Dombey and Daughter, Dombey and Son , and Renton Nicholson's Parodic Condensing of Dickens

Attempts to define paraliterary texts like parodies commonly encounter a challenge resulting from an abundance of overlapping terms. Regarding textual condensations, however, clarity can be borrowed from science where "to condense" means a reduction in size and resultant intensification. Renton Nicholson's Dombey and Daughter initially appears to be a condensation of Dickens's novel. A ninety-four-page novella, it is considerably shorter than Dombey and Son , while a provocative afterword suggests it has transformed Dickens's "monstrous productions" into a "simple story." Yet this is undermined when Dombey and Daughter is properly explored. Despite some overlapping with Dombey and Son it is chiefly concerned with its own author – a semi-scandalous newspaper editor and contributor, pleasure garden owner, and music hall impresario. Dombey and Daughter is thus a "parodic condensation." Masquerading as a condensed version of Dickens's text, it exposes the futility of such a project, while puffing the versatility of Nicholson himself.