Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

Our Mutual Friend, By Charles Dickens

Some Background

The novel was originally published in 1865 and was his last completed work before his death in the summer of 1870. During the latter years of his writing career Dickens moved away from the more comic plots of his earlier years, and developed a far more complex and brooding style. Our Mutual Friend typifies this formula with its numerous, complicated and interlinked ...
...River Thames. The novel is so immense and complex that it is without doubt difficult to categorise: It is a love story, a murder mystery, a psychological thriller and a smirk-ridden satire of contemporary society at every level.

Main Characters

To say to much at this point would be to tell to much - I don't want to ruin the twist in the tail of this one, but here is a useful breakdown of characters and a description ... more

Our Mutual Friend, By Charles Dickens

Some Background

The novel was originally published in 1865 and was his last completed work before his death in the summer of 1870. During the latter years of his writing career Dickens moved away from the more comic plots of his earlier years, and developed a far more complex and brooding style. Our Mutual Friend typifies this formula with its numerous, complicated and interlinked plot lines set largely along the murky banks of the River Thames. The novel is so immense and complex that it is without doubt difficult to categorise: It is a love story, a murder mystery, a psychological thriller and a smirk-ridden satire of contemporary society at every level.

Main Characters

To say to much at this point would be to tell to much - I don't want to ruin the twist in the tail of this one, but here is a useful breakdown of characters and a description (as they stand at the beginning of the book)

The Hexams: dad - Gaffer/Jesse, the beautiful, young Lizzie and the youngest: Charley.
The Wilfers: R.Wilfer, Mrs Wilfer and their daughters Bella and Lavina, a family of limited but comfortable means.
Mr. And Mrs. Boffin, caretakers and recent inheritors of the Harmon estate, fairlt aged.
Mr. and Mrs. Veneering (and baby), wealthy socialites helplessly satirised by Dickens
Mr Mortimer Lightwood, Aspiring young(ish) lawyer, most notably friend to…
Mr. Eugene Wrayburn, Charming, charismatic and as yet unmotivated.
Silas Wegg: A peg-legged street salesman of ballads, an evil glint in his eyes, perhaps…?
Bradley Headstone, Hard-working, charmless school master - a typical victim of Dickensian satire
Jenny Wren, Child labourer, making dolls-clothes
John Rokesmith: The secretary (don't take your eyes off him though)

… and there are many, many more. Please let me know with feedback if you think i've missed any out who are essential!

Main Plot

The novel has different plot lines that interlink - making any synopsis hopelessly simplistic. But here goes…!
Body disovered in Thames, identified as John Harmon, causes his estate to be passed to the caretakers of his father's property. Eugene Wrayburn attends the scene by the river and meets Lizzie Hexam, for whom his interest is intense. Lizzie sends her brother Charley away to school, and his schoolmaster too develops a passion for the beautiful Lizzie. Their unspoken rivalry for her grows until violence is the inevitable outcome. Meanwhile the benefactors of the Harmon will, the Boffins are leading a new, wealthy life and have taken to live with them in their big house the beautiful Bella Wilfer, who was to have been married (pre-arranged and having never met) the deceased John Harmon. The Boffins also employ a young, handsome secretary by the name of Rokesmith, who is a lodger with the rest of the Wilfer family. An unpleasant relationship develops between Bella and Rokesmith, which only improves after Mr Boffin begins to change, exhibiting all the signs of becoming a miser. Bella is faced with the culmination of the material values she has previously held high and undergoes a moral test.

I could tell you some more… but not without ruining it - believe me its that good!

My Experiences

This was one of the Dickens's novels I had to read for my Literature degree - and probably one of the most intimidating - because of its sheer size. As soon as I started reading it though I knew it wasn't going to feel like hard work because the mystery that starts to unravel in the first scene got me hooked - instantaneously! I also have to admit that the charming and addictive character of Eugene Wrayburn had a great deal to do with my still continuing fascination for this book. In that sense then this book is definitely one for the ladies! Also, without humour (and a great deal of it) a novel this size would be impossible to handle, but no fear because Dickens is wickedly ironic in his sneering portrayal of so-called 'Polite' Victorian social circles, and the comedy continues throughout the novel, most notably for me with the Wilfers and Eugene's careless arrogance. Although there was significant amounts of laughter, I also found the odd tear-drop forming on account of truly beautiful emotional scenes between some of the characters, most memorably maybe being an exchange between Mr and Mrs Boffin that actually makes me well-up as I remember. Not only a-laugh-minute but a tear-jerker too then! The psychological battle between Eugene and Bradley Headstone, the schoolteacher adds a thrilling suspense to the plot and the moral questions this storyline poses really set me thinking… What's great about this book is the way it jumps around through different storylines, keeping you in suspense, and it is genuinely incredibly when you finally see how all the different parts link together. I realised before I began reading that this book was going to be a bit of an investment time-wise but I honestly did not want it to end - letting go was very difficult! I would say this is a book for a cosy winter's evening… enjoy!

 

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