Bővebb ismertető
PREFACE
I make so bold as to believe that the faculty (or the habit) of closely and carefully observing the characters of men, is ;a rare one. I have not even found, within my experience, that the faculty (or the habit) of closely and carefully observing so much as the faces of men, is a general one by any means. The two commonest mistakes in judgment that I suppose to !arise from the former default, lare, the confounding of shyness with arrogance and the not understanding that an obstinate nature exilsts in la perpetual struggle with itself.
Mr. Dombey undergoes no violent internal change, either in this book, or in life. A sense of his injustice is within him all along. The more he represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is. Internal shame and external circumstances m'ay bring the contest to the surface in la week, or a day; but it has been a contest for years, and is only fought out then after a long balance of victory.
Years have elapsed since I dismissed Mr. Dombey. I have not been impatient to offer this critical remiark upon him, land I offer it with some confidence.
I began this book by the Lake of Geneva, and went on with it for some months iin France. The association between the writing land the place of writing is so curiously strong in my mind, that at this day, although I know every stair in the little midshipman's house, 'and could swear to every
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