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Our Mutual Friend

by Charles Dickens, Adrian Poole (editor)

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 9,757 ratings · 637 reviews

‘Has a dead man any use for money? … What world does money belong to? This world. How can money be a corpse’s?’

Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance – Old Harmon’s profitable dust heaps – and its legatees, young John Harmon, presumed drowned when a body is pulled out of the River Thames, and kindly dustman Mr Boffin, to whom the fortune defaults. With brilliant satir...more

Paperback, 884 pages

Published February 1st 1998 by Penguin Classics (first published 1864)

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Mar 20, 2012 B0nnie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-books

~~He do the Police in different voices~~
~~I will show you fear in a handful of dust~~
~~Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage~~
Our Mutual Friend

What do we have here but mounds of dust - garbage - and an “old rascal who made his money by Dust", who grew rich ‘as a Dust Contractor, and lived in a hollow in a hilly country entirely composed of Dust. On his own small estate the growling old vagabond threw up his own mountain range, like an old volcano, and its geological formation was Dust. Coal-dust...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Christopher H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, favorites, victorian-literature, historical-fiction, read-in-2009, charles-dickens, my-western-canon, favorite-rereads

In completing 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. Our Mutual Friend rivals Tolstoy’s War and Peace in breadth, scope, scale, and number of characters; but while War and Peace proceeds forward majestically in a linear fashion; Our Mutual Friend, like Dic...more In completing 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. Our Mutual Friend rivals Tolstoy’s War and Peace in breadth, scope, scale, and number of characters; but while War and Peace proceeds forward majestically in a linear fashion; Our Mutual Friend, like Dickens’ “Circumlocution Office” (Little Dorrit) proceeds circuitously, bobbing and weaving, exposing its mysteries and delights, one-by-one, like peeling back the layers of an onion.

In Our Mutual Friend, Dickens plumbs the deep and dark depths of humanity’s soul with the creation and actions of some of fiction’s most horrifying villains. At the same time Dickens balances the novel’s darkness and depravity as we meet, and fall in love with, some of the kindest, noblest, and most good-natured saints and souls that ever graced the pages of his novels. One cannot but be completely taken with little Jenny Wren (“my back is bad, and my legs are queer”), and the beautiful Bella Wilfur and Lizzie Hexam, and kindly Betty Higdon. One must admire and respect the steadfastness and resolute nature of John Rokesmith, Eugene Wrayburn, and Mortimer Lightwood. One cannot help but laugh and smile at the comical goodness of Our Mutual Friend’s saints: the Boffins, Mr. Twemlow, “Rumty” Wilfur, and Mr. Riah. Then there are the multitude in the gray ambiguity between light and dark; the Veneerings, and those of “Podsnappery” like the Lammles. But it is the grotesque evil of the novel’s villains that makes the good characters shine so bright. There’s “Weggery”, an awful tasting dose of “Fascination” Fledgeby, all horrifyingly blended with “Rogue” Riderhood and the Dark Prince himself – Bradley Headstone.

From Dickens’ pen, Our Mutual Friend falls forth onto the printed pages like the brush strokes on the canvas of the grandest painting of an old master. Our Mutual Friend depicts the freshness and rawness of human emotions in all of its attendant forms, including: joy and happiness, pain and sorrow, anger and hatred, and love and tenderness. Like looking too closely at a painting of Hieronymous Bosch, we have an almost macabre fascination as we follow the novel’s characters through life’s stages – life, death, rebirth, and even resurrection. Primary roles and responsibilities are switched too; with children ‘raising’ parents, the disadvantaged aiding the advantaged, and the poor enriching the well-off.

In Our Mutual Friend things are never as they appear or ought to be. On some levels, Our Mutual Friend is the quintessential detective novel or mystery; but it is really more a series of mysteries nested inside a larger mystery. The reader must pay close attention to the seemingly slightest detail, for all does truly come together in the march to the grand, and most satisfying, conclusion. Through it all, however, there is one overarching and unifying theme, one thread that connects all – The River Thames. The Thames is the source of life, of death, of rebirth, and even resurrection; it infects and purifies; it is the source of depravity, horror, and hope and prosperity. The river is always there, relentlessly rushing onward, carrying the flotsam and jetsam, and the hopes and desires, of the novel’s characters, and even those of the reader. All I can say, upon turning the last page with a sigh, is that this is a novel for the ages; and one that I shall visit and revisit; setting forth again in my little boat upon the river of Our Mutual Friend.
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Jun 30, 2010 El rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: late19th-centurylit, permanent-collection, big-effing-books

