Our Mutual Friend in Never too Late to Read Classics

Aug 18, 2017 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, gutenberg-download, literary-fiction

If you have ever read Charles Dickens, you will know that his plot lines, characters, and literary devices are myriad, and for my thinking, Our Mutual Friend might employ more of those than any other of his novels that I have read. In the beginning, this made the thread a little harder to keep untangled, but in the end, it served his purposes beautifully.

There are, for your entertainment, two major love stories, a mysterious imposter, a murderer or two, a few men of nefarious occupation, a coupl If you have ever read Charles Dickens, you will know that his plot lines, characters, and literary devices are myriad, and for my thinking, Our Mutual Friend might employ more of those than any other of his novels that I have read. In the beginning, this made the thread a little harder to keep untangled, but in the end, it served his purposes beautifully.

There are, for your entertainment, two major love stories, a mysterious imposter, a murderer or two, a few men of nefarious occupation, a couple of red herrings and several mistreated, but eternally good, individuals. Jenny Wren is a marvelous character, along with the Jew, Riah, who helps to atone for the evil character of Fagin in Oliver Twist. Betty Higden is a superb example of the worthy poor, and the Boffins are an unforgettable couple. I was particularly interested in Lizzie Hexam and Eugene Wrayburn, a part of the plot that was less easy to predict than some of the others. Both the love stories are captivating, and the ins and outs, and coincidental crossings, of each of the characters with the others is masterful. This is a later work, and the maturity of the writing and plot control are obvious.

Then there is just the irrefutable wisdom of Mr. Dickens:
And this is another spell against which the shedder of blood for ever strives in vain. There are fifty doors by which discovery may enter. With infinite pains and cunning, he double locks and bars forty-nine of them, and cannot see the fiftieth standing wide open.

Ah, Mr. Dickens, may it ever be so!

Not an unusual subject for Dickens, he deals with the plight of the poor and the inadequate methods of alleviating it, and he does it with deftness and just the right touch of sentiment.
For when we have got things to the pass that with an enormous treasure at disposal to relieve the poor, the best of the poor detest our mercies, hide their heads from us, and shame us by starving to death in the midst of us, it is a pass impossible of prosperity, impossible of continuance. It may not be so written in the Gospel according to Podsnappery, you may not find these words for the text of a sermon, in the Returns of the Board of Trade; but they have been the truth since the foundations of the universe were laid, and they will be the truth until the foundations of the universe are shaken by the Builder.

Does our modern society not still wrestle with how to help people pull themselves up without damaging their worth in their own eyes? Do we not still have a system that creates a class barrier and with the very assistance we offer sometimes assure that people will remain and always be aware that their class is not “our” class?

There are almost as many themes as there are characters. Money, its influence and its corrupting properties, is one, but as the Bible tells us it is the “love of money” that is “the root of all evil” and Dickens makes it clear that it is the fault in the people and not the wealth itself that is objectionable. There is the major theme of class division and the insensibility of choices made for no other reason than that a person is part of one class or the other. There is the significance of friendship and loyalty, the importance of truth and ethics, and the value of trust in relationships, including but not limited to marriage. There is betrayal, but there is also steadfastness and a desire on the part of so many of these characters to overcome the baseness of their worlds and rise above their conditions morally.

There were a few sections that plodded, but for the most part I was feeling sorry for the original audience who were forced to wait for the next installment to find out what was to happen and could not just plow ahead, as I found myself inclined to do.

The novel is quite long at over 800 pages, but I read over a three month span and enjoyed it immensely. I am making some progress toward my goal of reading ALL of Dickens’ works. Next up is Nicholas Nickleby, and if it is as pleasing for me as this one, I will be quite happy indeed.
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Jan 17, 2025 midnightfaerie rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, rory-gilmore, literature

A man killed on his way to get his inheritance, a young bride left without a husband, and scheming socialites trying to get their hands on money are only a few of the storylines in this amazing novel. Dickens does it again with his diverse set of characters and exciting plot lines. Our Mutual Friend is the last complete novel he completed, and many say it’s his best. It seems that the holes he had in some other novels along with the flat female characters he constantly created have been fixed in A man killed on his way to get his inheritance, a young bride left without a husband, and scheming socialites trying to get their hands on money are only a few of the storylines in this amazing novel. Dickens does it again with his diverse set of characters and exciting plot lines. Our Mutual Friend is the last complete novel he completed, and many say it’s his best. It seems that the holes he had in some other novels along with the flat female characters he constantly created have been fixed in this book. The psychological insight he has in the human condition are readily displayed in every nuance of each page. And although it isn’t my favorite of his novels, he does an explementary job of bringing all his favorite themes together.

So far, A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol are still my favorites, with David Copperfield coming up with a close third, but this tale isn’t without merit. My favorite character by far is Jenny Wren who rooms with Lizzie Hexam, the daughter of Gaffer Hexam and the sister of Charley Hexam. Jenny is disabled and works as a dressmaker for dolls. She comes off as slightly crazy and very opinionated, but she’s got a strong spirit and is tough when she needs to be. She makes up for so many of Dickens past insipid female characters, that by the end of the book, I was practically applauding her storyline. The characters that I hated the most were really a tie between Lizzie’s brother, Charley Hexam, and Bradley Headstone, the schoolmaster. Headstone is obnoxious and obsessive. I was constantly wishing for an untimely death of his character. But Lizzie’s brother, Charley was just as obnoxious, disowning Lizzie for not accepting Headstone’s advances. Even later, when Lizzie is wronged and proven lucky for not marrying Headstone, Charley storms off and states he’s done with family. I can’t even understand why this character was included. He was such a spoiled brat and annoying. My only thought is that Dickens was trying to use every character he could to demonstrate the difference between the classes and the societal discrepancies. After living away from the family for a while, Charley became a little too proud of himself and assumed himself as head of the family, thereby making decisions for Lizzie such as who she should marry. It never seemed to occur to him that she should have a choice in the matter or that she wouldn’t listen to him.

There are so many ideas and themes that can be explored in this novel from murder and revenge to broken families, overcoming adversity, and essential hope in outcomes. Dickens seems to touch on so many it’s difficult to say which one he portrayed the best. His talent at human observation is probably his genius in creating characters as even the small personality traits make them come to life. How the now rich “Mrs. Boffins” holds herself as she traverses the dinner party in her new role as society queen, to the soft spoken man everyone readily dismisses when laying out what others in society should do until the man is finally asked outright in front of everyone what he thinks one night and he delivers a line at the end of the novel that beautifully sums up what the reader has been thinking all along, allows Dickens to expertly build his thoughts and ideas around these characters, while the reader falls in love with them and finds themselves inextricably linked to their fate.

Overall, not a perfect novel, but an engaging one. One with lots of ups and downs and suspense that will have you turning each page in anticipation. A classic for sure, this tome is another brilliant piece of work by Dickens. ...more

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