Review: David Copperfield (1999) Episode 2

Episode 1 ended with David falling in love with Dora. Does anyone think this will end well? No? Then you already know some of episode 2's plot.

David meets Steerforth again, years after they met at that horrible school. It's obvious from the start that Steerforth has grown up to be a character very like Wickham, but David doesn't see this.

After this David finds Mr. Micawber, and in the process accidentally introduces him to Uriah Heep.

David, Mr. Micawber... and Heep

David and Steerforth visit Dan Peggotty and his family. While there Steerforth meets Em'ly. This is the start of much misery for the Peggottys and David. Ham and Em'ly have gotten engaged. It's obvious that she doesn't care much for Ham, and that she's far too interested in Steerforth.

Meanwhile, David is shocked to learn that Mr. Micawber has become Uriah Heep's clerk. Shortly afterward, Aunt Betsey loses most of her money. David also has very little money, so he decides to take up writing.

This leads to trouble with Dora. David tells her he loves her, but she can't imagine marrying a poor man. This should warn David not to marry her at all.

David visits the Wickfields, and learns that Uriah Heep has gained some sort of power over Mr. Wickfield. He's using this power to try to force Agnes to marry him.

Am I the only one having flashbacks to Arthur Gride and Madeline Bray in Nicholas Nickleby?

Em'ly runs off with Steerforth, and Dan Peggotty sets out to find her. David goes to Steerforth's mother with the news, and finds that she blames the Peggottys entirely for it.

Ham, Dan and David read Em'ly's letter

Dora's father goes bankrupt and dies. David goes and proposes to Dora.

She's just as silly and childish after marriage as she was before it. David invites Mr. and Mrs. Micawber to dinner, and then finds that Dora doesn't know how to cook. The dinner is... a bit of a disaster. Mrs. Micawber reveals that since Mr. Micawber became Heep's clerk, he's become suspicious and secretive.

David and Dan finally find Em'ly. Steerforth abandoned her and disappeared. Dan decides to emigrate to Australia with Em'ly.

David goes to give Ham a letter from Em'ly. He arrives to find that a ship is sinking in a storm, and Ham goes out to try and save some of the people on it. One of those people is Steerforth. He drowns, and Ham drowns trying to save him. Ouch. I couldn't care less about Steerforth's death, but poor Ham 😭

😭

After this, Mr. Micawber asks David and Aunt Betsey to visit his office. He reveals that Heep has deceived Mr. Wickfield into thinking he stole money, and uses this imaginary crime to blackmail Mr. Wickfield.

Heep has also been stealing other people's money, including Aunt Betsey's. She's furious when she hears this.

It's not clear from the screenshot, but she's hitting him with her purse here. Never mess with Aunt Betsey!

Uriah Heep is transported. After this the Micawbers decide to emigrate to Australia.

Dora has been ill for a while, and now she's dying. After she dies David travels the world for several years. At last he comes back, and very suddenly decides he's in love with Agnes and has been for years.

This is always a part that stretches my willing suspension of disbelief. Somehow David never realised that he was pining for Agnes for years? And he only realises because she tells him she loves him? It just feels too abrupt to be believable.

Anyway, David and Agnes get married and have children. And Aunt Betsey finally gets her goddaughter, Betsey Trotwood Copperfield. Aww!

So, what do I think of the miniseries over all?

As I've already said, Young!David is adorable. I just want to hug him and tell him everything's going to be all right. Unfortunately, adult!David never makes much impression on me. There's nothing glaringly wrong about Ciarán McMenamin's performance, but there's also nothing outstanding about him. But the other actors are perfect in their roles, so I can overlook that.

This is a fairly faithful adaptation because it adapts all the important parts of the book. But it's been literal years since I read the book, so there are probably minor differences between the two that I didn't pick up on.

Is it available online?: Not as far as I know :( But you can buy it on Amazon!

Rating of this episode: 7/10.

Rating of the whole series: 7/10.

Review: David Copperfield (1999) Episode 1

This version of David Copperfield was the first version of the book I ever saw, and it was what got me interested in period drama to begin with. So it's about time I reviewed it, don't you think? 😃

I'd watched several period dramas before -- Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and similar ones. But none of them, not even P&P, got me interested in the genre as a whole the way David Copperfield did.

