Our Mutual Friend (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Charles Dickens (Author), Michael Cotsell (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: January 15, 2009

Following his father's death John Harmon returns to London to claim his inheritance, but he finds he is eligible only if he marries Bella Wilfur. To observe her character he assumes another identity and secures work with his father's foreman, Mr Boffin, who is also Bella's guardian.

Disguise and concealment play an important role in the novel and individual identity is examined within the wider setting of London life: in the 1860s the city was aflame with spiralling financial speculation while thousands of homeless scratched a living from the detritus of the more fortunate-indeed John Harmon's father has amassed his wealth by recycling waste.

This edition includes extensive explanatory notes and significant manuscript variants.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The fact that Dickens is always thought of as a caricaturist, although he was constantly trying to be something else, is perhaps the surest mark of his genius." --George Orwell

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-70) is one of England's greatest novelists. Born into a poor family (his father was once imprisoned for debt), Dickens became both rich and famous in his lifetime.

Product Details

• Paperback: 880 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Reissue edition (January 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199536252
• ISBN-13: 978-0199536252
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

One of the grand masters of Victorian literature, Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation,but also the horror of the infamous debtors' prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and "slave" factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years' formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorney's clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Albeit Dickensian, this story is almost perfect!, May 12, 2009

By 

Mendicant Pigeon "Mendicant Pigeon" (pdx, or United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Our Mutual Friend (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The works of Charles Dickens fell out of favor for the same reasons they were so much beloved: they are filled with treacly sentimentality and cartoonish characters. Yet, nobody tells a tale quite like this man can and man can this man tell a tale.
This book, with its many twists and turns; violence and death; subterfuge and espionage; lies and deceit; conspiracies and skullduggery; causes one to wish that Mr. Dickens had tried his hand at murder mystery, for this book has all the elements necessary for a pot boiler in that vein.
Yet, this tale as it twists and tangles around the repercussions of a mysterious death, and disappearance of an orphan returned to Merry Old England for to claim his inheritance is really about love, requited and unrequited; loyalty and trust; and friendship and honor.
None of these things come easy in a Dickens novel so it takes some 700 pages for us to discover how all will end. In between time the reader is treated to a page turner inhabited by all manner of creatur each in his own way utterly fascinating or entertaining, and whose parts in this play cause one to stay up reading late in the night from sheer entertainment and a desire to find out what happens next.
Interestingly and thankfully Dickens doesn't turn saccharine until about 4/5's into the book and one is struck by how modern the novel is up to that point. Although one wishes it didn't the book, being by Dickens, inevitably takes a maudlin turn as the tale winds to a close. All is forgiven though for the simple fact that the story is just so darned good that this is a small price to pay for such a great ride.
Suffice it to say that nearly all of the myriad ends that come dangling down in the course of the story get tied, and one closes the book feeling replete.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Mutual Friend, September 8, 2009

By 

Monte S. Mitschele "Reiver Meadows" (Holton, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Mutual Friend (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The novel is easily readable. It reveals a great deal about English society in the mid-19th Century in and around London.

The novel, by Charles Dickens, reveals a society in early industrialized Briain strugling to meet its Christian and economic responsabilities to the poor, as well as to the 'class assumptions' of a traditionally, and rigidly class-based society.

It deals with the challenges of moral and good people, as well as the 'not so' good and 'not so' moral people, at every station of society, attempting to deal with issues bigotry, poverty, agedness, classism, greed, and sexism.

It has many 'Dickenson-type' off-beat characters that challenge one's patience and touch the heart. It is a great read for anyone.

It has great potential for skilled English teachers at the upper high school levels and incoming freshmen in College, and certainly Graduate school, with the proper critical models for discussion.

It is a long novel, but well worth the money for purchase and the time involved in reading it.