Dombey and Son/YMMV


 * Double Standard: When Mr. Dombey ignores Florence, it's written in the most heartbreaking terms. When Mrs. Mac Stinger regularly beats her toddler son black and blue, it's Played for Laughs.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Mr. Dombey toward the end of the book.
 * Les Yay: Susan's almost worshipful feelings for Florence sometimes come across as this, especially when she breaks out the endearments ("my darling"; "the dearest and blessedest angel there ever was"; "my heart's own mistress") or bursts into tears at hearing about . She even mentions feeling the same way about Florence as Toots does.
 * Mind Game Ship: James Carker sees right through Edith and she knows it; he gets a thrill out of manipulating her.
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: Once they're engaged,  can barely finish a sentence without a "my love", "my own", etc. Toots can barely stand to be in the same room with them.
 * The Woobie: Toots! This troper wanted to hug him in every scene. He's mentally handicapped and knows it (remembering a time before), desperately in love with a girl who will never feel the same, borderline suicidal, and still doesn't have an unkind or jealous bone in his body.
 * Paul and Florence.
 * John and harriet Carker.