num_pages: 900
description: A work of sublime genius and dark, epic scope, Our Mutual Friend is Charles Dickens's last completed and most modern novel. In it he paints an intricate portrait of London life, embracing all levels of society - from the poor to the fantastically wealthy, from the criminal to the virtuous.Two love stories form the heart of the novel. In one, John Harmon discovers that his inheritance is conditional upon his marrying Bella Wilfer, a girl he has never met. John must conceal his true identity from Bella in order to win her affections and she, in turn, must learn the value of real love in order to recognize his worth. In the other story, the elemental and all-consuming passions of Eugene Wrayburn and Bradley Headstone for the working girl, Lizzie Hexam, result in violent and terrible consequences as love makes them both abandon reason.The atmospheric landscapes of life on the river Thames and life among the dust heaps provide the backdrop for this gripping and radical tale, which restates the genius of Dickens for our times.Includes full-colour photographs from the BBC dramatization.
language: English
title: Our Mutual Friend
titlecomplete: Our Mutual Friend
characters: Mrs. Wilfer, Jenny Wren, Anastatia Veneering, Mortimer Lightwood, John Harmon, Hamilton Veneering, Lizzie Hexam, Alfred Lammle, Bob Gliddery, John Podsnap, Silas Wegg, Nicodemus Boffin, Mr. Riah, George Sampson, Eugene Wrayburn, Emma Peecher, Betty Higden, Reginald Wilfer, Henrietta Boffin, Georgiana Podsnap, Mr. Fledgeby, Bradley Headstone, Pleasant Riderhood, Abbey Potterson, Jesse Hexam, Lavinia Wilfer, Roger Riderhood, Sophronia Lammle, Sloppy, Lady Tippins, Melvin Twemlow, Bella Wilfer, Charley Hexam, Mr. Venus, Mrs. Podsnap
genres: Literature, Audiobook, Classics, Novels, Classic Literature, Victorian, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Fiction, British Literature
ratings_count: 28902
places: London, England
publisher: Penguin Books