The miniseries is based on Charles Dickens' eighth novel, which was also his most autobiographical. As the title suggests, the main character is called David Copperfield.

Recognisable actors include:
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as young David Copperfield
Emilia Fox (Georgiana in Pride and Prejudice 1995) as Clara Copperfield
Maggie Smith (the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey, Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter, and Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden 1993) as Betsey Trotwood
Zoë Wanamaker (Mrs. Jarley in The Old Curiosity Shop 2007) as Jane Murdstone
Pauline Quirk (Dixon in North and South) as Peggotty
Alun Armstrong (Inspector Bucket in Bleak House) as Dan Peggotty
Imelda Staunton (Miss Pole in Cranford) as Mrs. Micawber
Ian McKellen (Gandalf in Lord of the Rings) as Mr. Creakle
Karl Johnson (Twister in Lark Rise to Candleford) as Tungay
Dawn French (Caroline Arless in Lark Rise to Candleford) as Mrs. Crupp

The story starts with Betsey Trotwood visiting Clara Copperfield, the widow of her nephew, on the evening David is born. Miss Trotwood is sure the baby will be a girl. She's so furious it's a boy that she leaves, never to return.

Betsey Trotwood

David and his mother

Years pass, and Clara finds a new husband: Mr. Murdstone. It's obvious from his first appearance that this guy is trouble. Even his name sounds horrible! Yet Clara decides she wants to marry him. I can sum up my reaction to this in two words: you idiot!

Mr. Murdstone, the wicked stepfather.

David goes to stay with Dan Peggotty, an uncle of Clara Peggotty, the Copperfields' maid. There he meets Ham and Little Em'ly, both of whom will be important later.

Dan Peggotty

Clara Peggotty and David

Ham and Little Em'ly

While he's away his mother marries Mr. Murdstone. David returns to find his stepfather's sister has also moved in, and she's taken over the house.

Jane Murdstone. Someone knock that bonnet off, please. And tread upon it!

Together the Murdstones abuse Clara, Peggotty, and David. Their cruelty leads to David biting Mr. Murdstone (hurray!). Unfortunately this makes the Murdstones send David off to a horrible school, run by the equally horrible Mr. Creakle. Imagine a marginally less vile version of Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, and you know all you need to know about Mr. Creakle.

Mr. Creakle. Ugh.

While at this school David meets a boy called Steerforth, who'll also be important later.

David, Steerforth, and some of the schoolboys

Clara Copperfield dies, and Mr. Murdstone takes David out of school and sends him away to work in a factory. He stays with Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, two of the nicest (and funniest) characters in the series.

Mr. Micawber

Mrs. Micawber

Mr. Micawber is in debt, and while David is staying at his house he's arrested and sent to a debtor's prison. Mrs. Micawber's family pay his debts, and the Micawbers pack up and leave -- but can't take David. He decides to find his aunt Betsey Trotwood. After a long arduous journey, he arrives at her house.

At first Aunt Betsey wants nothing to do with him. ("No boys here!") But when she learns who he is and what's happened to him, she takes him in. Aunt Betsey is one of the characters Dickens excelled at writing: comically eccentric, but with a heart of gold.

Also staying with Aunt Betsey is Mr. Dick, another of the nicest characters in the series even though he's a bit odd. (King Charles I, anyone?)

Mr. Dick

The Murdstones reappear, demanding Aunt Betsey hands David over to them. She refuses. Awesomely.

"Do you think I don't know what sort of life you led this poor child's mother? It was a woeful day when you first appeared!"

That's the last we see of the Murdstones, thank goodness. Unfortunately they're soon to be replaced with another villain. Aunt Betsey sends David off to school -- a much better school than Mr. Creakle's. While there he stays with Aunt Betsey's lawyer Mr. Wickfield, his daughter Agnes... and his clerk Uriah Heep.

The very 'umble Uriah Heep. (Side note: I'm endlessly annoyed that no adaptation of the novel ever remembers Uriah was only fifteen when David came to stay with the Wickfields.)