Anyone familiar with LOST understands where I'm coming from here, but just in case you're stuck under a rock and have never watched the show (looking at you, Josiah) the above ~~cupcake~~ image is the character, Desmond Hume. Our Mutual Friend is associated with him on the show - it's the one book he claims he will read before he dies and we find later he has named his boat - wait for it - Our Mutual Friend.

With that said, this connection to LOST is absolutely not the reason why I decided to read th...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Sandy Tjan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, british-literature, classics, swapable, victorian-lit, dickens

3.5 stars

SPOILERS!

What I learned from this book (in no particular order):

1. You can use the same adjective 19 times in a short chapter to describe a single character and still be considered a great literary stylist. Yes, I get it, Mr. Dickens: Bella’s adorable father is CHERUBIC.

2. It is perfectly acceptable to deceive your wife-to-be, and even marry her under an assumed identity, for the noble purpose of ascertaining her moral worthiness.

3. Once you are convinced that she is no gold-digger, sh...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Henry Avila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

John Harmon is found dead in the Thames River.But wait a minute,since he's the main character of the book, this would be a very short novel(it is 800 pages long !).Of course,it's not really him.The body identified as John and thought to be a murder victim,was a friend .And Harmon is heir to his wealthy but cruel father's, estate,in the dust business(they make bricks from it).John has to marry a woman he's not seen since childhood, in order to collect.So he waits to claim his fortune.Things becom...more

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Nov 23, 2007 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Before Goodreads, before the Internet (aka the dark ages) I kept a list of Books Read and I've finally added them all in here. On that list is Our Mutual Friend. The title is right there, in my handwriting. So I must have read it. As it is 900 pages long, you would think I'd remember it, but I don't. In fact I had thought it was the one remaining Big Dickens I hadn't read & was saving it for a rainy day, or 90 rainy days. Now I am wondering if I was possibly not sober when I added it to my B...more

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Feb 22, 2012 F.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

It’s many a year since I picked up this book, and reading it through it now I did find myself wondering whether this was a favourite of Samuel Beckett’s. After all it’s the novel with three large dust piles sat in a yard - which may, or may not, contain valuables - and a one legged, ‘literary’ man who scours through them. (It is certainly echoed in ‘Happy Days’). Furthermore there is a young/old, tiny and crippled maker of clothes for dolls, and a character with a death-like name who – as his ho...more It’s many a year since I picked up this book, and reading it through it now I did find myself wondering whether this was a favourite of Samuel Beckett’s. After all it’s the novel with three large dust piles sat in a yard - which may, or may not, contain valuables - and a one legged, ‘literary’ man who scours through them. (It is certainly echoed in ‘Happy Days’). Furthermore there is a young/old, tiny and crippled maker of clothes for dolls, and a character with a death-like name who – as his homicidal rages increase – exhibits actual explosions of blood. (A touch David Cronenberg would no doubt enjoy). In short this is a great novel for Dickensian grotesques. Although this being pure and undistilled Dickens, we get the good and the bad. Yes, the grotesques are very entertaining, but beautiful young women are either angelic or haughty as hell. There are no other characteristics they can possibly exhibit.

The plot, in simple form, sees a dead body pulled from The Thames, and the consequences of that discovery having repercussions across nearly every strata of society.

‘Our Mutual Friend’ is a really clever and entertaining read, with lots of fantastic scenes. Other later Dickens’ novels, like ‘Great Expectation’ and ‘Bleak House’, I love with all my heart and wouldn’t hesitate to give them five stars. So, why am I more reluctant with this one? Well towards the end there is an extraordinary and breathtaking sleight of hand, one so audacious it pretty much counts as Deus ex machina. And it’s that ripping away of the carpet below much of what went before, which sours me a little on this novel. Undoubtedly this is a book jam packed with many superb scenes (and might just contain more murders than any other Dickens’ work), memorable moments and greater than life characters – so I would certainly recommend, although there are better.

