MR. BOUNDERBY

1.

• Mr. Bounderby was as near being Mr. Gradgrind's bosom friend

• A man perfectly devoid of sentiment

• He was a rich man: banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not. A big, loud man, with a stare (sguardo fisso), and a metallic laugh. A man made out of a coarse (ruvido) material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled (gonfiate) veins in his temples, and such a strained (stirata) skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift (sollevare) his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading (invasiva) appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start. A man who could never sufficiently vaunt (vantare) himself a self-made man. A man who was always proclaiming, through that brassy (sfacciata, insolente) speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty. A man who was the Bully of humility.  

• A year or two younger than his eminently practical friend, Mr. Bounderby looked older; his seven or eight and forty might have had the seven or eight added to it again, without surprising anybody. He had not much hair.

2.

• A man with a pervading (invasiva) appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start. A man who could never sufficiently vaunt (vantare) himself a self-made man. A man who was always proclaiming, through that brassy (sfacciata, insolente) speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty. A man who was the Bully of humility.

• pervading: penetrating; to vaunt: to boast about, to brag of, to crow over; brassy: shameless, immodest; bully: tormentor, oppressor, intimidator

3.

• A man perfectly devoid of sentiment

• and what not

• metallic laugh

• A man made out of a coarse (ruvido) material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him

• such a strained (stirata) skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open

• Mr. Bounderby looked older

• without surprising anybody

4.

Since bounder means “canaglia”, “A man who was the Bully of humility”.

5.

I think the author doesn’t see Mr Bounderby with admiration because he’s really “narcissist”.

7.

A lot of exaggerations in Mr B.’s tellings underline how he was born is a very crumbling context and, consequently, how he has been so capable in “upgrading” his condition.

8.

Yes, I think they do.

9.

In his speech there is a constant repetition of the word “I”, which underlines once and again how he considered anything he had become just as due to his faculties, and there is also the repetition of the words  “ditch”, “inflammation”, “determined”, that highlight the conditions in which he was born and then the only thing who saved him from living such a degraded life: his attitude.

They fit well in the description provided by the narrator: indeed, they show his great self-proudness.