Our Mutual Friend- Volume 1

Our Mutual Friend #1

by Charles Dickens

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Roman

458 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1865

About the author

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[GoldGato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dickens and his wonderful use of language. If he lived today, he would probably be a software programmer, writing code the way he wrote English. None of this modern, "The clock stopped". Instead, he gives us "a sun-dial on a church-wall has the look...of having failed in its business enterprise and stopped payment for ever." Or describing some crooked graveyard markers, "...and the tombstones; some of the latter droopingly inclined from the perpendicular, as if they were ashamed of the lies they told." Wow.

This volume comprises the first part of the novel, ending with Mrs. Lammle warning Twemlow. It is indeed wonderful to read Dickens this way...instead of one huge massive novel, it seems closer to the experience his devoted readers had as they waited for his next installment. Anticipation of Lizzie, the Boffins (those wonderful Boffins), Headstone, and Wegg...oh my, what will happen next? And how many more characters will he bring into the story?

With camels representing the nouveau riche, Dickens attacks those self-centered yuppies, who live in self-centered worlds based on self-centered show rather than basic practicality. The Veneerings, with their names of varnish, and then the introduction of PODSNAPPERY...all of them fitting quite nicely into the 21st century...with 19th century sarcasm.

"You hear, Eugene? You are deeply interested in lime."
PAUSE
"Without lime," returned that unmoved barrister-at-law, "my existence would be unilluminated by a ray of hope."

Book Season = Winter (raineth everyday)

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time has slipped away from me on reviewing this book, so I'll be briefer than I meant.

This is very Dickensish Dickens indeed. He delves into the littlest-known professions of London's economic underbelly, makes endless and intricate mock of the empty hearts and minds of the money- and status-obsessed nouveau riche, weaves a terrifically complicated plot, and engages in all the heart-rending melodrama for which you either hate or love him. He makes some amends here -- Riah, a noble Jewish character unable to escape the stereotypes others lay on him seems a clear apologia for Fagin. Jenny Wren's complex and fallible character may comfort a few who find the saintly Tiny Tim, Dickens's most famous disabled child, hard to take. (Jenny Wren has her twee moments as well: troops of angels visiting her in her worst childhood moments, Boz? Really?)

The story is sprawling, of course, but its central theme is the corrupting effect of money. I found the central story and the characters of the Boffins effective and surprisingly poignant. The nouveau riche storyline, featuring the Veneerings and Lammles, was the least appealing to me. The descriptions of the Veneerings and their doings were so stylized as to occasionally lose focus, I thought, and I found Georgiana Podsnap frustrating to the point of apathy.

This is late Dickens, and while as I say his melodramatic tendencies are in full force, there are more variations in moral fabric, more surprises about people's true natures and capacities, than I feel I find in some of his earlier novels. It's a rich book, full of unhappy love, fierce determination, human folly, and of course startling evocations of Victorian London. It's huge and complicated, but full of memorable images and people. A necessity for Dickens lovers.

[Rebecca]

This Edition is limited to Two Hundred and Fifty copies, of which this No. 165.

Illustrated Edition. The Riverdale Press 1906.