Our Mutual Friend

A satiric masterpiece about the allure and peril of money, "Our Mutual Friend" revolves around the inheritance of a dust-heap where the rich throw their trash.

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.

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About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one of the most widely read English writers. Dickens started his writing career as a freelance reporter for the proctors in the Court of Doctors' commons, which later served as a source of information and inspiration for many of his vivid characters and social novels. In 1832, at the age of 20, he became a reporter on The Mirror of Parliament and on The Trues Sun. Dickens reported from the gallery of the House of Commons. He soon moved to larger newspapers which presented him with the opportunity to publish a series of papers. Sketches by Boz and Pickwick Papers were published in 1836, the year he married Catherine Hogarth with whom he had 10 children and whom he divorced later in life. Dickens wrote relentlessly with his first novels appearing in monthly instalments, a popular fashion at the time: Oliver Twist (1837-1839), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841) and Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840-1841). Numerous other novels followed: David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Presenting his readers with a plethora of vivid characters, Dickens's novels were a medium for social commentary as he was a fierce critic of poverty and social divisions of the Victorian society. Many of his novels have been adapted for theatre, cinema and television.