Our Mutual Friend in Reading the Classics

May 15, 2012 Henry Avila rated it really liked it

John Harmon is found dead in the polluted Thames River one of many 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 !). Don't worry ladies and gentlemen of course 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, the miser estranged from his son made a fortune in the dust business (they make bricks from ). John had to marry a wo John Harmon is found dead in the polluted Thames River one of many 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 !). Don't worry ladies and gentlemen of course 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, the miser estranged from his son made a fortune in the dust business (they make bricks from ). John had to marry a woman he's not seen since childhood, Bella Wilfer in order to collect his inheritance when he was legally alive, so he waited to claim his birthright rather impatiently...Things become more complicated as Harmon disguises himself, not one but two different men John Rokesmith and earlier Julius Handford. However for all the efforts the unlikely Mr. Noddy Boffin a poor but kindly clerk for his late employer Mr. Harmon the original, eventually inherits it. John Harmon becomes Rokesmith , gets a job as the secretary to "The Golden Dustman," Boffin a servant in his own mansion kind of sad and amusing at the same time. The illiterate, also hires Silas Wegg with a wooden leg, to read to Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, Silas chooses the long, long did I say lengthy "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". No one follows the lives of these ancient Romans like the former good-heart clerk, he becomes concerned about their safety the eons ago deceased people. Wegg is always scheming to get rich too, ( he envies the opulent ) lawfully or not. As Bella Wilfer his intended
bride to be once, a beautiful woman from a family without any money comes to live in the house an awkward situation obviously, Harmon had rented a room in her parent's home where he had met her. He offers Bella his love, yet she only wants to marry a prosperous man ironically. Things become interesting when Wegg finds another will, which says if Harmon's son John is dead or doesn't fulfill the wills directions, all would go to the state. Blackmailing Boffin, Silas thinks finally, he'll reach the promised land...This novel from the always superior Charles Dickens gives the reading public another glimpse into his world, a place no one else can describe so well but the writer, his vision looks at people and they come alive not just words...they breathe and struggle like all the rest of humanity. ...more

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