David grows up and goes to work for another lawyer, Mr. Spenlow, who has a daughter named Dora. David immediately falls in love with Dora. Unfortunately, she's a childish airhead. This is especially irritating because Agnes is clearly in love with David, but he's such an idiot he doesn't realise it.

David, now an adult, and Agnes

Dora

Episode 1 ends with David determined to marry Dora. Of course there's no way this could possibly go wrong...

So, what do I think of the series so far?

It's not one of the best Dickens adaptations, and it might not even be the best adaptation of David Copperfield. (Though it's certainly better than the 2000 version, which sees the book's plot as a guideline to be ignored at will, and probably better than the upcoming 2019 version, which has the oddest cast list I've ever seen for a Dickens adaptation -- Tilda Swinton as Aunt Betsey? Who looked at the White Witch of all people and thought "She'd be perfect as Aunt Betsey!"?)

A mark against this adaptation is that it has Dawn French in a (mercifully) minor role, and I can't stand her. She isn't even an actress, she's a comedienne, and she couldn't portray a convincing emotion if her life depended on it. To make matters worse she shares her scene with the magnificent Maggie Smith. The contrast between the two is so obvious that I don't know if I should laugh or be furious that someone actually thought casting Dawn French was a good idea.

But other than that, the acting in this adaptation is pretty good overall. Young!David is adorable, Mr. Dick and Mr. Micawber are brilliant, Uriah Heep is a slimy creep, Mrs. Micawber is hilarious, the Murdstones are vile, and Aunt Betsey is awesome.

Rating of this episode: 7/10.

Review: Elisabeth das Musical (Vienna, 2005)

I decided that I really don't like Middlemarch enough to review it yet, so instead I'm going to review something I do like. And Monday was the 26th anniversary of Elisabeth's premiere, so this seems like a good time for this review!

Unlike the other works I've reviewed so far, Elisabeth isn't a series, book or manga. It's a stage musical, and this version is a filmed stage performance that was released on DVD.

So, what is Elisabeth? It's a German musical, the most successful German musical ever made actually, and it's about Empress Elisabeth of Austria (aka Sisi/Sissi). It's a very fictionalised account of her life, involving an invented romance with Death himself, narrated by the man who murdered her.

(Yes, it's weird.)

You probably won't recognise any of the actors unless you're a fan of European theatre, so I won't bother listing them.

Now, onto the story itself. Elisabeth is a sung-through musical like Les Misérables, so it's impossible to talk about the plot without mentioning the songs. Some of the songs; listing of all them would take too long.

Spoilers ahead, but if you know Austrian history then you already know the biggest spoilers.

The show starts with Luigi Lucheni, Elisabeth's murderer, posthumously trying to defend his actions in what appears to be a sort of Purgatory. He summons the ghosts of people who knew Elisabeth, and then Death himself appears.

Lucheni

The ghosts

Der Tod/Death (What was the costume designer thinking? Other productions have Death in much less comical costumes than that... frilly... thing.)

It should be obvious that this show has a rather... unusual personification of Death. He isn't a skeleton, he doesn't wear a cape, and he doesn't have a scythe. Instead he kills people by kissing them.

Elisabeth herself appears for the first time in the second song. (For some reason she's nowhere to be seen in the prologue. Strange, since it's all about her.)

Elisabeth

Her father is about to leave to avoid a family gathering, and Elisabeth wants to go with him. At said family gathering, Elisabeth's mother announces that her sister Hélène is going to marry Emperor Franz Joseph. (Is that spelt "Joseph" or "Josef"? I've seen both spellings used, even in biographies, so who knows 🤷) Elisabeth interrupts by performing a circus trick, that goes horribly wrong and leads to her falling to her death.

No points for guessing who turns up.

Why is the stage so incredibly poorly-lit half the time? I know, atmosphere and all that. But for heaven's sake can't it be brighter and atmospheric at the same time?

Elisabeth and Death, in better lighting.

Death arrives to take Elisabeth's soul. Then they fall in love at first sight, so he changes his mind and lets her live.

