‘I am a woman.’ she said confronting him steadfastly, ‘who from her very childhood has been shamed and steeled. I have been offered and rejected, put up and appraised, until my very soul has sickened. I have not had an accomplishment or grace that might have been a resource to me, but it has been paraded and vended to enhance my value, as if the common crier had called it through the streets. My poor, proud friends have looked on and approved; and every tie between us has been hardened in my breast. There is not one of them for whom I care, as I would care for a pet dog. I stand alone in the world, remembering well what a hollow world it has been to me, and what a hollow part of it I have been myself. You know this, and you know my fame with it is worthless to me.’
Charles Dickens, “Dombey and Son”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 