Our Mutual Friend
Charles Dickens
Illustrated by Marcus Stone
06 February 2020Synopsis
A powerful exploration of wealth, corruption, and the ties that bind in Victorian London.
Our Mutual Friend, one of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World, showcases Dickens's mastery of social commentary and intricate plotting. This complete and unabridged edition from Macmillan Collector's Library features stunning cloth binding, gold foiled edges, a ribbon marker, and original illustrations by Marcus Stone. An afterword by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley provides additional insights into this classic work of English literature.
When his estranged son, John Harmon, is presumed dead, a wealthy dust collector's fortune passes to his servants, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin. They take in Bella Wilfer, the young woman Harmon was to marry as a condition of his inheritance. The Boffins hire the secretive John Rokesmith as Mr. Boffin's secretary, but questions arise about Rokesmith's true identity and his interest in Bella. Through a sprawling cast of characters and interweaving plots, Dickens exposes the corrupting influence of money and the complexities of family, class, and status in 19th-century British society.
Details
06 February 2020
9781529011746Reviews
I find it irresistible: the autumn evening closing in, the crazy little boat afloat on the filthy Thames, the strong young woman plying the oars and a ragged, grizzled man, her father, busying himself with something towed in the water behind them. You are some way into the narrative before it dawns on you that it is a drowned body.Shirley Hughes, Independent
Dickens's last completed novel is a marvel of play-acting and posturing, of taking on roles through delusion, calculation and ambitionPhilip Hensher, Guardian
