Our Mutual Friend

Guide Note:

Our Mutual Friend is a 19th-century novel by English author Charles Dickens. His last completed book, it was published in 1965, five years before his death. With its themes of murder and greed and continuous images of decay, it is often considered to be among his darkest novels, but because of its use of flashbacks and time dislocations, it is also the most stylistically modern of his works.

The main plot centers around John Harmon, who returns to England after many years abroad, having been promised a great inheritance by his father if he marries the beautiful but materialistic Bella Wilfer. A body is found in the Thames River, assumed to be Harmon, as he was believed to have been murdered. However, Harmon tells noone he is indeed alive. He assumes the name of John Rokesmith, and takes a job with Mr. Boffin, a former employee of his father, who is now heir to his father's fortune. As the Boffins have now taken in Bella, his former bride-to-be, he wishes to learn all he can about her true character.

Though the book was poorly reviewed at the time, it has been treated far more kindly by contemporary critics, and is considered a great work of his later period.

Fast Facts:

1. Author: Charles Dickens
2. Year of publication: 1865
3. Publisher: Chapman & Hall
4. Originally published serially, in 19 monthly installments
5. Influenced T.S. Eliot's epic poem "The Waste Land"
6. As in most Dickens novels, there are many major and minor characters
7. Henry James called it "the poorest of Dickens' works"
8. Dickens was almost killed in a rail accident during the book's writing
9. A warning against greed, the book portrays wealthy characters negatively

Quotes:

1. "Money, money, money, and what money can make of life"
2. "Love, though said to be afflicted with blindness, is a vigilant watchman"
3. "Money and goods are certainly the best of references"
4. "We must scrunch or be scrunched"