Other Fiction Dickens, Charles: Dombey and Son (Illustrated). v5. 29 Apr 2010

[HarryT]

Mr Dombey is a man obsessed with his firm. His son is groomed from birth to take his place within it, despite his visionary eccentricity and declining health. But Dombey also has a daughter, whose unfailing love for her father goes unreturned. "Girls" said Mr Dombey, "have nothing to do with Dombey and Son". When Walter Gay, a young clerk in her father's office, rescues her from a bewildering experience in the streets of London, his unforgettable friends believe he is well on his way to receiving her hand in marriage and inheriting the company. However, things work out very differently...

Fully illustrated with the original black and white illustrations by Phiz.

This text is the posthumously-published version, which is some 5000 words longer than that published during Dickens' lifetime. He discovered that he had written too much to fit in the available space in the magazine, and was forced to edit it accordingly. The majority of the additional text occurs in the first few chapters (and over half of it in the first three chapters), but there are additional lines and paragraphs throughout the book that may not be there if you are comparing the text with a different edition.

Enjoy!

EDIT: 13 Dec 2007

Improved the formatting to preserve dashes, etc. Uploaded v2.

EDIT: 28 Dec 07

Added all the original illustrations. Cleaned up the formatting. Uploaded v3.

EDIT: 16 Mar 08

New version to resolve an issue with incorrect paragraph breaks. Uploaded v4.

EDIT: 29 Apr 10

Thoroughly proofed against the "Oxford Illustrated Dickens". The text was in a very, very poor state, and had obviously been scanned and then very indifferently proof-read. The most common error was missing quotation marks, or commas incorrectly displayed as quotation marks (or vice versa). I've also restored all the missing formatting (italics, capitals, etc). In addition, several of the illustrations were of poor quality, and I've re-scanned these. All in, several thousand errors have been corrected, and the text is now in good shape. If you find any remaining errors that I've overlooked, please let me know.

Previous download count: 142

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[HarryT]

Thoroughly proofed against the "Oxford Illustrated Dickens". The text was in a very, very poor state, and had obviously been scanned and then very indifferently proof-read. The most common error was missing quotation marks, or commas incorrectly displayed as quotation marks (or vice versa). I've also restored all the missing formatting (italics, capitals, etc). In addition, several of the illustrations were of poor quality, and I've re-scanned these. All in, several thousand errors have been corrected, and the text is now in good shape. If you find any remaining errors that I've overlooked, please let me know.

[neilmarr]

A thousand thanks -- yet again -- for your time and care, Harry. Safely tucked into both my Calibre libraries now (one on the PC, the other on the laptop because of a recent computer disaster). That's my weekend nicely taken care of. Best wishes. Neil

[Tanzaku]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you find any remaining errors that I've overlooked, please let me know.

Harry,
I, too, am frustrated by the appalling quality of some of the text from public domain books. Thanks for all your efforts on the Dickens titles. I'm reading Dombey and Son now and, unfortunately, still finding a few pesky mistakes in the text. How do you want them sent to you? And because this thread is pretty old now, do you still want them? Other Dickens titles, too?
And finally, what are your thoughts about double quotes rather than single quotes? Is this too exclusively an American convention to warrant a change?
Brooks

[HarryT]

Yes, please do send them to me. A PM, giving the chapter number and quoting the sentence in which the error occurs is the best way. Corrections are very welcome.

Single quotes for speech are used in almost all books published in the UK.