Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.
Our Mutual Friend
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"Our Mutual Friend made me want to be a writer" (Zoe Heller Guardian)
"Dickens wasn't just telling a story, but drawing a panoramic picture of his times, full of detail about the way the Victorians lived, loved and thought. Our Mutual Friend is superbly constructed - part social satire, part murder mystery, part love story. It is crowded with memorable characters: the aspirational Veneerings, the playboy lawyer Eugene Wrayburn, and the heroines: giddy-minded Bella Wilfur and saintly Lizzy Hexam" (Independent)
"Our Mutual Friend disturbs us to the root of our being...terribly great" (John Sutherland)
"Perhaps his greatest work. The great novel of London: dark, wise, unsentimental" (William Boyd Newsweek)
"Charles Dickens is the greatest novelist in the English language" (Peter Ackroyd) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Dickens wasn't just telling a story, but drawing a panoramic picture of his times, full of detail about the way the Victorians lived, loved and thought. Our Mutual Friend is superbly constructed - part social satire, part murder mystery, part love story. It is crowded with memorable characters: the aspirational Veneerings, the playboy lawyer Eugene Wrayburn, and the heroines: giddy-minded Bella Wilfur and saintly Lizzy Hexam" (Independent)
"Our Mutual Friend disturbs us to the root of our being...terribly great" (John Sutherland)
"Perhaps his greatest work. The great novel of London: dark, wise, unsentimental" (William Boyd Newsweek)
"Charles Dickens is the greatest novelist in the English language" (Peter Ackroyd) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
A sophisticated mystery, a love story and a tale of the corruptive power of wealth.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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First Sentence
IN THESE TIMES OF OURS, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge, which is of iron, and London Bridge, which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
IN THESE TIMES OF OURS, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge, which is of iron, and London Bridge, which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By S Wood
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
My first Dickens was Oliver Twist which I found an enthralling book and has remained, with the under-rated Barnaby Rudge in second place, my favourite. Every couple of years or so I get the notion to read another of his many works, and invariably I find the actual reading doesnt live up to expectations. Unfortunately this was the case with his last completed work "Our Mutual Friend".
It lacks the concentrated power of Oliver Twist where the plot is focussed on one character and some of the scenes such as Bill Sykes and Olivers journey through London stick in the mind long after the book is back on the shelf. In Our Mutual Friend the plot is shared out amongst many characters, and I couldn't say with any certainty which one is central to the book. Perhaps it's the two leading ladies of the text Bella Wilfer and Lizzie Hexam. More likely there isn't one.
There are still some splendid scenes with dialogue that speaks in your head - though the devils (Silas Wegg and Rouge Riderhood) seem to have got the better lines. The good characters, as is customary in novels in general and Dickens in particular tend towards the insipid. Having said that there were enough twists and turns in the plot to keep me reading through to the 796th page which is no mean feat, but especially as one gets close to the end there is a unsatisfying sense of the overly contrived nature of the conclusion, or conclusions.
As ever Dickens heart and brain is in the right place as regards his criticisms of the society he lived and wrote and lands a few reasonable and half-decently placed blows against the Poor Law, the Act of Settlement, the omniscience of money and the attitudes of "society". On occasion he does make a little heavy work of doing so.
Not the best of Dickens, nor the worst of Dickens, but very definitely Dickens . . . Warts and All. Not bad.
It lacks the concentrated power of Oliver Twist where the plot is focussed on one character and some of the scenes such as Bill Sykes and Olivers journey through London stick in the mind long after the book is back on the shelf. In Our Mutual Friend the plot is shared out amongst many characters, and I couldn't say with any certainty which one is central to the book. Perhaps it's the two leading ladies of the text Bella Wilfer and Lizzie Hexam. More likely there isn't one.
There are still some splendid scenes with dialogue that speaks in your head - though the devils (Silas Wegg and Rouge Riderhood) seem to have got the better lines. The good characters, as is customary in novels in general and Dickens in particular tend towards the insipid. Having said that there were enough twists and turns in the plot to keep me reading through to the 796th page which is no mean feat, but especially as one gets close to the end there is a unsatisfying sense of the overly contrived nature of the conclusion, or conclusions.
As ever Dickens heart and brain is in the right place as regards his criticisms of the society he lived and wrote and lands a few reasonable and half-decently placed blows against the Poor Law, the Act of Settlement, the omniscience of money and the attitudes of "society". On occasion he does make a little heavy work of doing so.