And one can only assume – given its treatment of the dinner parties held by the upper echelons of society – that Dickens was treated with some wariness after publication each time he went to such a soiree.

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Well I guess everything around the birthday celebrations has affected me. The fact that the British public has all dressed up in frock coats or bodices for Victorian street parties in every road up and down the land; the thousands of imitation Charles Dickenses who now wander across London quoting the great man’s work; and that our greatest living Dickens impersonator – Mister Simon Callow – has made it his mission to go around every residence in the UK and perform personally to every single citizen. I’ve greatly enjoyed that we’ve reopened the work houses and we all get turns to go there and refuse to give the urchins any more gruel; while I’m looking forward to those ghosts coming to visit tomorrow night – I’ve been meaning to mend the error of my ways for some time now.

It really has been an exciting and wonderfully literary six weeks. And so, I guess it’s time for me to do my bit and actually read some Dickens. (less)

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May 31, 2009 Ayu Palar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Sherien, Sindro, Dini, Boof

Shelves: classics, dickens, favorites-ever

As Dickens got older, his novels were getting gloomier, either the themes or the tones. In 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 obsession with money disgusts me as the reader. Come to the dinner table of Mr. Veneering and you’ll know what I mean.

The main plot (since there are a couple of plots here) is about a gentleman named J...more As Dickens got older, his novels were getting gloomier, either the themes or the tones. In 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 obsession with money disgusts me as the reader. Come to the dinner table of Mr. Veneering and you’ll know what I mean.

The main plot (since there are a couple of plots here) is about a gentleman named John Harmon. He is believed dead by other people, and his inheritance goes to his ex-servants, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin. His fake death, however, is the right mean for him to find out more about his supposed-to-be wife, Bella Wilfer. That’s the main plot, and John Harmon is supposed to be the hero. Yet, I do think that the characterization of John Harmon isn’t really gripping. He leaves no strong impression to me. As a master of character-making, I believe Dickens got other characters who are more remarkable. Fortunately, Harmon has Bella. Bella is a woman who at first wants other thing besides money. Coming from a poor family, her attitude is understandable. Yet her character grows, and I am quite impressed by it.

I found another plot that is more engaging, which is the triangle love between Lizzie Hexam, Eugene Wrayburn and Bradley Headstone. This is a plot about obsession, to be precise Headstone’s obsession with Lizzie and also with, weirdly, Wrayburn. When Headstone thinks about Lizzie, he also has Wrayburn in mind (p. 377). Headstone is pathetic but at the same time impressive (other character Mortimer Lightwood also thinks the same way). Trying to get Lizzie, he then tries to hurt Wrayburn. Yet his plan does not go well. In fact, it makes Headstone suffer even more. Reading chapter VII from Book IV ‘Better to be Able than Cain’ and seeing the illustration from Marcus Stone, I can’t help but pitying Headstone. Dickens portrays the obsessive side of Headstone in such a striking way, I must give A+ for it.

I also like the use of Mortimer Lightwood as the consciousness of the story. It’s through him we know the ‘death’ of John Harmon, which means he introduces us to the world of Our Mutual Friend. Lightwood also closes the curtain of the show with an ending which, I think, is very perfect for a story about a society like this. Lightwood might not be taking part in the main conflicts, yet he can be dubbed as Dicken’s voice. He’s an important character too, indeed.

Again, Dickens has charmed me with his work. And after all these praises for Our Mutual Friend, why not five stars? Well, there are things that are not really convincing to me, like Harmon’s characterization and Lizzie’s love to Wrayburn. At the same time, there’s a thing that is too convincing yet the plot reveals another thing: Mr. Boffin’s attitude changes when he gets rich.

However, as the last completed novel from Dickens, Our Mutual Friend is a gem. Thankfully, he left us with such precious streasure.