Two scenes after this, Elisabeth meets Franz Joseph and falls in love at first sight with him. It's obvious from the start that this is a terrible idea. The necklace he gives her looks like a noose. Their wedding music sounds like a funeral march. The guests and in-laws talk about how Elisabeth isn't suited for life in Vienna. Death gate-crashing the wedding is just the icing on the cake.

Der letzte Tanz (The Last Dance)

Every musical has at least one song that stands out. Elisabeth has several of them, and this is the first one. It's the song Death sings during the aforementioned gate-crashing, and it's all about how Elisabeth is going to hate married life and how she'll be his in the end, set to a tune that'll stay in your head for weeks.

This version of "Der letzte Tanz" isn't my favourite. It's weird, because the song is one of my favourites in the show, and Máté Kamarás is one of my favourite actors to play Death, but... I just don't like his version of "Der letzte Tanz".

Anyway, moving on. Elisabeth's mother-in-law Sophie sets out to make Elisabeth's life hell. Franz Joseph, mummy's boy that he is, runs away when his wife asks for help.

Ich gehör nur mir (I Belong Only to Myself)

Elisabeth is Not Impressed by Franz Joseph, so she sings a (really, really awesome) song about how she belongs to herself.

Poor lighting strikes again! Why are the characters (sometimes) brightly-lit when the stage around them is almost completely dark?

It took me several months and about twenty different productions to realise that this song is a bit like "Let It Go" from Frozen. Thematically, but also because both songs end up being contradicted by events later in the musical. Elsa can't let go of the past because of the consequences of her actions. Elisabeth doesn't belong to herself in the end; she dies and belongs to Death.

I'd better stop that line of thought right there before we get completely sidetracked.

Things don't go well for Elisabeth after this, as Lucheni is delighted to tell us. She has two children, but Sophie takes both of them away. Elisabeth gets Franz Joseph to intervene, and then one of her children dies. Naturally, Death takes this opportunity to gloat and insist Elisabeth loves him more than her husband.

Death is a creep (a creep who kills children!), Franz Joseph is a coward (when his mother's involved, at least)... Really, Elisabeth would be better off without either of them.

Things don't get better after Rudolf's birth. Sophie is still determined to interfere, when she refuses to let Rudolf visit Elisabeth.

Rudolf and Sophie

Elisabeth finds out about this and gives Franz Joseph an ultimatum. Guess who sees this as the perfect time to visit?

I guess he gets points for persistence, if nothing else...

Death nearly gets Elisabeth to give in (read: die), but she snaps out of it in time and tells him to get out.

Elisabeth becomes obsessed with the only part of her life she can control: her appearance. She begins a bizarre beauty regime that involves excessive dieting and things like steaks being placed on her cheeks(!). The weirdest thing about this is that apparently it's all true.

Franz Joseph decides to let her raise Rudolf (and their other children, but the musical seems to have forgotten they had any other children). Elisabeth appears, wearing (a version of) her famous Sternenkleid (Star-dress). And of course, Death appears too.

This scene would be more impressive if the stage was better-lit. (Yes, I am still annoyed about that!) What genius decided that Franz Joseph should get more light than Elisabeth? And Death might as well be a floating head. Most annoying.

Act 2 begins with Elisabeth and Franz Joseph being crowned King and Queen of Hungary. Lucheni takes this chance to ham it up more than usual, the Hungarian people are delighted with their new queen, and of course Death invites himself along.

Wenn ich tanzen will (When I Want to Dance)

The real love story of this musical is the composer/catchy songs. Almost every single song in the show is ridiculously memorable, and will come back to you at the worst possible moment. (Case in point: I caught myself humming "Kitsch" while waiting for a job interview.) "Wenn ich tanzen will" is one of the most memorable. Which is ironic, because (as far as I can tell from bootlegs) it was only added to the show in 2001.

For once Elisabeth gets to gloat at Death: she's victorious and he had nothing to do with it. He tries to regain control over her, but she evades him and leaves triumphantly.

Mama, wo bist du? (Mama, Where Are You?)

