Dombey is busy making money, and all that surrounds him is of little or no importance. His coldness, his absolute lack of human feeling towards people is extraordinary.

The firm, which is his life, is called Dombey and Son. He has a daughter, Florence, whom he considers to be "a piece of base coin" because she is a girl. He does not love her, although the little girl loves him dearly.

When at last a son is born, it is he who becomes the centre of Dombey's life and interests. However, he sees in little Paul only a means to continue his business. His main feeling now becomes his anxiety to see Paul grown up and ready to work with him, to continue his money-making business. He does not notice that the little boy sickens at school, where he is sent to be made a man as quickly as possible. The little boy's poor health breaks under the strain of misery. He cannot get accustomed to school life, far away from home, from his sister Florence whom he loves so much. Little Paul feels that he will not get better, that he will die as his mother died when he was born. He cannot understand why the money, that his father consi-ders to be so powerful, could not save his mother and cannot make him strong and well.

The death of little Paul is the beginning of Dombey's misfortunes. His second wife, Edith, a young widow from an aristocratic family, hates him, because he has actually bought her taking advantage of her desperate situation. She soon leaves him, and his secretary, Mr. Carker, runs away with his money and ruins him. Only Florence's love for him remains unchanged, and she and her husband take care of this lonely old man.

When Belinsky read Dombey and Son he called it a mi-racle that made all other works written by Dickens seem pale and weak. He said that it was "something ugly, monstrously beautiful".

In a work of art he revealed the ugliness of relations based on money. He had an eye that penetrated into the very depths of contemporary society. Thus, the sombre and arrogant Dombey was shown as a cold and tragic figure, a product of the money-making atmosphere. Opposed to him are Florence and Paul, loving and lovable creatures. Dickens made them tender, kind-hearted and despising money. That is why the novel seems at times like a story of these two children, rather than that of their cruel father.

Dickens possessed an immense power of generalization which made all his characters look familiar and recog-nisable types. He used to repeat that the best compliment to him was to hear his readers say that he or she had known personally this or that one of his characters.

The critical realistic approach to society was estab-lished by him at the very beginning of his creative life. His criticism of reality became sharper as his outlook and art matured. In the course of time the soft humour and light-hearted laughter of his first works gave way to mockery and satire. His novels were socially effective because they drew the wide public's attention to various problems and made the authorities consider and introduce reforms into such spheres as education, law and others.

Up to our days Dickens has remained one of the most widely read writers. He is loved and honoured by readers all over the world.