<p>Dombey and Son is a novel by Charles Dickens. There is some concern with the railways and the novel's conception, and writing, belong to the years of the railway boom, 1844-47. The sea, meanwhile, becomes the image of things of 'an older fashion yet', 'the dark and unknown ... that rolls round all the world.' The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream is to have a son to continue ...