Now Death gets to be especially creepy. Elisabeth and Franz Joseph are more or less ignoring Rudolf. The poor kid is all alone and wondering where his mother is. Death visits and convinces Rudolf that he's his friend. What's weirdest is that it's actually... sort of adorable. In a scary way.

Aww... Whoops, I mean get away from him, Rudolf!

In this scene Rudolf also says that he killed a cat. Every time I hear this I nearly lose all sympathy for him. "This little brat kills cats? You can have him, Death! You're welcome to him!" Neglectful parents and a hellish grandmother are not an excuse for animal cruelty, Rudolf.

Elisabeth's life becomes worse and worse, culminating in Sophie sending Franz Joseph to a brothel to break Elisabeth's influence over him. (This is a scene I always skip, for the same reasons that I always skip "Lovely Ladies" in Les Misérables.)

In the next scene Elisabeth collapses. Death, disguised as a doctor, tells her that her husband's adultery has given her an STD. This is the death knell (pun intended) of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph's marriage. She leaves Vienna and spends years travelling.

Die Schatten werden länger (The Shadows Grow Longer)

Rudolf is now a depressed, unhappy adult who disagrees with the way Franz Joseph rules but can't do anything about it. Death visits and offers a solution: suicide. Rudolf breaks free from his influence at the end of the song. But if you know history, you already know how this will end...

"Die Schatten werden länger" is probably the main Villain Song of Elisabeth. It's awesome, it's (very) memorable, and it's terrifying. Rudolf sees Death as his friend, and Death wants to kill him. That's scary enough on its own. But take away the supernatural aspect, and you get someone who doesn't care for their "friend" at all and is just using them. How many times does that happen in real life? *shudders*

After this Rudolf has a confrontation with Franz Joseph, which for some reason involves Franz Joseph standing in a... giant crown? (This is a perfect example of why the Vienna stagings aren't my favourite versions of the show. They take symbolism so far that it stops being symbolism and becomes a confusing distraction.)

And the lighting is still terrible. Did someone forget to pay the electricity bill?

This is followed by "Hass" ("Hate"), another song I always skip. It's several minutes of Nazis (alright, so they weren't called that then, but that's what they are) marching around the stage, attacking Jews and complaining about Elisabeth and Rudolf.

Rudolf begs Elisabeth for help. She turns him away. And this is the part I always dread. Death appears (dressed as a woman, for reasons I never understood until I realised it's symbolism again) and gives Rudolf a gun. And Rudolf kills himself. Noooooo 😭😭

Rudolf, wo bist du? (Rudolf, Where Are You?)

One of the fun (read: heartbreaking) things about Elisabeth is that it reprises songs in the worst possible ways. "Mama, wo bist du?"/"Rudolf, wo bist du?" is possibly the best (read: most agonising) example.

Elisabeth finally realises how she neglected and abandoned her son, and begs Death to take her. And then Death, who has spent the entire show trying to convince Elisabeth to die, rejects her and says he doesn't want her. Why the sudden change of heart, Death?

The Takarazuka productions explain it as Death wanting Elisabeth to join him because she loves him, not because she's given up. I'm not sure if I agree with that interpretation or not. The German-language productions don't give any explanation at all, and it's up to the viewer to guess if Death has lost interest in Elisabeth, or if he never cared for her at all, or if there's some other reason.

Franz Joseph and Elisabeth have a final meeting, and Elisabeth tells him they were never meant to be together. True, but it's surprisingly sad to watch. Death and Franz Joseph meet in a nightmare sequence. Death insists that he loves Elisabeth and will set her free... by giving Lucheni a murder weapon. That is not how you show love, Death!

Lucheni stabs Elisabeth. This time Elisabeth accepts Death. It's surprisingly sweet, considering how deeply messed up both of them are.

No. #1 on my list of "Things That Shouldn't be Adorable but Totally Are"

But then Death ruins everything (is anyone surprised by this point?) and apparently kills Elisabeth with his kiss. And then hands her body to his backup dancers (okay, so their official name is "Todesengel"/"Death's Angels", but I always think of them as "Death's Backup Dancers") to carry off to her coffin.

