Dickens' seventh novel, illustrated by Phiz, was the first with his new publishers, Bradbury and Evans. Dickens worried about his new publisher's abilities to sell his work but the new novel's monthly installments were soon selling at up to 40,000 copies a month. William Thackeray, whose monthly installments of Vanity Fair were being sold by Bradbury and Evans during this same time, was selling at best only 5000 copies a month.
In Dombey and Son, considered Dickens first artistically mature work, he began using notes he called "mems" to outline how the novel would progress. It was after Dombey and Son was published that Dickens' reputation as a world class author was established.