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Oct 21, 2008 R. marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I don't know if I was supertired or Dickens gawt slawppy, but I spent three pages last night thinking I was reading about the 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 easy castors and was kept over a livery stable-yard in Duke Street, Saint James's, when not in use, to whom the Veneerings were a source of blind confusion. The name of this article was Twemlow. Being first cousin to Lord...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Jonfaith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Seven months of nibbles, most of these clusters braced with serious efforts to remember characters, enlisting wikipedia and rereading, rather often, entire chapters. I'm glad I read such, though i felt most of the characters lived on plotlines like so many pigeons perched above the interstate. Maybe I am being greedy, but i wanted some tension between the molar and molecular, maybe like my instincts I prefer the argumentative quantity, a murder of crows assuming control on the deserted football...more

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Jun 04, 2012 karen marked it as to-read · review of another edition

i am horrible. i meant to read this on my vacation, but i got 100 pages in and then there was drinking and i was reading it... compromised and then the week after that, i got the flu or something, and for the past few weeks i have been so involved in a slow nervous breakdown, that i have not picked this up since then. i am going to re-start this after ALA, and everything will be good with a clean slate and i won't feel so much guilt over my short attention span.

i suck.

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Feb 20, 2012 Lance Greenfield Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tbr-again

I first read Our Mutual Friend when I was thirteen years old, and I awarded it five stars on Goodreads based on my memory of that first read. I always remembered this as my favourite Charles Dickens novel, and I am still strongly of that opinion. If I could award it yet another five stars, I would. This is a classic masterpiece.

Yards of literary analysis has been written about this book over the decades, and I could not possibly compete with those who have written before me. After all, English L...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Hope rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Hope by: The BBC mini-series

Shelves: dickens, classics, mysteries, best-characters, favorites, 2010-reads, best-couples-♥, greatest-writing-and-voice, laugh-out-loud-funny-in-places, i-like-big-books-and-i-cannot-lie, reviewed, british, to-reread-someday

I wasn’t sure that I was going to review this novel at all, because it’s such a novel. It’s intimidating enough to look at, let alone to read, let alone to write about.
This decision, upon whether I would write a review for it or not, was pending…until I struck upon the following…

“ ‘One of Mr. Dancer’s richest escretoires was found to be a dung heap in the cow house; a sum but little short of two thousand five hundred pounds was contained in this rich piece of manure.’ ”

Well, as I toppled over,...more

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Feb 08, 2008 Burt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of language

I started by listening to this book on my iPod via audiobooks. The story is so complex and the language so achingly well done that I finally bought it just to look at the words because hearing them is not enough.

Reading them is better. I believe this is Dickens' last work; it may well be his best. It's long (the guy was paid by the word) but, like all his works, it is well worth the effort.

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Nov 24, 2011 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dickens, kindle, classics, 1001-books, 5-star-reads

Oh, Mr. Dickens, I left your side for too long! This may not have been well-received when first published, but it found me reading and reading and looking forward to reading some more.

There are plenty of characters and sub-plots. There are the nefarious and uneducated poor, and there are the upstanding and uneducated poor. Dickens throws in a few unfeeling rich, and a few rich who have a sense of justice. For all of Dickens being accused ot anti-semitism, there is a good Jew. Throw in plots that...more

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May 23, 2007 Zab rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nineteenthcenturyrocks

Dickens' last full novel, and his best in my opinion. Will the aristocratic Eugene seduce the noble working-class Lizzie, or repent? Will Lizzie's obsessed schoolmaster suitor come to a bad end that reflects the 1860s fad for detective stories and sensational crimes? Will the headstrong Bella eventually repent of her obsession with marrying money? Will everyone good wind up married and/or rich anyway? Will the scenes in the taxidermist's shop be creepy, but in a really genial way?

It's Dickens, s...more

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Jul 15, 2012 JJ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is maybe the best book I've ever read. I wonder if I have aleady said that about a lot of the few of my books that I have already put on this website. I just joined and I am just going through my humungous bookshelves. I love true-crime books, which this one isn't really but sort of is. I don't know how there could be better writing anywhere, except that I am a gigantic fan of Charles Dickens already. It's very possible that this is my favorite Charles Dickens book. There is just so much go...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book completely took me by surprise. I am not what you call a Dickens fan: I enjoy watching A Christmas Carol at the theatre at Christmas, will watch most Dickens novels portrayed in film for the settings, costumes, and my own fascination with Victorian England, but it very rarely occurs to me to pick up a Dickens novel for pleasure and actually spend precious time reading it. I was assigned Our Mutual friend for a Victorian Literature seminar in grad school and dreaded reading its 800+ pag...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Paresh Khatri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, 1001-read, victorians-challenge-5books