This is not my favourite version of the ending. It looks like Death cared nothing for Elisabeth after all, when his love for her motivates his actions in the musical.

Anyway, my overall opinion of both the musical and this version.

The musical is awesome no matter what version you watch. But some are more awesome than others. The Vienna productions in my opinion are among the less awesome versions. They're so full of symbolism and general weirdness that they end up distracting from the actual story.

I'm also not a fan of the scene order in the Vienna versions. It makes very little sense, plot-wise, for "Nichts, nichts, gar nichts" to take place immediately after "Mama, wo bist du?". "Nichts" makes more sense placed after "Die rastlosen Jahre", when Elisabeth has a definite reason to be miserable. Same goes for "Streit Vater und Sohn" being placed after "Die Schatten werden länger"; Rudolf's desperation makes much more sense when we've seen Franz Joseph dismiss him. And then there's the staging of the ending, and the terrible lighting.

(That last one seems to be just a problem with the DVD, though. The 1992 Vienna version had much better lighting, even though it made everything blue for some reason, and bootlegs of other shows from the Vienna revival also have better lighting. Apparently the DVD makes the lighting look worse than it was. Weird.)

But enough about the musical and the Vienna stagings in general. Now to talk about this version. Specifically, the actors in this version.

(Be prepared for a very long, rambling essay on this subject.)

I've already said that Máté Kamarás is one of my favourite Deaths. His version of the character is so dramatic and energetic and over-the-top that it's impossible not to like him. And unlike some Deaths (*cough*Mark Seibert*cough*) he genuinely seems to love Elisabeth. A very obsessive, unhealthy sort of love, but probably the closest Death can get to loving anyone.

Serkan Kaya is unquestionably my favourite Lucheni. He's sarcastic, bitter, funny -- everything a Lucheni should be. But he isn't just the snarky narrator; there are moments when he shows a deeper side to his character, and acts as if he almost regrets murdering Elisabeth.

Fritz Schmid is a pretty good Rudolf, though I wouldn't say he's my favourite Rudolf. His hair always makes me giggle when he first appears. (Which is a problem, because of when he first appears...) Seriously, what is that hairstyle? The historical Rudolf didn't have curly hair, judging by the pictures I've seen of him, and neither do the musical's Rudolfs... except this one. Strange.

Sophie is a character who's incredibly hard to like, but if I had to chose a favourite actress to play her, I'd probably pick Else Ludwig. She manages to perfectly portray Sophie's strictness and certainty that she's always right and Elisabeth is always wrong.

There's nothing wrong with Maya Hakvoort's portrayal of Elisabeth, but I've never been able to warm to her version of the character. I don't know why. Maybe it's because she's obviously too old to be convincing as young!Elisabeth, or maybe it's just because she's not Pia Douwes (...but neither is Mari Hanafusa, and I love her Elisabeth 🤷).

Nothing against André Bauer, but Franz Joseph is one of those characters whose every action annoys me. I haven't found a single actor who's made the character less irritating.

The rest of the cast are just there in the background, if that makes any sense. None of them stand out, but none of them are terrible either.

So, what's my overall opinion? The musical is great, and while this isn't my favourite version of it, there are far worse productions out there. *side-eyes that bizarre Thun production* Next to the 1992 Vienna version, this is probably the best-known and most-watched production of Elisabeth. So it's definitely worth watching!

Is it available online?: Yes, here is a version with (not always great) English subtitles. You can also find versions without English subtitles, if you speak German or already know the plot.

Rating: The musical itself gets 9/10. This version gets 7/10.

Review: Dombey and Son (novel)

It's about time I reviewed a book, don't you think? 😃 So for my first book review, I've chosen one of Charles Dickens' lesser-known novels. I first read it years ago and wasn't particularly impressed by it. But recently I read it again. Has my opinion changed? Let's find out!

Cover of the novel when it was serialised

Dombey and Son is Charles Dickens' seventh novel. It was first published as a novel in 1848. Its full title is the very long Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. (A better, shorter title would be Terrible Parenting: The Novel.)

