false <![CDATA[Our Mutual Friend (Penguin Classics)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1225898319m/271283.jpg 31244 169 <I>Our Mutual Friend</I> was the last novel Charles Dickens completed and is, arguably, his darkest and most complex. The basic plot is vintage Dickens: an inheritance up for grabs, a murder, a rocky romance or two, plenty of skullduggery, and a host of unforgettable secondary characters. But in this final outing the author's heroes are more flawed, his villains more sympathetic, and the story as a whole more harrowing and less sentimental. The mood is set in the opening scene in which a riverman, Gaffer Hexam, and his daughter Lizzie troll the Thames searching for drowned men whose pockets Gaffer will rifle before turning the body over to the authorities. On this particular night Gaffer finds a corpse that is later identified as that of John Harmon, who was returning from abroad to claim a large fortune when he was apparently murdered and thrown into the river. <p> Harmon's death is the catalyst for everything else that happens in the novel. It seems the fortune was left to the young man on the condition that he marry a girl he'd never met, Bella Wilfer. His death, however, brings a new heir onto the scene, Nicodemus Boffin, the kind-hearted but low-born assistant to Harmon's father. Boffin and his wife adopt young Bella, who is determined to marry money, and also hire a mysterious young secretary, John Rokesmith, who takes an uncommon interest in their ward. Not content with just one plot, Dickens throws in a secondary love story featuring the riverman's daughter, Lizzie Hexam; a dissolute young upper-class lawyer, Eugene Wrayburn; and his rival, the headmaster Bradley Headstone. Dark as the novel is, Dickens is careful to leaven it with secondary characters who are as funny as they are menacing--blackmailing Silas Wegg and his accomplice Mr. Venus, the avaricious Lammles, and self-centered Charlie Hexam. <I>Our Mutual Friend</I> is one of Dickens's most satisfying novels, and a fitting denouement to his prolific career. <I>--Alix Wilber</I> 2888469 book 1865 Our Mutual Friend (Modern Library Classics) total:1639|5:676|4:551|3:310|2:77|1:25| 1639 6693 2986 191 5 5 false false Thu Sep 27 11:48:55 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 23 03:14:41 -0800 2007 more...]]> 0 4 false false Sat Aug 02 02:21:22 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 21 10:24:36 -0700 2008 inner life of a dinner table the family had nicknamed "Twemlow".

The confusing to passage: There was an innocent piece of dinner-furniture that went upon...more...]]> 5 3 true false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Sep 10 18:05:51 -0700 2007 Fri Feb 08 17:44:37 -0800 2008
Reading them is better. I believe this is Dickens' last work; it may well be...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu May 01 19:14:47 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 20:16:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed May 16 18:32:44 -0700 2007 Wed May 23 17:45:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Jan 09 00:59:44 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 01:08:13 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 07:10:25 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 23 19:50:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 13 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 15:33:25 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 15:33:42 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Jul 19 15:30:39 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 15:32:25 -0700 2009
Immediately upon starting Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend," I was struck by parallels with Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo." Both big novels revolve around a powerful character who conceals his identity in a complicated plot to obtain social justice....more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 29 17:18:26 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 19:19:56 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 17:18:26 -0700 2009
Mr. Venus, taxidermist and "articulator of bones," is easily his most extreme character.

Also, lots of reflections on language in this one, some funnier than others:

'Too dry for you, eh? Well, I suppose it wants some years of sticki...more...]]> 5 4 false false Tue Jul 14 09:57:59 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 21:35:24 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 09:57:59 -0700 2009 Our Mutual Friend, I believe that I may well have just finished reading the finest book written in the English language. One could perhaps argue that the prose of Austen in her novel Emma is more perfect; but the plotting and characters of Dickens in Our Mutual Friend is exquisite. O...more...]]> 0 0 false true Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 09:31:05 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 10:23:51 -0800 2009
Adaptation by Mike Walker of Charles Dickens' classic novel.

A father and daughter on the Thames at night, and tied to their boat a lifeless shape bobs in the water.

Charles Dickens ...... Alex Jennings
Bella Wilfer ...... Daisy Haggard
Lizzie...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Aug 21 16:25:21 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 16:30:39 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Fri Nov 06 01:46:42 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 13:56:10 -0800 2009
Adaptation by Mike Walker of Charles Dickens' classic novel.

A father and daughter on the Thames at night, and tied to their boat a lifeless shape bobs in the water.

Charles Dickens ...... Alex Jennings
Bella Wilfer ...... Daisy Haggard...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jan 30 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Sep 17 12:53:34 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 04:53:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Jan 06 17:59:08 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 18:06:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat May 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 24 11:44:56 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 11:53:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 1986 Wed Apr 08 15:08:58 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 11:26:22 -0700 2009 Little Dorrit, which I read years after this. Our Mutual Friend is a denser novel that reminds me a bit of Thomas Hardy. Dickens allows himself to get darker and deeper than he does in his other novels. I think people who are always left wanting more from Dickens will be de...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 13:16:36 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 19:35:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 4 false false Sun May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 21 05:46:18 -0800 2009 Sun May 31 06:18:23 -0700 2009 Our Mutual Friend, the readers are taken to the dark side of Victorian society. And by dark, I do not always mean the world of the working class. In fact, here we’re served with the high class society, whose...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=271283