Our Mutual Friend

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.6

Word count: 1.8M words
Chapters: 182

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Our Mutual Friend by Charles DickensAuthor: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 27, 2006

Editor's review

Our Mutual Friend is a major late novel by Dickens, built around an inheritance and a fortune that surfaces from a dust heap, weaving money, class, marriage and morality into a vast social network. Dickens sustains his fine rendering of London fog and the river, while portraying human greed and kindness with greater composure. The cast is large and the plotlines interlock, so reading demands some patience, but the reward is a remarkably complete picture of nineteenth-century English society. It suits readers advancing into Dickens: here one finds his signature irony and sentiment, and also the more complex structural awareness of his late work. For readers studying Victorian social questions, the novel offers abundant material for discussion.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read other Dickens novels and wish to go deeper into his late work
Those interested in Victorian English society and questions of class
Readers who enjoy multi-stranded ensemble narratives and can accept a long book
Students in English or American literature courses who need to study nineteenth-century realist fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers new to Dickens who want to start with shorter works
Those who prefer fast-paced plots and are unused to serial-style unfolding
Readers seeking only light, humorous sketches and unwilling to engage with social critique

Reading tips

First clarify the main characters' relationships; make a simple chart and add to it as you read.
Read in batches by chapters, reviewing the threads after each part to avoid confusing characters.
Watch for recurring images such as the dust heap and the river; they are key entry points to the themes.
After finishing, compare with Dickens's earlier works to see changes in satirical force and structural arrangement.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this without having read other Dickens works?

Yes, but it requires more patience. The novel has many characters and tangled threads, and newcomers to Dickens may lose their bearings midway. Reading a shorter, more tightly structured work first as a warm-up will make it easier to enter this book's narrative rhythm.

What themes does the book mainly discuss?

At its core are money and inheritance, touching on class mobility, marriage as transaction, moral hypocrisy and the condition of the lower classes. Through multiple sets of relationships Dickens presents Victorian social structure while retaining faith in human kindness. The themes are layered, suited to reading with questions in mind.

What should I note when reading the electronic edition?

This entry is a public-domain electronic text from Project Gutenberg. A reader with table-of-contents and annotation functions is recommended for easy cross-checking of characters and chapters. If the English original proves difficult, a reliable Chinese translation can be used alongside, though chapter divisions may differ between editions.

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About the author

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Author

Charles Dickens (Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870) is one of the most influential novelists in the history of English literature. The library holds 115 of his works, including novels, novellas and short stories; representative titles include The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. He was known for serialized fiction, with plot twists and vivid characters, and he used humor and satire to portray Victorian society, paying particular attention to poor children, the lower classes and education, and his works often convey warmth and moral concern. In the library his works are often classified under "inspirational growth," and many of his novels have been adapted for stage and screen and are widely circulated. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.