Attempting to explain the plot of a novel -- especially a Dickens novel -- is much harder than explaining the plot of a series. So I'll just give a brief summary of the main plot points, then move on to what I thought of it.

Mr. Dombey wants a son to join him in the family business -- the titular Dombey and Son. He already has a daughter, Florence, but he acts as if she didn't exist. Eventually he has a son, Paul, who dies as a child. Dombey's first wife died in childbirth, so several years later he remarries a woman named Edith. Edith and Mr. Dombey soon come to hate each other, and Mr. Dombey is furious that Edith is fond of Florence. In the middle of this mess is Dombey's treacherous manager, Mr. Carker, who manages to make everything even worse.

Dombey and Son is unusual for a Dickens novel in that there is no mystery plot. Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Little Dorrit and many of his other novels include or revolve around someone being secretly related to someone else. Instead the main plot of Dombey and Son is the misery the dysfunctional Dombey family bring to themselves and those around them. The only secret relatives are Edith and Alice, and that's a connection that's only revealed towards the end and has very little importance to the plot.

Bad parenting is a recurring theme in Dickens' work (unsurprising, since he didn't have the best parents himself). Mr. Dombey is possibly the worst example of this. The way he completely ignores Florence makes my blood boil. His redemption near the end is clearly supposed to be touching, but it rings hollow in light of everything he did until then. He brought all his misfortunes on himself, and even though Florence forgives him he still neglected her for most of her life.

Edith is another character it's difficult to sympathise with. Yes, her mother was awful and she was in an unhappy marriage... but no one forced her into that marriage! She could have refused Mr. Dombey's proposal! Why on earth did he even propose to her, anyway? He didn't love her, or even like her. That marriage doesn't make any sense to me, and I could see disaster looming from the moment they got engaged. Sometimes such obvious foreshadowing is a good thing, but in this case it just makes the characters look like blithering idiots. Unusual for Dickens; he normally managed foreshadowing much better.

There are some characters who I just can't wait to see die. Mr. Carker is one of them. From the minute he and his teeth first appear, it's obvious he's the main villain. (Though a pretty good argument could be made for Dombey himself being the main villain.) His every action after that makes him even more despicable. He reminds me a lot of Uriah Heep, actually. I was a bit disappointed that Mr. Dombey didn't confront him before he died, but it's very satisfying that his money is used to help Mr. Dombey in the end.

So, you ask, are there any good characters in this book? Yes, thankfully!

Florence is one of Dickens' best (and most tragic) heroines. She spends most of her childhood hoping her father will love her, and instead he views her as a rival for Paul's affection and -- after Paul's death -- wishes she'd died instead. I cheered when Florence finally runs away from her home, even though the circumstances of said running away are pretty tragic. And her engagement to Walter is one of the cutest scenes in the book 😍

And that leads us to another good character: Walter. The idea that Walter could be thought dead for years stretches my suspension of disbelief just a little (or maybe not. This is before telegraphs were invented, after all...). But Walter himself is such a nice guy that his personality makes up for that.

And then there are the minor characters. (It wouldn't be Dickens without dozens of minor characters!) Captain Cuttle is amazingly adorable for a former captain with a hook for a hand. Major Bagstock is almost as vile as Carker. Harriett and John Carker have to go through so much (most of it thanks to their brother) that I spent the whole book hoping they'd get some happiness by the end, and was delighted when they did. Mrs. Skewton is so ridiculous (an elderly woman dressed like a little girl and pretending to be Cleopatra? *shudder*) that she's both creepy and hilarious. Mr. Toots is heartbreaking, and I'm so glad he finally gets a happy ending. Susan Nipper is amazing. She's the only heroic character who tells Mr. Dombey what she thinks of him, and that scene alone makes her one of my favourite characters. And that's only the ones who immediately come to mind.

Dombey and Son isn't one of Dickens' best novels. But it's still a pretty good novel. (Of course it is. It's Dickens!) There are some truly great scenes and passages in it. And overall I enjoyed it, though it wouldn't be one of my favourites.

Can it be read online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.

Rating: 6/10.

I'm not sure what I'll review on Wednesday. Possibly Middlemarch (1994), or possibly not.