Our Mutual Friend (Modern Library Classics)

SUMMARY: A satiric masterpiece about the allure and peril of money, Our Mutual Friend revolves around the inheritance of a dust-heap where the rich throw their trash. When the body of John Harmon, the dust-heap’s expected heir, is found in the Thames, fortunes change hands surprisingly, raising to new heights “Noddy” Boffin, a low-born but kindly clerk who becomes “the Golden Dustman.” Charles Dickens’s last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend encompasses the great themes of his earlier works: the pretensions of the nouveaux riches, the ingenuousness of the aspiring poor, and the unfailing power of wealth to corrupt all who crave it. With its flavorful cast of characters and numerous subplots, Our Mutual Friend is one of Dickens’s most complex—and satisfying—novels.

our Mutual Friend Is A Satiric Masterpiece About Money. The Last Novel Dickens Completed, And Perhaps His Most Angry, It Sounds All The Great Themes Of His Later Work: The Innocence And Venality Of The Aspiring Poor, The Hollow Pretensions Of The Nouveau Riche, The Unfailing Power Of Wealth To Corrupt Everyone It Touches.

publishers Weekly

david Timson Reads Dickens's Last Complete Novel With A Sense Of Fun. As Always, Dickens Creates A Fabulous Array Of Characters: The Nouveau Riche Veneerings, The Dwarf Who Makes Doll Clothes, The Bizarre Schoolmaster, And The Abysmally Poor Who Trawl The Thames For Bodies Or Daily Sift The Dust And Dirt Of Victorian England For A Skimpy Living. Timson's Dramatic Talents Add Dimension To Each Personality—just The Sort Of Acting That Makes An Audio Experience So Satisfying. Naxos Has Done A Fine Job Of Abridging The Book (timson Also Reads The Unabridged Version On 28 Cds). Not Much Is Lost In Terms Of Plot And Characterization, And Dickens's Great Satiric And Social Themes Come Through Clearly: The Plight And Misery Of The Poor And The Greed And Heartless Stupidity Of The Rich. If The Abridgment Seems A Bit Disjointed, It Simply Follows The Novel's Narrative Style. This Is A Wonderful Listen For Dickens Fans And Novices Alike. (mar.)

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*Our Mutual Friend* is a satiric masterpiece about money. The last novel Dickens completed, and perhaps his most angry, it sounds all the great themes of his later work: the innocence and venality of the aspiring poor, the hollow pretensions of the nouveau riche, the unfailing power of wealth to corrupt everyone it touches. Among those caught up in the ruthless forces of change in Dickens's London are the archetypal innocent Noddy Boffin, who 'inherits' a dustheap where the trash of the rich is thrown; Silas Wegg, a grotesque, one-legged man with unlimited fantasies of grandeur and power; Mr. Veneering, Member of Parliament, whose house, furnishings, servants, carriage, and baby are all 'bran-new'; and Alfred and Sophronia Lammle, who marry one another because each wrongly believes the other is rich. The social themes of *Our Mutual Friend*--having to do with the treatment of the poor, education, representative government, even the inheritance laws--are informed and brought into coherence by the underlying presence of the Thames, signifying the perpetual flow of life into death, and acting as agent of retribution and regeneration too, as a kind of river god in fact, in a novel in which no other god is very present. John Harmon returns to England as his father's heir. Believed drowned under suspicious circumstances--a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity--John evaluates Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colorful Victorian characters and incidents -- the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg. A comprehensive and penetrating account of Victorian society stiffled by materialism IN THESE TIMES OF OURS, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge, which is of iron, and London Bridge, which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in. Young John Harmon is supposedly killed on a journey back to England. Very much alive, this heir to a dust merchant's fortune goes to work under an assumed name for his father's current heirs