of us serial readers, it is also the start of a new academic year. Like others, my comments will be brief here. Still, I'd like to continue on track, since we're so close to the end of the novel. I don't think I can manage reading the double-number (19-20) of the last installment in one week though, so I propose we take a week for each one. This means: #17 for Sept 15, #18 for Sept 22, #19 for Sept 29, and #20 for Oct 6. I also propose that we next turn to The Mystery of Edwin Drood for two reasons: only six parts and available for delivery via Mousehold Words. You can subscribe through Mousehold Words and have each part number delivered to you electronically on whatever schedule you request. Even if you prefer to read the novel in book form, these deliveries will serve as reminders, and simulate (virtually, of course) the part-issue publications for Dickens's original readers. I recommend a biweekly plan for Drood, beginning on Monday Oct. 20. We would then finish just around a different new year.

After the calamities of the last number, #16 delivers a generous heaping of Dickensian sentiment. Florence has lost her home and father (although I found some relief that she finally fled a "corner" house in which any semblance of family and home had withered and died), and now she finds a home of genuine solicitude and warmth. Where Dickens introduced a working-class angel into the middle-class Dombey household in number #1 through Richards, here he relocates his middle-class angel into a modest, East London, sea captain's home and shop. On Walter's somewhat anticipated return from the deep: I was interested that we don't actually get details on how Walter survived a shipwreck, and what we do get is conveyed in Cuttle's bare-bones story which serves to clue-in Florence to Walter's appearance, first through the illustrated shadow on the wall. I'm interested also in another reversal: Florence's proposal to Walter. Presumably her superior class station trumps gender here.

The final chapter, back at the Dombey domicile, marks this scene and tone shift with the use of the present tense, and with wry narratorial addresses, something we've seen often in the novel. The concluding line, "Mr Dombey and the world are alone together," accentuates the ironic treatment of solitude and isolation we've commented on.

Next week: #17, chaps. 52-54.
Please spread the word about Drood and "Mousehold Words"--every other week starting mid October!

Yours in seriality,
Susan

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm late to this one again, thanks to the new semester, but I do want to follow up on Susan's comments about Florence's new family. I'm reading David Copperfield right now, and it occurs to me that family in Dickens is always so contingent. There are, of course, familial ties throughout the books, but often not good ones (Dombey and Florence, for example), and even the good relationships often end (Florence and Paul, Ada and Richard in Bleak House, Pip and Joe in Great Expectations, etc.). There is something moving about these makeshift families that goes beyond sentimentality -- loving family groups are made of people with somewhat arbitrary connections. Florence, Walter, and Captain Cuttle aren't related to one another, after all.

It's fun to see the plot threads slowly being gathered up. Still waiting on Solomon Gills, of course, and I was pleased to see Miss Tox return to the scene.

Anybody else disconcerted by Cuttle's repeated insistence on Walter's death? Sure, we can see where this is going, but it does seem rather cruel to Florence, who's had a rough time of it lately.

Looking forward to Edwin Drood!