Showing results for "Our Mutual Friend" in Arts & Entertainment

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

Our Mutual Friend, the last novel completed by Charles Dickens, has many plots, twists and turns, from the murky river Thames to the gold and crystal on the tables of ‘Society’. A tale of murder, treachery, jealousy and love, takes us first to a rowing boat on the Thames, where the Hexhams have found a body in the water and are bringing it to shore. We attend the Boffins, a poor naïve couple, who unexpectedly have just become wealthy, after their employer dies and names them in his will. Silas Wegg becomes their ‘literary man’ and John Rokesmith, a mysterious man, becomes their ...

Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend dissects the corrupting influence of money, wealth, and social mobility in Victorian London. This book masterfully weaves together mystery, satire, and romance, making it a must-read for those interested in class conflict and human nature.

Dickens' last complete novel was published serially 1864-5. It begins with an intriguing fortune offered to John Harmon by his late father, a rich dust contractor, in his will. To receive the money, John must marry a certain Bella Wilfer who he does not know from Eve. He is returning from the exile enforced by his father and confides in a ship's mate who attempts to murder him. The mate gets killed instead, leaving one inconvenient corpse. Because John is considered dead (the body is found with his papers), the money passes to Mr Boffin, old Harmon's foreman. Harmon adopts Bella and John comes...

Our Mutual Friend (written in the years 1864–65) is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" but is also about human values. In the opening chapters a body is found in the Thames and identified as John Harmon, a young man recently returned to London to receive his inheritance. Were he alive, his father's will would require him to marry Bella Wilfer, a beautiful, mercenary girl whom ...