Our Mutual Friend (OMF) is Dickens' last completed novel. Despite that, it is pretty clear that this novel is written by an artist at the height of his powers and definitely not a declining force. It took me a little while to get into OMF as it has the usual dizzying array of Dickensian characters that you first have to familiarise with. However, once I did get into it the novel rollicked along. The novel is about money and Dickens puts his imagination to great use in firstly tying together such...more

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Dec 04, 2009 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: britain-england, fraudio, play-dramatisation, victorian, published-1865, classic, winter20092010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 01, 2008 Jenn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-timefaves, classics, highlyrecommend, literary-fiction

Along with the usual(I find hilarious)Dickensian caricatures, this book contains one of my most passionate literary crushes, Mr. Eugene Wrayburn. I love Dickens and enjoy novels, but I've rarely wished so much that I could meet a character in real life. Eugene is hilarious and suffers from ennui, observe: "'Generally, I confess myself a man to be doubted,' returned Eugene, coolly, 'for all that.' 'Why are you?' asked the sharp Miss Wren. 'Because, my dear,' said the airy Eugene, 'I am a bad idle...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I tried several times to start this book and kept putting it down, but once I finally got going I was hooked. It's no wonder I've seen this described as Dickens' best comic novel, it really is chock-full of wonderful characters once the story gets going it pulled me along with it. There's conspiracy, greed, redemption, romance and plenty of sarcastic social commentary. A Tale of Two Cities used to be my favorite Dickens novel, but I think Our Mutual Friend may claim that place.

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Jan 09, 2008 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dickens doesn't get any better than this. The heroines are complex and engaging, and he has *so* much to say about the state of his corrupt society. It's really more about money than anything else. Not a single character (from Lizzie, who'd prefer not to think about money, to Bella the "mercenary little wretch", to Charley, the ACTUAL mercenary wretch, to Mr. Boffin and Mr. Wegg and the Lammles) doesn't benefit from the (mis)fortunes of anyone else, which is sort of universally true.

Anyway, it'...more

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Sep 23, 2007 Anna Pervukhin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: I. J. Reilly

The book introduces itself as a satire about the peril of money, but Dickens quickly dispenses with this device, as he dispenses with his criticism of the law in Bleak House, and takes up again his (and my) cherished themes: the prison that is social inequality, the hopelessness of achieveing "authenticity", and the importance of being extremely attractive. Yes, there is disfigurement! Yes, there are Jews! Yes, there is a VERY creepy sexual undercurrent. (Similar to Sologub's Petty Demon, oddly...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought I had the "secret" of the book figured out early on and then was disappointed when Dickens outright tells you what it is halfway through the book. I guess I wasn't so clever after all. The real "secret" of the book was quite a surprise to me, and a pleasant one too. It really was unexpected and clever. Dickens also closed up the various plot lines very nicely.

One thing I didn't like was that some of the characters seemed to behave in a very unrealistic way--at least I have never seen p...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Rrshively rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is for those who are real Dickens fans or who are willing to do a little work and thinking to read this complex mid-19th Century novel. Working one's way through the Dickensonian prose and satire, one finds a story complete with murder, romantic love, mystery, and deceit. Some of the characters and events one meets at first may seem irrelevant, but they are all brought around to a complete whole by the end of the book. This book has many typical themes of Charles Dickens: greed, the p...more

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May 08, 2013 Derek Ganzhorn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Our Mutual Friend is the novel I would recommend to Dickens-haters, or at least to those who are unsure as to how they feel about him. This is Dickens's darkest and most cynical book. It is also one of Dickens's most affecting books, and I doubt anyone could read it without being moved by its darkness.

There is a general malaise about the novel that puts it closer to a modernist work than any other Dickens novel. Even Bleak House was more lively in its condemnation of the social structure--for a...more Our Mutual Friend is the novel I would recommend to Dickens-haters, or at least to those who are unsure as to how they feel about him. This is Dickens's darkest and most cynical book. It is also one of Dickens's most affecting books, and I doubt anyone could read it without being moved by its darkness.