Not the best of Dickens, nor the worst of Dickens, but very definitely Dickens . . . Warts and All. Not bad.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By Rufusred
Format:Paperback
I was quite simply dazzled by this book and zoomed my way through it in a few days. I wanted more, even after this race through its nearly 900 pages, taken in by the breathtaking scope not only to be found in the diversity and credibilty of even the most eccentric characterisations, such as Wegg or Podsnap, something only to be expected from Dickens, but by the moral flux of so many situations and in the thoughts of the likes of Mrs. Lammle or Bella Wilfer. The cruel satire encarnated in the figure Mrs. Wilfer alone had me laughing out loud and the Society scenes around the Veneering's table are so marvellously observed that they had me wondering how on earth Dickens could have had a friend left in Victorian 'polite society'! Brilliant. The river-shore scenes are amongst the most wonderfully atmospheric I've come across in his work: one wonders again what manner of 'field work' Dickens did to to depict this strangely amphibious half-world and it's population. The tone of the prose, too, was in marked contrast to the only very slightly earlier Great Expectations; greater in breadth of style and scale, with far sharper social criticism and biting humour. In fact, it's the humour, and its very darkness, which I felt most stood out in this tour-de-force. Yes, it's a whopping great book: yes it might take you time to get through, and yes again, the very wealth of its style, the range of personalities, settings, motives and dilemas will inevitably mean that one's attention becomes selective. Yet this only means the challenge is greater and, for this reader anyway, the rewards higher. I really loved it, and would encouarge anyone who's enjoyed a Dickens to have a bash.
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have to admit that of all Dickens' novels this is probably the one that I have read the most. This was his last completed novel and he shows an amazing insight into society and its workings, as well as psychological analysis. It also has some of the darkest humour of any of his novels.
When a body is fished out of the Thames it is presumed to be that of John Harmon, a beneficiary under the Harmon will, providing he marries a certain woman. With John Harmon out of the picture the Boffins' inherit and really are at a loss what to do with their inheritance. Mr Boffin wishes to learn to read and is imposed upon by one scallywag.
There is a lot to take in here, and of course there are the brilliant characters that only Dickens could invent. Of course there is quite a convoluted plot as with all Dickens' works, but remember this was originally published serially in parts and you had to have a 'hook' to get readers to buy the next installment. But mainly the novel is about the role money plays in society, and about rebirth. This is probably the most sophisticated of all his works and may help to give a glimpse into how his last unfinished novel may have proceeded.
When a body is fished out of the Thames it is presumed to be that of John Harmon, a beneficiary under the Harmon will, providing he marries a certain woman. With John Harmon out of the picture the Boffins' inherit and really are at a loss what to do with their inheritance. Mr Boffin wishes to learn to read and is imposed upon by one scallywag.
There is a lot to take in here, and of course there are the brilliant characters that only Dickens could invent. Of course there is quite a convoluted plot as with all Dickens' works, but remember this was originally published serially in parts and you had to have a 'hook' to get readers to buy the next installment. But mainly the novel is about the role money plays in society, and about rebirth. This is probably the most sophisticated of all his works and may help to give a glimpse into how his last unfinished novel may have proceeded.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good reading.
After reading a number of modern books it is always good to come to the superb descriptions offered by Charles Dickens
Published 12 days ago by G. M. Donald
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Friend outstays his welcome
Dickens is never a negligible author but Our Mutual Friend is not Dickens at his best. There is an unmistakable feeling that the requirements of monthly instalments took their... Read more
Published 1 month ago by G. M. Sinstadt
5.0 out of 5 stars
my favourite Dickens ...
Well done, Charles! (Why does amazon require me to write more than this? Brevity should, surely, be encouraged? - Ho hum ....)
Published 1 month ago by KateTomlinson
4.0 out of 5 stars
As above
As with the other books, in translating to tablet form some of the words and paragraphs did not read correctly and had to be reread to make sense of the text. Read more
Published 1 month ago by james beck
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Under-Appreciated Masterpiece
This book is fundamentally a social narrative. It delves into the world of the Victorian upper class and does not hesitate to condemn the ignorance with which the wealthy look on... Read more
Published 1 month ago by L. Clarke
5.0 out of 5 stars
It was free
I was looking for all of Dickens classics and this edition has been photocopied from an old edition. Just a little bit different from modern copies.
Published 1 month ago by Martin Born
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading
My first Kindle read and a long awaited book that I have been able to catch up on now that I have purchased a Kindle Paperwhite.
Published 1 month ago by moyra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good story
It is one of my favourite dickens books, it has an interesting story and shows what it was like to be poor.
Published 2 months ago by Susan Bailey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good for studies.
The item arrived in good quality, and I would recommend this edition for literature students. The introduction is really helpful and a good source for essay writers. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Natly
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dickens re-read
Wanted to read this again and found it was free from Kindle Store which made it more .appealing.
Thank You
Thank You
Published 2 months ago by Mr. E. Wood
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