Our Mutual Friend (Oxford World's Classics)
by Charles Dickens
published
June 18th 1998
(first published 1865)
by Oxford University Press, USA
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binding
Paperback, 880 pages
isbn
0192835238
(isbn13: 9780192835239)
description
Our Mutual Friend was the last novel Charles Dickens completed and is, arguably, his darkest and most complex. The basic plot is vintage Dicke...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1574)
recommends it for:
Lovers of good stories, great characters, and any & all writers of fiction
In the same vein as Aqua Net, jelly shoes, and locker rooms, the great Dickens was to be left behind along with most memories of my adolescence. A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, and Oliver Twist were more than enough from this Victorian monolith to saturate my tolerance for sentimentalism and melodrama. Yet, I've recently set myself on a literary odyssey to rediscover what makes these classics such enduring pieces, and the journey has certainly paid off in tenfold. ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone with a little bit of patience
This is the second Dickens book I've read after A Tale of Two Cities, and I was familiar with the story from watching the BBC miniseries. Maybe it was because of watching the movie adaptation (where some parts were cut or sped along) that I found the book very...scattered. There are so many plot lines and characters that it could almost have been a volume of collected short stories that slightly overlap. Some of the characters were not my favorites to read about (Wegg and Venus, and espec...more
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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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26 comments
Read in August, 2008
Dickens certainly knows how to weave a story! Our Mutual Friend revolves around the death of John Harmon. Harmon, whose estranged father willed him the Harmon estate on the condition that he marry Bella Wilfer--a woman wholly unknown to him, is murdered at sea on his return home to claim his fortune. With this as the basis of the story, we are then introduced to a spattering of characters either directly or indirectly involved in the Harmon matter. It is superbly written, inducing laughter, ...more
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Read in February, 2008
It is really amazing how creative a mind Dickens' was, to have created so many characters over roughly four decades, and each of them so well-crafted and loved - no doubt bearing some similarity to Jenny Wren's dolls. Even the truly awful characters like Rogue Riderhood, Bradley Headstone and Veneerings have found soft-spots in many readers (or maybe I am alone in this opinion?). It took a while to figure out how all the various threads came together, and it was well worth the effort. Just no...more
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Read in April, 2008
Intrigue, murder, mistaken identity, double cross, double agents, spies and other nefarious aspects of 19th century England.
This extremely long novel by Charles Dickens has more characters and more story lines that I could keep track of.
Some of the characters I did get to know, whether I wanted to or not:
The Veneerings -- Empty spaces inside human skin. The chapters with the Veneerings in them seemed like wasted reading time to me, although G.K. Chesterton argued that they were the highli...more
This extremely long novel by Charles Dickens has more characters and more story lines that I could keep track of.
Some of the characters I did get to know, whether I wanted to or not:
The Veneerings -- Empty spaces inside human skin. The chapters with the Veneerings in them seemed like wasted reading time to me, although G.K. Chesterton argued that they were the highli...more
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Read in January, 2005
When I first read this book several years ago, I enjoyed it until the end, which I felt left Bella simultaneously over-manipulated and unreasonably expected to be grateful for it. When I reread it last month, it seemed to me I had missed the generosity of both Dickens and John Harmon in arranging all things precisely for and out of love for Bella. She's not Dickens' most endearing ("little") woman --Lizzie in this novel is much better -- but after the many hundreds of pages of Dickens'...more
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Read in July, 2007
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...more
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I really like the made for tv version of this book that BBC made several years ago, and enjoy the story. However, something about the book was extremely tedious and I was never able to complete it. I'm really not a big fan of Charles Dickens, though I still have not read "Tale of Two Cities", or "Prince and the Pauper" and "A Christmas Carol" so maybe and should withold judgement on him until I read those first. I have read "Great Expectations" and thought...more
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Read in May, 2004
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens’ last complete novel, follows the fortunes of kind-hearted and generous Mr. and Mrs. Boffin; their mysterious secretary Mr. Rokesmith; willful, beautiful, and spoiled Miss Bella Wilfer; and numerous other characters as their lives are drawn together and changed by the notorious Harmon Murder. The many intricate and seemingly unrelated plot lines wind their way through a wonderful Dickensian world to a rather surprising but thoroughly satisfying denouement. Dickens’...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Any Dickens Lover
I have been pleasantly surprised how much I am enjoying this book. I have been a Dickens fan since high school. I have read most of his well known works, but haven't read anything by him in a while. It is a great story & I love reading it. A great plot about a dustman who inherits a fortune and all the subplots that surround the death of the dustman's benefactor. His characters are wonderfully described with humor & the names of the characters are perfect for their personality. I am rea...more
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Read in December, 2007
A fascinating melange of Dickens' writing styles in this his last completed novel. Spanning acid social satire to the treacly maudlin, Our Mutual Friend provides some of Dickens' best character studies within a plot framework whose artifice stretches the reader's credulity to breaking point. It appears that Dickens attempted to make amends for his negative depiction of a Jewish character (Fagin, in Oliver Twist) by presenting the noble, gentle and much maligned Riah in Our Mutual Friend. The par...more
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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 Dicken...more
It's Dicken...more
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Read in November, 2005
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.
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Read in September, 2007
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 Dem...more
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I took this book with me to the beach one evening and cannot say which I enjoyed more, Dickens masterpiece or the magnificent sunset. It is my third time reading this book and I so enjoy the characters and plot. My favorites are Eugene Wrayburn and Lizzie, although Bella does grow on you. Mrs Boffin is splendid and Jenny Wren so peculiar and quaint. Lizzie and John Harmon are the principled, good sort of people who remain their upright static selves. Eugene and Bella are more human, impulsive, f...more
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Read in December, 2006
Not up to the level of the great late novels,Bleak House and Little Dorrit. Still, this novel that symbolizes money as a series of "dust mounds" (landfills)owned by the "Golden Dustman" has a lot to say about the growing evil of avarice in a decadent capitalist society. It contains harrowing glimpses of riverfront lowlife contrasted with wonderful comic scenes of noveau riche display, a particularly vicious pair of married grifters, and an evil goy moneylender using a kindl...more
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Read in May, 2008
After 3 months of reading this book, I am proud to say I finished!! 800 pages at size 10 font took a while. But I love Dickens, and I have wanted to read this ever since jr. high when my English teacher raved about it. It was a great book, and I think that I have matured as a reader because I was better able to appreciate the satire than in any other Dickens novel I've read. i loved the postscript especially, where Dickens spells out in no uncertain terms his feelings about some practices in Bri...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
lovers of 19th century British literature, lovers of Dickens of course
This is the masterly work of the master of English literature and literature for all time I believe. It is complex but not complicated. The characters and their situations intertwine. The "mutual friend" has three identities and dark but not dangerous secrets -- he is only seeking truth in his life after all. This story of money, transformation and rebirth kept me from beginning to end. Dickens stories are never the shortest on the shelf, but you are not sorry for spending time wit
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A very enjoyable Dickens story, Our Mutual Friend has wonderful humorous descriptions of characters. If you can get past the first few chapters (it took me three separate tries), you're likely to find yourself stocked with a very engaging supply of new friends. Bella is one of the most vivid female characters I have ever met in Dickens' stories, and the bone articulator is wonderful. In my opinion, the plot is a bit to spread out, but the story is worth the trouble of struggling through.
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