There is a general malaise about the novel that puts it closer to a modernist work than any other Dickens novel. Even Bleak House was more lively in its condemnation of the social structure--for all the bitterness Dickens felt for the legal system and the idle rich, he was still able to include characters from the trial and Lady Dedlock in the plot. In Our Mutual Friend, the rich sit around drinking and eating, and are never really part of the story that unfolds below them. They are the chessmasters playing with the gamepieces that are the lower classes. Dickens does almost nothing to humanize them. This is the world that Mr. Boffin stumbles into, a world more corrupt and spiritually bankrupt than in any other Dickens novel.

The general dourness of the book is continued in the story of Bradley Headstone's attempted courtship of Lizzie Hexam. Headstone is the most complicated and frustrating of all Dickens's protagonists. He is a dark, troubled, and brooding personality, and his misguided attempts at winning Lizzie are the most powerful scenes of the book. Headstone is maybe Dickens's most "un-Dickensian" character. He is completely lacking of charm or levity; one would expect him to come out of Wuthering Heights, not the streets of Dickens's London! Most of all, Headstone provides proof to Dickens haters that Dickens was preoccupied by more than children's stories and fairy tales. Headstone is his most "modern" creation.

The book contains another great and complicated protagonist in Eugene Wrayburn. Wrayburn is an unscrupulous and devious lawyer who greatly resembles another destitute Dickens lawyer, Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities. The difference between Wrayburn and Carton is that Wrayburn is actually interesting. One of the great problems with Tale of Two Cities is the fact that Carton's ultimate redemption is not all that convincing--throughout the book, what exactly does Carton do that is proof of his "fall"? Really, he does nothing but go drinking with a friend every so often while remaining a bachelor. When Carton's ultimate destiny arrives, it is hard to believe that he is redeeming himself from anything owing to the fact that he was never that bad a guy in the first place! Wrayburn, on the other hand, is a real lout. He manipulates people, cheats, lies...he's a real villain, charismatic as he is. His story and his ultimate fate end up being far more interesting than Carton's.

For Dickens fans, the most indispensible trait about Our Mutual Friend is its preoccupation with character. Headstone and Wrayburn are unique in Dickens for being, on their own, interesting and complex human beings. Most great Dickens characters can be summed up with about a word (Uriah Heap=venality, Micawber=optimism, etc.) and rarely function as anything but a means to move along the plot. But Wrayburn and Headstone are complex enough to warrant consideration outside the roles they play in moving along the plot, and are interesting on their own. While reading the book, one is amazed at Dickens's ability for characterization, especially given what almost seems like an inability to see his characters as anything but stereotypes and plot-pawns in earlier novels.

Even given the presence of Dickens's two most intriguing characters, there is still much fodder to be used against him. The resolution of Mr. Boffin's story is ludicrous even by Dickens stanards (and that's saying something!).

But even with all its flaws, this is the novel that gives us most of what made Dickens great: Incredible plots, great romances, and great humor. Added to these is a very un-Dickensian preoccupation with character. You won't be able to read this book and ignore the sad fact that this was Dickens's last completed novel. One wonders what he could have done if he had been able to employ his newfound powers of characterization in other novels.

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Jan 29, 2013 Roland rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apart from one pairing (not couple), whose encounters are tedious almost from first to last, this is a wonferful book. Nearly 900 pages of terrific observation and description of human endeavour at all sorts of levels. There are bound to be episodes and strands more pleasing to one, less interesting to another reader, but wherever one is in the story, well, stories, one may be sure to encounter fantastic writing and deep insights put plainly at any given page. Dickens' mastery of grammar and voc...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Lauren rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: penguin-classics

Full-disclosure: I despise Dickens. I didn't really appreciate the meaning of the word "hate" until I first encountered the bloated egomaniac known as Dickens. Dickens wrote to get paid and it shows. This book is probably about 10,000+ more words than it needs to be. There is no attention given to characterization and as a result there is not a single character worth caring about. I spent half this book just thinking, "Why can't you just die already?!" (to no character in particular, as I wanted...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Alan Chambers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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About Charles Dickens

A prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays, novellas, novels, fiction and non-fiction; during his lifetime Dickens became known the world over for his remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives, and his depictions of the social classes, morals and values of his times. Some considered him the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much awarenes...more

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“No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” — 351 people liked it

“Give me a moment, because I like to cry for joy. It's so delicious, John dear, to cry for joy.” — 85 people liked it

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