Our Mutual Friend
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| Author | Charles Dickens |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Chapman & Hall |
| Released | 1865 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
Our Mutual Friend (written in the years 1864–65) is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" (which is, incidentally, a quote from Our Mutual Friend, spoken by Bella at the end of book III, chapter iv.). In the opening chapter, a young man is on his way to receive his inheritance, which, according to his father's will, he can only claim if he marries Bella Wilfer, a beautiful, mercenary girl whom he has never met. However, before he can arrive, a body is found in the Thames and identified as him. The money passes on, instead, to the working-class Boffins, and the effects spread throughout various corners of London society. The book is largely believed to be the most challenging and complicated that Dickens produced. Reviews at the time of publication were not generally favorable, but critical opinion shifted in the century that followed. Although somewhat a mystery, an important point concerning the identity of certain characters is revealed halfway through, without hinting as to the ending.
G. K. Chesterton, one of Dickens's most insightful critics in the early 20th century, expressed the opinion that Mr. Boffins's pretended fall into miserliness was originally intended by Dickens to be authentic, but that Dickens ran out of time and so took refuge in the awkward pretence that Boffins had been acting. Chesterton argues that while we might believe Boffin could be corrupted, we can hardly believe he could keep up such a strenuous pretence of corruption: "Such a character as his---rough, simple and lumberingly unconscious---might be more easily conceived as really sinking in self-respect and honour than as keeping up, month after month, so strained and inhuman a theatrical performance. . . . It might have taken years to turn Noddy Boffin into a miser; but it would have taken centuries to turn him into an actor.'[1] However, Chesterton also praised the book as being a return to Dickens's youthful optimism and creative exuberance, full of characters that "have that great Dickens quality of being something which is pure farce and yet which is not superficial; an unfathomable farce---a farce that goes down to the roots of the universe."
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[edit] Plot summary
John Harmon, son of a wealthy dust contractor and heir to his father's fortune if he agrees to marry Bella Wilfer, is away from England when his father dies. On the way home he is supposed drowned in a case of mistaken identity. With his supposed death the dust fortune goes to Boffin, his father's former servant. John gets himself hired into the Boffin home as secretary John Rokesmith. Here he meets Bella and, with the help of the kindly Boffins, wins her love as Rokesmith, and marries her. He later reveals his true identity and regains his fortune. A much more detailed parallel plot pertains to the love affair of Lizzy Hexam, an illiterate rowing girl and the cynical, disenchanted lawyer Eugene Wrayburn, and the insanely jealous school-master Bradley Headstone.
[edit] Characters in "Our Mutual Friend"
Like all of Dickens' works, Our Mutual Friend contains many memorable characters. (This list is incomplete.)
[edit] Major characters
- John Harmon, the absent centre of the story
- Bella Wilfer, a mercenary young person
- John Rokesmith, a Secretary (Alias of John Harmon)
- Nicodemus (Noddy) Boffin, aka the Golden Dustman, probably based on Henry Dodd, a ploughboy who made his fortune removing London's rubbish
- Mrs Boffin, his wife
- Lizzie Hexam, a waterman's daughter
- Charley Hexam, her brother
- Mortimer Lightwood, a young lawyer
- Eugene Wrayburn, a dilettante lawyer
- Jenny Wren, a dolls' dressmaker
- Mr Riah, Jewish manager of a money-lending business
- Bradley Headstone, a sociopathic school teacher
- Silas Wegg, a seller of ballads and would-be literary man with a wooden leg
- Mr Venus, a taxidermist and articulator of bones
- Mr Podsnap, an extremely pompous, complacent man
- Mrs Podsnap, his wife
- Georgiana Podsnap, their daughter
- Mr Inspector, a police officer
- Mr Fledgeby, often referred to as Fascination Fledgeby, a young friend of the Lammles, actual owner of Mr Riah's money-lending business
[edit] Minor characters
- Mrs Wilfer, Bella's querulous mother
- Reginald Wilfer, Bella's father
- Lavinia Wilfer, Bella's younger sister
- George Sampson, Lavinia's boyfriend
- Mr Alfred Lammle, a mature young gentleman
- Mr Twemlow, a gentleman
- Mrs Betty Higden, a child-minder
- Jesse Hexam aka Gaffer, a waterman, father of Lizzie and Charlie
- Mr and Mrs Veneering, nouveaux-riches
- Miss Abbey Potterson, proprietor of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters pub
- Miss Peecher, a school teacher
[edit] Original publication
Our Mutual Friend, like most Dickens novels, was published in 19 monthly installments, each costing one shilling (with the exception of the nineteenth, which was double-length and cost two). Each issue featured 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Marcus Stone.
BOOK THE FIRST: THE CUP AND THE LIP
- I - May 1864 (chapters 1-4);
- II - June 1864 (chapters 5-7);
- III - July 1864 (chapters 8-10);
- IV - August 1864 (chapters 11-13);
- V - September 1864 (chapters 14-17).
BOOK THE SECOND: BIRDS OF A FEATHER
- VI - October 1864 (chapters 1-3);
- VII - November 1864 (chapters 4-6);
- VIII - December 1864 (chapters 7-10);
- IX - January 1865 (chapters 11-13);
- X - February 1865 (chapters 14-16).
BOOK THE THIRD: A LONG LANE
- XI - March 1865 (chapters 1-4);
- XII - April 1865 (chapters 5-7);
- XIII - May 1865 (chapters 8-10);
- XIV - June 1865 (chapters 11-14);
- XV - July 1865 (chapters 15-17).
BOOK THE FOURTH: A TURNING
- XVI - August 1865 (chapters 1-4);
- XVII - September 1865 (chapters 5-7);
- XVIII - October 1865 (chapters 8-11);
- XIX-XX - November 1865 (chapters 12-17 (Chapter the Last)).
[edit] Film, TV or Theatrical Adaptations & Influence
[edit] Television
- 1998: Our Mutual Friend: BBC miniseries adapted by Sandy Welch. It starred Paul McGann and Anna Friel.
- 1976:Our Mutual Friend: BBC miniseries directed by Peter Hammond.
[edit] Misc.
- At one point, the Royal Shakespeare Company considered a very long stage adaptation of the novel, featuring every last subplot and character, but shied away as there were simply too many drownings or near drownings which would have been too complicated to do on stage. They opted instead to do Nicholas Nickleby.[citation needed]
- In 2005, Paul McCartney released a song "Jenny Wren" on his Chaos and Creation in the Backyard album about the character of Jenny Wren.
- In the TV series Lost, character Desmond Hume keeps Our Mutual Friend close by, as he has read everything Charles Dickens wrote except it, and plans to have it be his last thing read before he dies.
- Sir Harry Johnston wrote a sequel to Our Mutual Friend, titled The Veneerings, published in the early 1920s.
- British pop group The Divine Comedy has a song entitled Our Mutual Friend on their 2004 album Absent Friends.
[edit] External links
Online editions
- Our Mutual Friend, available at Project Gutenberg.
- Our Mutual Friend – complete book in HTML one page for each chapter.
- Our Mutual Friend - Easy to read HTML version.
- Our Mutual Friend: The Scholarly Pages. The Dickens Project.
Criticism
- "Our Mutual Friend" From Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton.
